Conference 7.286::digital

    To take a night course :
    
    1. Fill out education req. form (ERF)
    2. have supervisor sign ERF
    3. take ERF to Financial Analyst for blessing
    4. take ERF to Personnel for blessing
    5. Personnel sends ERF back to Finance for  additional blessing
    6. finance sends ERF to Petty Cash
    7. Petty Cash says Supervisor signature not enough, need
       manager signature
    8. get managers' signature
    9. return to Petty Cash, receive check

    All this for $156 

re .0

Why should Digital pay for subscriptions to magazines at all?

Save trees.  Save our stock price.  Go to your library.

/john

	RE: .2 I think the point may be that a $30-$100 dollar expenditure
	is too small to take to that high a level. A first level manager
	should be able to say yes or know to that small of an amount without
	using the excuse that it needs a country manager ok.

	While in general I agree that DEC should not pay for subscriptions
	for individuals there are times when no library will do.

			Alfred

re: < Note 843.3 by CVG::THOMPSON "Protect the guilty, punish the innocent" >

>	While in general I agree that DEC should not pay for subscriptions
>	for individuals there are times when no library will do.

		Correct. The best example of this is daily magazines/newspapers
		like American Banker.

		Also, some of the magazines in question are *not* available in
		libraries, or are certainly not available on a timely basis.

		BTW, we *are* talking about job-related magazines, aren't we?
		If so, DEC should pay - it makes the employee more useful and
		valuable to the company.

eric

    I do not know if this should go here but, if you want cost control
    the company needs to stop using so much outside consultants. We
    have our own people that can due the job. If you want financial
    controls that has to be at the field level and hold the Managers
    accountable for profit and loss. This includes magazine subscriptions.

    

  Re .2 ("Go to your library") the author of .0 has probably found that
  many of the American technical magazines which interest him are not
  readily available in the libraries in Rome.

  As to why a country manager would require that such approvals go
  through him, it often serves to raise the awareness of employees at
  all levels by showing that expense control is a very serious matter.
  In any specific instance, it's not likely to be a cost-effective
  procedure, but as a "public relations" exercise, it could, in the long
  run, be very effective.

    re .0
    
>   is this DEC style? 
    
    If you mean 'is it DEC style for senior managers to be excessively
    involved in day to day decision', I'd say the answer is 'yes'.
    
    If you mean 'is it DEC style to require all manner of approvals for
    magazine subscriptions', the answer is also 'yes'. For some reason,
    magazine subscriptions have been singled out in the past as a subject
    for intense scrutiny. I once tried to get a subscription approved, with
    my cost center manger's approval, and finally put it in the 'too hard'
    basket.
    
    gary

    
    It seems funny that our policy is for the engineers to take expensive
    courses and stay up-to-date.  If we want to take a course for $1500
    its no-problem if its related.
    
    If we want to join the IEEE and get some important education like
    spectrum, transactions on computers, Computer mag, ect.  All this
    costs about $100.  It would take an act of god to get this ok'ed.

    The last company would pay for ANY and ALL professional societys
    and mag's and journals... 
    
    Strange logic....
    Jon

    Re -.1,  Every time I go to a IEEE conference, DEC gets a discount on
    the symposium fees.  The IEEE Electron Device journals that I receive
    are well used, not only by myself but my coworkers as well.  But will
    DEC pay the IEEE dues, no way.  The company benefits many times over
    the yearly dues, which are up to something like $130/yr.  

>>> But will DEC pay the IEEE dues, no way.    
    
    I can speak for PSS in ECA.  I was recently told that since in ECA
    we are required to ACTIVELY belong to professional orgs to get promoted
    within the Consultant/Manager levels, DEC WILL pay for the dues.
    In my case, I am about to submit for reimbursment of dues for IEEE,
    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Society
    for Technical Communication.  Have been told that they will probably
    pass muster.
    
    ....... Suchindran

    It is stated in the Personnel Policies and Procedures manual that
    DIGITAL will not reimburse IEEE dues.  I tried.
    
    

It takes $1000 worth of effort to get a $50 expense approved because
the disincentive (the hassle involved) is worth the 20:1 impact as a 
preventative measure.  People will examine other avenues ("go to the
library") rather than automatically spend the $50.  If 20 people
succeed through these other avenues, the system has broken even.
If 100 people (or 1000) DON'T EVEN MAKE THE ATTEMPT, the company is 'way ahead.

Is there an lost opportunity cost?  Probably some.
Does it cost the Company in the end?  Who can say?

A friend who worked at Bell Labs in the early 1970s (when pocket calculators
first came out) has an anecdote that reflects on this theory.
At that time, Bell Labs engineers could order, on their own signatory 
authority, something like $500-$1000 per month in materials, test equipment,
and the like.  When the HP35 came out, at $395, new rules were put into 
effect to DISALLOW this item from the engineers' normal purchasing allowance.
It was easily seen that EVERYONE would be buying one (or more), and that
total costs would really add up.  In this case, bulk purchases by Labs 
as a whole eventually supplied the engineers' needs, but in a controlled 
and less expensive manner.
I believe that similar thinking applies in the matter expressed in .0.

- tom]

    IEEE and other professional dues and subscriptions are tax deductable.
    So what's your beef? You'll get the money back at end of the year.
    
    -George

    re: .14
    
    Doesn't the tax deduction simply reduce the taxable income of the
    individual?  If so, you would receive the tax amount back, not the
    amount of the expenditure.
    
    Example:	$100 dues for an individual in the 28% tax bracket would
    		reduce your tax by $28, not $100.  You'd eat $72.
    
    If I am incorrect on this assumption, please correct me.
    
    -- Russ

    re: .14 and .15
    
    Not only does the comment in .15 apply, but isn't there a new threshhold for
    miscellaneous deductions.  I believe that only the amount above 2% of
    your adjusted gross income is deductible.  That's quite a few
    societies.
    
       Gary

    re: .15
    
    Almost correct - you may also reduce your state and/or local income tax
    by a few dollars.  However, deductions are of absolutely no use to
    those whose itemized deductions are below the standard deduction.

such tax deductions don't exist in most countries in which Digital operates.