Imagine literally working in the dark.

I’m talking an office where the only light in the room is coming from the computer monitors.

That doesn’t sound like a good work environment, but that’s the situation the employee in today’s story was in until someone on the phone gave a hint at how to solve the problem.

It was literally a lightbulb moment!

Keep reading for all the details.

The most counter-productive “saving money” policy ever.

Rewind 10 years ago…

I’m a young, newly promoted Team Manager of a small team of debt administrators at a regional office of one of the biggest UK banks.

10 years ago in the finance industry was a very different place; the credit crunch had just hit and the stock markets tanked.

The reality was that a load of banks were about to go under and shareholders were on the brink of losing everything.

Management had to save money literally every way they could.

It was essential that senior management showed that they were doing everything within their power to ‘save money’ here there and everywhere.

Not just in monetary and investment policy; literally in changing to single ply toilet paper and removing the free coffee machine just to keep the higher ups happy.

Apparently lightbulbs aren’t in the budget.

One night, the light bulb in the main corridor bursts, sending shards of glass all over the floor.

I report the incident and it’s all cleaned up, but the light bulb was not replaced. Causing no obvious issues, nobody cared and carried on.

A few weeks later, a bulb stopped working right by.

This put the corridor into a significant darkness.

I reported it again and was told that due to ‘financial issues’ they couldn’t send someone out to replace a lightbulb.

Now it’s really dark.

I offered to do it ourself but was advised to save money, they had a new external contractor to carry out all building and facilities maintenance.

A month on and a lightbulb goes above our workspace next to the corridor.

We now have no light other than our monitors.

This is important information.

I report this again, citing DSE and H&S issues for staff complaining, to which the guy on the phone (who recognized me) says:

“Look buddy, I get it. But the policy from Head Office says that unless 10 lightbulbs are gone, we can’t send anyone out as it’ll cost us in call out charges.”

A week later the light bulb by the microwave went.

Time to take out some lightbulbs!

It didn’t really affect things much, but it did mean that later that night, armed with new information and when it was just us and my staff left on the floor, we grabbed a broom stick, a rake handle and any other massive implements we could find and went around smashing out 5 more light bulbs.

I phoned up the next day and told them that 5 had gone “overnight” and the guys said “really?”

To which I replied: “Look buddy, there’s 10 light bulbs out now one way or another and policy says we need them replaced”.

It worked, and the policy lasted another 2 years until they realized that every time someone called for a lightbulb and they said no, another 9 magically went overnight.

The guy on the phone made it too easy.

Still a good story and a ridiculous policy that needed to be changed.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Yes, figuratively and literally.

Is this true?

This is a good question.

I didn’t know about this.

Let’s end with a pun.

That’s one way to get a lightbulb replaced!

You really shouldn’t have to try that hard, though.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.