A lot of executives and business owners still don’t understand that you get what you pay for.

Being cheap always has a price.

See how this teacher got the top brass to see the consequences of this kind of thinking.

You’re going to love it.

Sure, I’ll shutdown all but one cooling system for the computer server to save you money…

I’m taking a Visual Design program at a Community College.

It’s the middle of Exam Month and we’re working to finish a semester long project that doubles as our final exam.

Naturally, everyone is working overtime to get things finished.

I was in the computer lab working near the back.

The place I’m working on is also near one of the server banks.

Things are about to get dramatic — correction — anticlimactic.

I’m wrapping up my work and getting ready to submit when suddenly the file transfer stops and it says I’ve lost connection to the server.

No big deal, I figure that its probably the fact that the servers are overloaded.

Up until other people in the lab are asking if anyone lost connection to the server.

That’s when I notice the distinct smell of something akin to melting plastic.

A few minutes of investigating and the cause is found.

Turns out that all the server banks are cooked. Completely.

Everyone in the lab agrees to email the person who handles those servers who just so happens to be our teacher.

He shows up a half hour later with a wide grin on his face.

Teacher is absolutely giddy.

He announces after sitting against the table at the front of the room for 10 minutes.

Too bad. So sad.

Teacher: “Sorry everyone, but it looks like the servers are going to be down for the remainder of the semester. Be sure to send a thank you letter to the Dean of the College.”

Teacher later went on to explain that the Dean ordered him to shut down the cooling system of the servers and switch to one centralized system.

But he protested it and tried to explain that the system would fail which would subsequently cause all the banks to overheat.

However, the Dean simply told him to do it or else she’d fire him then hire someone who would.

This teacher is known to fight any decisions made that involve handling the Macs and everything related to them.

Primarily because he set the system up himself and everyone that’s been hired to help him handle it messes it up in some form or another.

We haven’t been told if the back up servers were affected nor how much this will cost the college.

But the server holds all the data for every art program in the college, so a lot of people have been affected.

Moreover, with the servers effectively down, we can’t submit our final exam.

We’ve been told that we have to print our projects out and that the expenses will be covered by the College.

Here is what folks are saying.

I bet he has them do that periodically anyway.

I don’t even work in IT and it hurt me!

Fingers crossed, but it probably will.

It’s infuriating. Ego is bad for business.

I used a USB stick, too!

Some things will never change.

But at least it makes for good stories.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.