Maybe you’ve heard the expression, Bob’s your uncle? As if to say, all done!

Well, in this story, Bob’s your boss, and he is all done… with working for this company.

Why?

Let’s just say, he let the power go to his head.

Want to know more? Read on…

Lumi! We need more power!

About 20 years ago, I was part of a team designing remote data-collection sites on a government contract.

The locations would be supplied with commercial utility power, and have backup diesel generators as well.

During one of the meetings, I pointed out that if utility power dropped, there could be at least a minute before the generators would have power restored, and another minute or two before the equipment was fully booted up and running again.

Great foresight, OP. Will others heed the warning?

Because I pointed out the situation, Bob (not his real name) — a really charismatic go-getter from Manglement — voluntold me to look into the matter myself and make recommendations.

So I did my research, determined that “Brand A” Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) would be best suited for the job, and then turned in my report.

At the next meeting, Bob informed everyone they (e.g. he) had decided to go with “Brand B” power supplies instead, because they were about 10% cheaper per unit than “Brand A,” and total cost would be almost 25% less per unit for buying in bulk.

Cheaper isn’t always better. Something tells me in this case, Bob is cutting the wrong corners.

Now for a little tech-talk:

“Brand A” is what’s called a Double-Conversion Unit, meaning that the internal batteries were in a constant charge-discharge state (much like the battery in your car), so that if utility power was interrupted, the output would never drop, and the equipment would not reboot itself.

“Brand B” is what’s called a Stand-By Unit, meaning that if utility power dropped, a relay would swing the UPS output to the inverter running off the batteries.

There would be a momentary drop in power to the equipment (much like an emergency light in a restaurant).

Momentary doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I bet in this situation it could be.

I tried to tell everyone through emails CC’ed to the entire team, plus BCCs to myself and my lawyer, that Brand B would cause problems for us further down the road.

Bob’s Reply All overrode my concerns with, “It’s only a few milliseconds! Nothing to worry about! We’re going with Brand B, and that’s final!”

(Cue the Malcomp.)

Okay Bob, we’ll do it your way . . .

Ha! Have it your way… and face the consequences. Wonder what they’ll be…

For the first year or so, everything seemed fine.

A few glitches here and there, but nothing drastic. Then construction began on a nearby housing development.

Suddenly, we started getting “Comms Lost” and “System Rebooted” messages several times a day from each remote site further away.

Power was being interrupted to the remote sites and the Brand B UPSs couldn’t handle it — they were dropping their outputs for as long as 12 to 15 milliseconds, which shut off the equipment.

When power came back on, the equipment would reboot.

Reboots aren’t always good, in Hollywood or in computers. Will Bob see the light?

(By this time, most of the others on this project had gone elsewhere.)

The customer complained to Corporate, they stepped in, and of course I was first in line to be thrown under the bus by Bob.

They asked me why we were using Brand B when Brand A was the obvious choice.

“Ask Bob.”

Ah but Bob doesn’t have all the answers…

Bob denied everything until I produced print-outs of the original emailed recommendation and his responses to it.

(Cue the Fallout)

Bob was let go, and Corporate had to shell out mucho dollaros to retrofit the remote sites (with Brand A, of course) and pay fines according to the government contract.

I got to put in a lot of overtime to lead the retrofit effort.

Seems like they came out on top. And Bob hit bottom.

Sometimes, you gotta go with Choice A.

What do the comments have to say about this powerful MC?

One person has some punny insights.

Ah here’s another poster with some clever quips…

This user is like, I’m not expert but this sounds bad.

This poster echoes Forrest Gump.

And another is like, never trust a palindrome.

This employee made a real power play.

And high time.

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