How to Deal with a Cheap Boss
So, you have a cheap boss...
Your computers are from the Stone Age. You don’t get any training, and don’t have access to the tools you need to do your job effectively. You worry if there’s going to be toilet paper in the restroom. It seems as though your whole workplace is held together by duct tape and string. Your boss has taken ‘cost control’ to a whole new level.
Trying to get a truly cheap boss to spend money on anything—even necessities—can be a real frustration. Arguments and statistics about value, employee satisfaction and improved workplaces will be largely fruitless. Cheap bosses see things only in terms of money out and money in–with nothing in between. It’s this trait that differentiates bosses who are “cheap”, and frugal bosses who are just careful with their money.
How to get your cheap boss to spend money
Getting your cheap bosses to open their wallets for something the company needs is tricky, but not impossible. The secret is to first convince them that you, too, value cost-control.
Basically, you have to show them that you are pragmatic, and have the company’s best interests at heart (understanding that your boss’s definition of ‘best interests’ is all about money). Let them know that you’re all about cost savings. Don’t even mention all of those other arguments that they believe are irrelevant.
Imagine, for example, you want them to replace the twelve-year-old computers that are still running all of your company’s operations on Windows 10 (“They work perfectly fine. What, we need gaming computers now?”)
Focus on the money
Instead of all those “non-essential” things, focus on the money:
“Hey boss, I was just doing some numbers. Our computers cost us $XX in repairs last year. They aren’t getting any younger, so it will probably cost at least the same this year. They are also no longer compatible with xyz, meaning that Felix and Mandy are spending at least three hours each longer than they should to get their jobs done.
“So, I just got a great line on three computers. They’re three years old, but half the price of new ones. They’ll pay for themselves in repairs this year alone—and, because Felix and Mandy will be able to process things faster, we won’t have to hire that new person we’d been talking about. What do you think?”
Why I know this works. . .
Full disclosure—I learned this approach when I was a boss. Not exactly a cheap boss (I hope), but a frugal entrepreneur with a growing market research company.
Two of my team had come back from a conference, excited about a new subscription software that would cost us around $100,000 in the first two years—a lot of money for a small, but growing, business.
They used the exact same argument, and made the point that, with this new software, we would be able to triple in size without having to hire any more staff. Plus, it had a bunch of bells and whistles that our clients would greatly appreciate.
To my own surprise, I said yes, and, thanks to my inspired team, it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’d ever made.
