J, the $50M contract happened to me, which is why Metageek knows it. The team working on the bid (me included) worked late nights and early mornings for weeks, and then the damn CEO blew it up with that interview. We had been looking at significant-figure bonuses personally, as well as the company ramifications.
I sent the incident to Scott Adams, and I believe he used it in his "Boss goes to Irish Line Dancing lessons and doesn't mail the bid" strips.
Nepotism: my sister's company has been partially drained dry by the company credit cards issued to the two former-owner's daughters. The credit cards were canceled this month and everyone who actually does any work there (not the daughters, who have been "fired" if you can call what they were doing before "work") are taking a 10-20% paycut to try and recover. And the poor daughters, oh, we weep for them: they now have to pay for their own apartments! And their own luxury boxes at stadiums!
Other things that really happened to me: Salespeople being called in to help assemble and ship out computers in the last few days before the end of the month. I started not answering my phone the last week of every month due to this -- you only got called if you lived within about 5 miles to the office/factory. I'm sure you can imagine the skill level displayed by office workers on the production line. (Also used by Scott Adams: "This one's getting gum!" He actually wrote back to me on that one, which he stopped doing later.)
Re: My handful
I sent the incident to Scott Adams, and I believe he used it in his "Boss goes to Irish Line Dancing lessons and doesn't mail the bid" strips.
Nepotism: my sister's company has been partially drained dry by the company credit cards issued to the two former-owner's daughters. The credit cards were canceled this month and everyone who actually does any work there (not the daughters, who have been "fired" if you can call what they were doing before "work") are taking a 10-20% paycut to try and recover. And the poor daughters, oh, we weep for them: they now have to pay for their own apartments! And their own luxury boxes at stadiums!
Other things that really happened to me: Salespeople being called in to help assemble and ship out computers in the last few days before the end of the month. I started not answering my phone the last week of every month due to this -- you only got called if you lived within about 5 miles to the office/factory. I'm sure you can imagine the skill level displayed by office workers on the production line. (Also used by Scott Adams: "This one's getting gum!" He actually wrote back to me on that one, which he stopped doing later.)