Day 169

Last week I was focused on planning an upcoming annual event for the department. For this event, we'll need to serve our guests breakfast and lunch. This department has for as long as any of us can remember used the same caterer for such things. Sometimes, organizations might choose to remain loyal to a vendor for a variety of reasons including reliability, quality, and some of the other perks that might come along with such a relationships such as occasional discounts or other favors. Normally, I don't work directly with any vendors for this event (we have a staff person in charge of these sorts of event logistics), but since I have a 25% budget cut for the event this year, I decided to take the time to look over the specifics of the budget from last year. I was appalled to realize that last year, we spent over $24 a person for boxed lunches. Boxed lunches! These include a sandwich, apple, cookie, and a three-bite-full container of pasta salad. We bought drinks separately, adding to the cost. I figured that due to the overall fairly large size of the budget that someone had just overlooked the price per person for the sake of simplicity. So I did some homework, found a handful of far more reasonably priced vendors, and passed these menus along to my department's event planner. I was even more mortified when she responded saying, "These menus look great, but I've got a lot going on right now, so I hope you don't mind if we just stick with the old standby for the sake of simplicity. Thanks!"

Did she miss the memo about the budget crisis? 

I wrote back with a thanks-but-no-thanks and generously offered to take care of it myself, my eyebrows bent ever so slightly in suspicion of this dubious loyalty to an outrageously priced sandwich...