Thursday, June 21, 2007

Boeing Pays the Bills


I recently got, what I assume is, my last check from Boeing. As you can see... it is for $0.20 (twenty cents). Yes, I'm glad that Boeing's accounting system is precise enough to notice that they still owe me $.20. Now comes the a great question:
Did they really mail it? or was it direct desposited?
Guess what kids: they sent me a real check.

Is the check worth the paper it is printed on?
I'm going to guess no. This is pretty thick paper and its got watermarks on it. I'm going to estimate that this piece of paper cost $.40

Was it worth the time?
For me, yes it was. This check is comedic-gold. I've been carrying it around for a week showing it to all of my friends.
For Boeing, probably not. At Boeing, we would assume that it costs anywhere between $100 to $150 an hour to get something done. So if we use $100/hour, that comes out to about $.03/second. So, if someone spent 7 or more seconds reviewing this check... then it wasn't worth it. I'll estimate that it took 10 seconds of review to get this check out the door, which is $.30.

What about postage?
So, I guess this means that the envelope is worth more than the check itself. It cost $.33 to mail the check. Tack on a few cents for the actual envelope, and we're up to $.35.

Conclusions
$.40 for the check paper
$.30 for labor
$.35 for the envelope and postage
$1.05 as a total... not including the $.20 they paid me.
$1.25 all together
And to compute efficiency, I'm going to divide what they owed me by the total... and it comes out to 16%.

All that said... I miss all my Boeing friends. I hope you're all doing well. And, if you have a spare 787 Launch Pass... you should probably email me.



Update: Through some more magic of Boeing's accounting system, I just got another check. This one for the staggering sum of $0.88.

6 comments:

Free Radical said...

Wait a second ... are you saying you're used to getting a check that has a number on the LEFT side of the decimal point? Where do I get a degree in DBAism?!?

You know I always have to laugh at these kinds of things, I doubt I'd veer take that check to the bank, it would be worth more framed and hanging on the wall of my cubicle than in my checking account.

... TOO FUNNY!!!

Anonymous said...

This kind of "efficiency" is why companies bill you out at 100$ or more per hour and only pay you 20$ :).

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it's interesting to see what bank the check is drawn on. I once was sent to a conference at the last minute and was given a check with which to pay expenses drawn on a bank in Yakima, a noted hotbed of Boeing activity.

Anonymous said...

I once had WAMU send me a notice that I was overdrawn by $0.20 on an account I though I had closed - with $0.32 postage on it.

Anonymous said...

What're you trying to say here? That's my NORMAL Boeing paycheck! What the hell are they paying you DBAs anyway?!? ;)

Anonymous said...

You missed a point. Doesn't your bank take a surcharge/commission for operations like depositing a check? All the banks I know do. And it's more than $.20 . So you can deposit the check, instead of keeping it, and even lose money yourself.

Heck, if Boeing are annoyed at you for something, they should send you even more of these. The cost to you, if you deposit it, will be relatively higher than the cost for them.
Assuming, that is, you have less money than Boeing, anyway.