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What should we do with the purchasing rebel?
What happens when employees don’t keep up with purchasing policies? I found out first hand last week. Right on deadline, I realized we needed to buy a photo CD for an article ready to go to press.
So, like I’ve done several times before, I picked up the phone to call our usual vendor, who allows us to download virtual CDs instantly. But this time, it wasn’t so easy. This time I was required to quote a purchase order (PO) number to the vendor, as directed by my company.
Right away the hackles went up. I’m busy, under pressure. What is all this about purchase order numbers? I asked the vendor if he could just sell me the images without the PO number, but the answer was no. Thankfully, he gave me access to the images right away, and asked me to call him with the PO number the next day.
So off I went to complete the task. I asked around, found the right contact and got the process in motion. Still, it will take a few days and I feel guilty about leaving the vendor hanging, unable to invoice us.
So after the crisis subsided, I did some reflection to figure out how I got into this unfavorable situation. What I discovered gives me much sympathy for purchasing managers, who deal with mistakes like mine all the time.
My first discovery was a bunch of unread e-mails in my deleted folder, all pertaining to the recent changes to our purchasing policies. Whoops. I suppose when the e-mails came, I assumed they didn’t apply to me. I’m not a financial type in the company. Those e-mails must have been intended for the accountants and controllers. No problem. Into the trash they go.
My next mistake was waiting too long before ordering. It’s not procrastination per se, I just get busy and the days fly by and before I know it, I’m out of paper clips. Do I order more right away? No. I scrounge in the dusty dark corners of my desk, searching for lonely forgotten paper clips to get me through one more day. When my reserve is depleted, I use staples. When those are gone, I try the corner folding/tearing trick I learned in high school. Finally, one morning, I realize the outrage of having to work without paper clips. I need them…now! There’s no time to go through the correct channels.
Finally, there’s maverick temptation. When faced with the purchase order fiasco, I thought about putting the CD on my personal credit card and expensing it later. I abandoned the idea after realizing I have unexpensed taxi receipts in my briefcase from last July.
The lesson here is it’s every employee’s responsibility to keep up with purchasing policies. They might take longer and require more effort than they did before, but procurement managers are trying their best to make their systems more secure and robust, and comply with new regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Employees who undermine the system, even unintentionally, put payment terms and supplier relationships in jeopardy. Essentially, they’re detracting from hard-won achievements of the purchasing staff.
I for one will pay more attention from now on.
—Lisa Wichmann
Editor
Contact the editor at lisa.wichmann@pb2b.rogers.com
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