VSEA Member’s Idea Saving DVHA Money

October 7, 2016

October 7, 2016

 

 
Dustin Cota, a Program Services Clerk with the Department of Vermont Health Access, sent a note to VSEA to let his union know about a cost-savings measure he and his colleagues successfully implemented. Cota and his DVHA colleagues are still working out of the old IBM complex in Essex, which is why IBM and Global Foundries are mentioned in his story.

“When I started here in April, there was this huge pile of IBM phones on top of the filing cabinets. Co-workers had them either in drawers or on top of the tallest cubicle cabinets. I asked why we had all these phones that nobody really used, and I pointed out they were making the work environment look really cluttered and messy. I was told, “they are included in the rental of the property and that they had to stay in the cubes because each phone was assigned to a particular cubicle.” Then the Global Foundries’ person who keeps track of all the equipment was contacted and asked if there was somewhere to store all the phones that are not being used. This way, they would not be taking up space in our office. He said “yes” and then dropped off boxes to put them in. Each phone collected saved $35 a month. A co-worker printed out a list of the phones assigned to our department, and I then went around cubicle to cubicle, asking if the phone is being used or if there was one in a drawer. I boxed up hundreds of phones that were just costing the state money and were not even being used by anyone. This saved the state just under $5000 a month on wasteful cost.”

WIA thanks Dustin for sharing and urges other state employees who are saving the State money to share your stories as well.

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