Penny Wise Pound Foolish Quotes

Dont become anxious. Try not to get worked up. A word to the wise. Bird in hand. Bird in hand? A stitch in time. We’re not out of the woods. What the fuck. Where’s it say that? Penny wise and pound foolish. Honesty is the best policy. Jesus. Enough

Flexible people are rare. Organizations discourage flexibility by rewarding performance rather than development. Many organizations train people without developing them, or expect society at large to pay the price of development. These organizations may be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Organizations have to develop people in order to have promotable “raw material” that can be trained later on. The cost of training people who reject change and are defensive about their deficiencies is many times more expensive than the cost of development. Developing human resources is inexpensive as compared with the costs of turnover, the costs of repetitive training, and the costs of lowered morale.

Paul Krugman warns of the cumulative consequences of defunding education: Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual—a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis—its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for “fiscal responsibility” in Washington—deals a severe blow to education across the board.

Hell is a place of drop ceilings, rusted ventilation grates, and fluorescent lights; the dismal ugliness and dreariness and general depression of spirit that results from these cost-saving features no doubt suppresses productivity far more than the cheapest of architectural tricks and the most deadening of lights saves money. Everyone looks like a corpse under fluorescents. Penny-wise and pound-foolish indeed.

We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.

In contrast, our founders’ letter from our 2004 IPO filing read: We provide many unusual benefits for our employees, including meals free of charge, doctors and washing machines. We are careful to consider the long-term advantages to the company of these benefits. Expect us to add benefits rather than pare them down over time. We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity. [italics mine]