There's a very popular fast/casual restaurant in northern Rhode Island that recently moved down the street into a new location. Brand new building, beautifully landscaped property with large fields, a pond, bridges over a stream, etc…
It's been scorching hot out, and next to the restaurant (on the same property) is a brand new out-building that's a creamery/cafe. I stopped in today to get some ice cream, and couldn't believe how hot it was inside there. They had the windows and doors open, but it didn't matter. The employees working in there had sweat pouring down their faces.
On the back wall, I noticed a shiny new mini-split air conditioner turned off. I looked at the employee and asked “…are you not allowed to use the air conditioner?” The employee replied “Our ability to use it got taken away” …and a customer behind me goes “Ah Marc is a very frugal owner, doesn't want to spend the electricity.”
I was just absolutely floored. These employees were sweating, it was terribly hot inside the place (even for customers). Everyone looked miserable. Yet the business owner doesn't want to spend the money to run the air conditioner that they BOUGHT? It's absolute insanity! Not to mention, that particular type/size/brand of air conditioner is extremely efficient. A unit of that size would not consume more than $3-4/day worth of electricity at MOST.
That $3/day would more than pay for itself in increased worker productivity and increased worker AND customer satisfaction. How disgustingly cheap and out of touch can you be, that you'll happily spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions to renovate this entire property, but don't want to spend $3/day on electricity to keep your employees happy? With the amount of business the main restaurant and creamery does, there is no way that $3/day would ever even be noticed.
Just such an asshole move. I'm sure Marc gets plenty of air conditioning all day.