How One Simple Phone Hack Could Have Saved a Company Thousands—If Only Anyone Dared Tell the Boss
Let’s set the stage: It’s the early 90s. The internet is just a whisper on the wind, grunge is king, and in a Cleveland suburb, a tech support hero faces off against the true villain of corporate America—“the way we’ve always done it.”
Our protagonist, a plucky IT manager with a knack for problem-solving and a healthy respect for corporate hierarchy, discovers a phone system policy so outdated and expensive, it might as well be paying for someone’s AOL subscription by the minute. But when he dares to suggest a change, he’s met with the most dreaded phrase in the business world: “DO NOT SCREW WITH RAY'S OPXs.”
What happens next is a lesson in corporate inertia, a touch of bravery, and how sometimes the real boss isn’t the one in the big office—it’s the way things have always been.
The OPX Ordeal: When “Because the Boss Likes It” Costs a Fortune
In the not-so-glamorous world of early 90s telecom, our IT hero is tasked with running a mix of IT and phone systems for a manufacturing company. The phone system? A six-foot-tall, orange-and-blue, electro-mechanical beast that predates even IBM’s acquisition days. The challenge? Two remote plants and dozens of employees in different area codes, where every call home meant racking up long-distance charges. The company’s solution: Off Premise Extensions (OPXs).
Here’s where it gets spicy. Each OPX costs the company a whopping $1,000 per month—and there are four of them. That’s four grand a month (in 1990s money!) just to let folks (especially the company president’s wife) make “free” calls home. And our IT manager? He’s given a simple, repeated mandate: DO NOT SCREW WITH THE OPXs! Ray (the company president) and his wife love them, and that’s that.
As u/lokis_construction put it, “So many stupid things done because someone was afraid to tell the boss we should change things.” It’s corporate tradition at its most expensive.
The “No-Brainer” Solution Everyone Was Too Afraid to Try
While optimizing the rest of the phone system with fancy new T1 lines and multiplexers, our hero and his telecom consultant stumble on a solution so simple, it almost hurts: Why not just use an 800 number? For a mere $100 a month, routed over the existing T1, everyone could call in for free—no more $1,000-per-line OPXs.
But here’s where office politics rear their ugly head. Every boss he approaches—his manager, the CFO, even the VP of HR—shoots him down. “NO! DO NOT SCREW WITH RAY'S OPXS!” It’s as if the OPXs have become company lore, not to be questioned or tampered with.
This is where u/czj420’s words ring true: “The most dangerous phrase in business: ‘because that’s the way we’ve always done it.’” And as u/ryanlc wisely adds, “If your argument is ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’ then you haven’t presented an argument at all.”
Sometimes, You Have to Ask the Right “Ray”
Finally, tired of the bureaucratic runaround and emboldened by the prospect of saving thousands, our IT hero takes his case straight to the top: Ray, the company president. He lays out the numbers—same service, $3,000+ monthly savings. Ray listens, then delivers the twist ending: “That is a f### no-brainer! Why wouldn’t you just go ahead and do it and tell everyone later?”
Plot twist! The feared “Ray” was never the problem. It was everyone else’s assumptions and fear of rocking the boat that kept the old, costly system alive. As u/WinginVegas succinctly put it, “All because no one was smart enough to tell him if he wanted to get the same thing but save a ton of money.”
It’s a classic case of “the boss loves it” becoming company dogma, when sometimes, the boss just wants results—and a little common sense.
Lessons from the Land of Legacy Systems
So what can we learn from this slice of 90s tech life (and from the Reddit community’s wisdom)? Whether you’re wrangling PBXs, cloud servers, or just trying to get your office to use the new coffee machine, never underestimate the power of questioning the status quo. Sometimes, the only thing standing between you and massive savings is a little courage—and a willingness to talk to the right person.
And if you ever find yourself up against the dreaded “because we’ve always done it this way,” remember the advice of u/ryanlc: that’s not an argument, and you shouldn’t accept it as one.
So, the next time you spot a company tradition bleeding money, ask yourself: Is it sacred…or just a sacred cow?
Are you a tech support veteran with your own “no-brainer” story? Have you ever butted heads with “the way we’ve always done it?” Jump into the comments and share your tales—because as every IT pro knows, sometimes the best solutions are hiding in plain sight.
Original Reddit Post: Doing 'something' to the phone system