We’ve been allotted a whole 20 minutes at end of shift to count each individual necklace by hand

[u/rheannahh]

[u/Enough-Yoghurt7389]

Aiight. Yall can pay me the OT it takes to finish or I’m just out in the 20 minutes you required.

[u/rheannahh → u/Enough-Yoghurt7389]

Our shift is only 6.5 hours but maybe ill take my sweet time counting things

[u/Enough-Yoghurt7389 → u/rheannahh]

That’s the spirit!

https://giphy.com/gifs/lkc6z9BpmdJvO

[u/JaeHxC → u/Enough-Yoghurt7389]

I was thinking about phrase this recently. These days, it's a lot closer to "my boss makes a dollar, I make a penny and a half."

[u/Dragonkingofthestars → u/JaeHxC]

A poet has beaten you to it

[u/marthamania → u/Dragonkingofthestars]

Then the boss makes billions
And people starve in the street
Whose head to chop first
When we all need something to eat?

[u/TheOneTheUno → u/Dragonkingofthestars]

I dunno, the pooping part in the OG is pretty good

[u/vven23 → u/JaeHxC]

"My boss makes a grand, I make a dime."

[u/eddiewillers09 → u/JaeHxC]

Half-pennies gonna be hot when crypto bursts, I also invest in 2-pences

[u/YetiNotForgeti → u/rheannahh]

Why don't they just get a scale and use the mass? Why do you think mass is on products and not individual count?

Check glove boxes and they say X amount of gloves by mass.

[u/SNIP3RG → u/YetiNotForgeti]

Buy $12 scale on Amazon: unapproved purchase, rejected by billing due to non-work-related.

Pay several employees their salary for the extra time: 🥰

Tbh, if it’s a bar, it’s likely essentially free to make them stay late.

[u/Sylphael → u/SNIP3RG]

My workplace has several employees hand-cut hundreds of pieces of signage and handout bits every week. I asked why we do not own a single paper guillotine and got told "oh, you know, they're [the admin] just kind of outdated here and the expense wouldn't get approved". I work at a government agency. No shot the paper guillotine wouldn't pay for itself very quickly.

[u/Diligent_Eggplant152 → u/rheannahh]

Weigh 1, the box and then the box with all the necklaces. Subtract box weight from the total weight, then divide the rest by the weight of the single necklace.

If they challenge your count, ask them to prove you wrong...

[u/aPrettyThing2011 → u/Diligent_Eggplant152]

I like to weight like 10 of the items when they're that light weight, then divide by 10 and use that number as the base number. So if 10 weigh 10oz then I calculate that one is 1oz.

[u/RIF_rr3dd1tt → u/aPrettyThing2011]

[u/testprimate]

Just guess. What are they going to do, count them to check?

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/testprimate]

My boss asked me to count screws available for a multi-million dollar project, I told him "I'm going to assume zero, we can afford $200 of screws and I'm not counting screws."

He agreed.

Those are cheap plastic necklaces, guess.

[u/lueckestman → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

You boss said to the client "it'll be $2000 for screws".

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/lueckestman]

God I hope so, I want a raise...

I'm kidding, it's on us.

[u/lueckestman → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Oh sir. Those profits are not for you.....

[u/TupperwareNinja → u/lueckestman]

They're for more screws

[u/DreamPhreak → u/TupperwareNinja]

Your paycheck? Boxes of screws! Boxes of pizza for lunch? No, boxes of screws!

[u/Educational_Ant_184 → u/DreamPhreak]

they pay me in woims!

[u/CaffeineGlom → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

No can do- have you seen how much we spend on screws??

[u/criesatpixarmovies → u/lueckestman]

I work with our proposal team and no joke, we add 50-100% risk to our estimates depending on how much we don’t want to do the work, but regardless of how simple it is we always add minimum 50% on labor as a CYA fee.

[u/ExtremlyFastLinoone → u/lueckestman]

Boss told the contractor $2000 for screws, contractor told the client $20000 for screws

[u/megaman_xrs → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Boss needs to get a high accuracy scale. Weigh one. Divide the total weight by that. Job eliminated. Only if he or someone above actually gives a shit.

[u/ForsakenAiel → u/megaman_xrs]

To be clear you should weigh like 10, not 1.

[u/Ok_Grass_1572 → u/ForsakenAiel]

Drug dealers don’t have time to count their hundreds so they just weigh them.

[u/riptaway → u/Ok_Grass_1572]

If by drug dealers you mean Pablo Escobar, or the top cartels in Mexico, maybe.

[u/bombersandtalls → u/megaman_xrs]

Weigh 10 in case there's some slight variance.

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/megaman_xrs]

To my boss's credit, he gave me a list of things to inventory, some were important. I pointed out the screws and said "I'm not counting those, we have 0, buy more."

He replied "I agree, just focus on..." Then listed a couple of important/hard to find/expensive parts from the list.

[u/Helpinmontana → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

We have fittings and hardware, and then fasteners to attach it all together. We also have small consumables (gaskets and such) that are really cheap comparatively but still bring us to a halt if they aren’t available.

I count the expensive bits and make sure we have enough of the cheap shit to keep going, but if I see we’re down to “one bag of bolts” I don’t think twice about ordering more.

Yet, somehow, no matter how much I ask for (“seriously, like 8 boxes, please”) we get 2 boxes and then wind up coming to a full stop because we don’t have a roll of tape……

$20 million in equipment, $5000 a day in fuel, $50,000 a week in labor, stopped dead in the water because of a $4 roll of tape, frequently and consistently. It’s a fucking joke.

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/Helpinmontana]

I feel this.

Part of the reason I didn't want to inventory was because we had something go down and didn't have a spare $100 cable that we said we needed to have for this exact situation. We had to take apart another machine to get a cable that would work.

So yeah, if we order too many screws, fine.

[u/Helpinmontana → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

It’s especially painful that all this shit is regular consumables. No matter the project, the matter what, we’ll be using this stuff and it’s entirely shelf stable, think twinkies level of shelf life.

I need 12 cases, I ask for 15 because I know I’ll need extra, I get 5 then I get questioned why shit isn’t happening. “Because I asked for 15 and got 5” “well why didn’t you get it done with 5?” “Because it’s literally impossible”

Okay, we got you 3 more cases…… wash, rinse, repeat till we get to 18 cases because of waste when I could’ve done it with the 12 I needed. Which is 3 cases over the 3 extra I asked for, but if they got me the 3 extra they would’ve been used up later but now we’re 6 cases in the hole and a week behind schedule.

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/Helpinmontana]

But you're an engineer, so you're basically like MacGyver right? Here's some shoe string and bubble gum, now get my multi-million dollar factory running!

/s

[u/leglesslegolegolas → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Most companies I've worked for just hire a hardware service company for things like screws. They set up a system of bins in our shop and keep them full of screws. We never, ever have to count screws or worry if we have enough screws. We just always have bins full of screws, with no time spent at all.

[u/Needed_Warning → u/Helpinmontana]

The maintenance guy where I work used to request $40-50 dollar parts to repair things, get told no, get stuck arguing for hours to get it approved, get told no again, and then end up catching shit for not fixing the problem. He added up the personnel hours wasted arguing over one part and used the pay rates of everyone involved to figure out the cost of that "no". It was over $230. For a $50 part. Then the problem went critical on a weekend and he ended up here for about 9 hours of OT, and contractors needed to be brought in. Final bill from them was about $4k. Whole thing could've been prevented for $50 and 3 or so hours at his normal pay rate. Fucking idiots.

[u/Peanutbutter2728 → u/Helpinmontana]

I used to work at a plastics factory. When I first started there we made toys. Sometimes we had to shut down a line because we ran out of screws to assemble the parts. Our boss was an idiot.

[u/Internal-Base8276 → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Good, reasonable, boss.

[u/PUNCH-WAS-SERVED → u/megaman_xrs]

I had a shitty job where we had to count things like screws, cables and other random things in a factory... Thing is, unfortunately, we would be "wrong" if our count didn't match what inventory says. Like, OK.

You tell us to go count the shit in a box. Inventory says we have like x amount, but GOD FORBID it's somehow not the same as what inventory says. Not like we stole shit or anything.

Shitty summer job.

[u/abbyabsinthe → u/megaman_xrs]

That’s literally how we counted screws at one of my old workplaces. We weren’t counting out 5-10k by hand.

[u/malfunktionv2 → u/megaman_xrs]

If you're buying a scale just for this purpose, you can get one with a counting feature.

[u/watercouch → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

If you look closely at bulk boxes of screws and nails, they’re being sold by weight (5lb, 10lb, 25lb, etc) and the count on the box is essentially an accurate estimate.

[u/lininop → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Would you like to read one more comment about how you can weigh them?

[u/11teensteve → u/lininop]

this always kills me about social threads. like why you would post the same thing you just read 46 times. do you think somehow the OP is suddenly going to believe the advice now because you, some stranger, said it.

[u/chaosrubber410 → u/11teensteve]

But have you considered telling op that they can weigh them?

[u/Jyobachah → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Weigh 1 screw, tare the container off and dump screws in. Divide by weight of single unit.

That's how stores do inventory of loose items like that.

[u/spoonifur → u/Jyobachah]

Never weigh one. Weigh 10-20 then average it.

[u/Bulacano → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

As a CPA, I must say that you’re totally causing a variance, and I must address the fact that it’s imprecise and inaccurate. I’d like to add that accuracy is important and—$200 of screws on a multi million dollar project is just a write off.

Fuck that shit—just estimate and call it good enough. It’s just gonna go to some supplies expense account. Unless we’re talking military or airplane parts or something like that.

[u/NBNTMCCOEC22 → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

Why not weigh one. Then the entire batch.

It's like 30 seconds work.

[u/ThatSandwich → u/NBNTMCCOEC22]

because then they would have to find a whole separate container to pour them in so they can tare the scale (or weigh it and deduct)

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/ThatSandwich]

Basically this, plus getting the scale would cost as much as buying a new box of screws.

[u/NBNTMCCOEC22 → u/ThatSandwich]

200 bucks of screws isn't like buckets full. I reckon it's not even half a bucket of screws.

Which is about 10 carpenter-hand-scoops of screws.

[u/Fun-Term-5036 → u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe]

You really just politely said screw you😂

[u/short_fat_and_single → u/testprimate]

Weigh them?

[u/MassiveSuperNova → u/short_fat_and_single]

My first thought too, with a bathroom/kitchen scale you can weigh enough for a pound or any arbitrary amount and the empty container, then measure it at the end and get pretty damn close.

[u/PunningWild → u/MassiveSuperNova]

This is how they count paper tickets at carnivals. In the 90s I volunteered to manually count tickets for our Church fundraising event. I counted thousands of tickets an hour for four hours straight (my undiagnosed neurodivergent brain loved it).

I was beyond heartbroken the year I found out my job had been replaced by a $20 scale.

Fun fact. I still do ticket sales for the Church fundraising event. They ain't getting rid of me that easily.

[u/Loonsonthelakes → u/testprimate]

If it’s a daily task and the numbers are all over the place , questions might get asked

[u/rheannahh → u/Loonsonthelakes]

It’s just for this shift as it’s the end of the faire. We are currently giving them away to crowds like mad to get rid of them

Update: they were all given away including everything else in bins

[u/skbugco → u/rheannahh]

If you’re giving them away, what’s the point of counting them?

[u/rheannahh → u/skbugco]

Beats me! Not my call. They’re like five cent necklaces too.

[u/Dangerous_Proof_820 → u/rheannahh]

looks like 0 as all where given away at last min

[u/Straight_Mind_5192 → u/Dangerous_Proof_820]

Start stuffing them down your shirt and pants a la I Love Lucy in the chocolate packaging scene

[u/Galrafloof → u/Straight_Mind_5192]

That scene was referenced so much in kids shows when I was little and I had no idea what it was referencing until years later when I saw the original.

[u/TheyTokMaJerb → u/[deleted]]

I’m in school for accounting right now so I might be remembering this incorrectly, but couldn’t the entire stock be written off as a depreciated value of 0 since they would no longer be useable.

[u/Silver_Middle_7240 → u/[deleted]]

Wouldn't it make sense then to count them at the end?

[u/Crab-_-Objective → u/skbugco]

Likely to see how many were actually given out so that someone can adjust purchasing numbers for future events.

[u/rheannahh → u/Crab-_-Objective]

This. But I don’t see why it has to be to the exact number. We have them in bags in boxes and can figure out those numbers very easily

[u/stink3rb3lle → u/rheannahh]

If you do have to count them, pick them up and count by the medallions. Sort into groups of ten

[u/tandabat → u/rheannahh]

This feels like something they could have done by weight….do you have a witch scale available?

[u/BeyondOk3697 → u/tandabat]

I worked at a global manufacturing company that does a year inventory. The look of shock on people faces as I took literal pallets of inventory to the scales and weighed a separate box and pallet. Then figured out how many of those parts made up 1 pound was hilarious. Was told inventory usually took a week including Saturday/Sunday. The area I was in charge of was done within 3 hours everyone else was hand counting thousands of parts. Needless to say I got sent home and paid for Tuesday-Friday and didn’t have to work the weekend.

[u/orangejuice3 → u/BeyondOk3697]

Work smarter not harder!

Counting small and numerous things by weight is something I thought was more common. I learned it in like my first semester of engineering school. It should be common knowledge because it's so useful.

[u/madkins007 → u/BeyondOk3697]

Bosses hate this one little trick...

[u/Icy_Imagination7344 → u/rheannahh]

Weigh a few, weigh them all, do the math

[u/kayakchk → u/Icy_Imagination7344]

This is the correct answer :)

[u/Anantasesa → u/skbugco]

Yeah, dump in trash. Tally is instantly zero. Job done.

[u/JimiForPresident → u/skbugco]

Probably to dial in next year’s order

[u/mjzimmer88 → u/rheannahh]

I had a paper route when I was a kid. I was supposed to go to 2,000 houses...or 2 dumpsters.

- Mitch

[u/bannedfrom_argo → u/mjzimmer88]

Smart move. My local newspaper got a contract to have paperboys deliver the towns phone books. I tried dumping phone books in the woods the first year, but I heard somebody found them, but didn't trace it back to me. So the next year when phonebook deliveries came I wisely dumped them in the steel drum trash can at my local public park and started it in on fire to destroy the evidence. It didn't occur to me the little old lady across the street would call the fire department, but I still got away with it. Parks and Rec never repainted the trash can with the city logo and it was black for years, a reminder of my petty crime.

[u/Loonsonthelakes → u/rheannahh]

Thank goodness for that. So horseshoes and hand grenade rules should apply. Close is good enough 😂

[u/colostitute → u/rheannahh]

I hear legends where women show their boobs in exchange for beads like this. Try that!

[u/PassivelyAwkward → u/Loonsonthelakes]

Even if it's not a daily task, it can raise questions if it's off by too much. I work in marketing and I've had clients where they'll order 2k of something and utilize the EoD count to determine things. If you're off by five, no one gives a fuck but if you're off by a few hundred because you don't know what 2k of something looks like, it'll mean someone gets in trouble.

[u/Pork_Chompk → u/testprimate]

Grab a fist full. Count that. Grab the remaining necklaces in approximately equal sized fist-fulls. Multiply by the number of grabs it took you.

[u/KarenEiffel]

Do you have access to a scale?

[u/rheannahh → u/KarenEiffel]

No but good idea

[u/sunndropps → u/rheannahh]

Buy a scale asap

[u/rheannahh → u/sunndropps]

Can’t leave the premises to get one 😭

[u/DoritoDustThumb → u/rheannahh]

Have your manager buy one so they know they don't have to waste labor on dumb shit.

[u/Wild_Appearance3859 → u/DoritoDustThumb]

This is America. Their manager is surely illiterate and would not know how a scale would help, even when explained.

[u/trev2234 → u/Wild_Appearance3859]

“Scales only weigh things. They can’t count things; dummy”

[u/Pretend-Function-133 → u/trev2234]

“How do you even know how much a necklace weighs anyways?”

[u/Accomplished_Will226 → u/trev2234]

LOL

[u/Beerbeard123 → u/rheannahh]

Does the fair have one of those "guess your weight" tricksters? He has a scale.

[u/mjzimmer88 → u/rheannahh]

Doordash it!

[u/rheannahh → u/mjzimmer88]

I ain’t paying my own money for that 😭 I’d rather just leave and not count them at that point as it’s seasonal and the last day today

[u/Immediate-Earth6603 → u/rheannahh]

Fr like why on earth would you pay extra to buy a scale for the workplace like hell naw

[u/LeCarrr → u/Immediate-Earth6603]

You could BYOS

[u/pegothejerk → u/rheannahh]

Is there a bath tub and some running water?

[u/Splatter_bomb → u/pegothejerk]

Another option is to take out one necklace and burn the rest.

[u/pegothejerk → u/Splatter_bomb]

(Playing Real Men of Genius theme song)

[u/ShyrBit → u/rheannahh]

Take any container (coffee mug, lunch box, hat) and count how many necklaces fit in it. When you know just scoop and count. Saves some time.

[u/EkbatDeSabat → u/sunndropps]

Under no circumstances should OP purchase something themselves for a work task. Spend the twenty minutes counting shit for no reason and get paid for it. Never spend your money for other people’s incompetence. 

[u/Mmmm-Amethyst → u/EkbatDeSabat]

This. The correct answer here is "fuck you, I'm gonna guess 100". Not "let me spend my own money on your asinine task." 

People need to learn to grow a pair, especially in jobs that almost certainly aren't paying a livable wage. 

[u/Liveitup1999 → u/rheannahh]

Weigh 10 or 20 then weigh the batch.

[u/shawnaeatscats → u/Liveitup1999]

Why not just weigh one, record the weight, then weigh the rest and divide the total weight by the weight of 1?

[u/Ycoordinate12 → u/shawnaeatscats]

There's probably a bit of variance between each necklace, weighing ten will smooth the variance out

[u/shawnaeatscats → u/Ycoordinate12]

Ah, makes sense!

[u/Eat-It-Harvey- → u/shawnaeatscats]

Also, rounding. One might weigh 1.2 (units) but its real weight is 1.24. 10 would weigh 12.4 so it's safer to multiply the more specific measure.

[u/khalcyon2011 → u/shawnaeatscats]

These are likely not all exactly the same weight. Weighing several and taking the average (or better yet the median) helps smooth out some of that inconsistency.

[u/OmicronPersei7 → u/KarenEiffel]

Answers like this make me realise how simple-minded I truly am.

[u/Humble-Comedian-2595 → u/KarenEiffel]

Just Rain Man it and throw them all into the air and count

[u/lucyfell → u/KarenEiffel]

Literally my first thought. Why would you count instead of weigh?

[u/Hot-Win2571 → u/KarenEiffel]

Ship them all to the office, and write down how much the box weighed at the shipping office.
Oh. Just count them at the office, while you're getting paid.

[u/cornpeeker → u/KarenEiffel]

They count bolts in my shipping department and I mentioned getting a scale and I think I might have obliterated some brains that day.

[u/reddits_aight → u/KarenEiffel]

Even better, a counting scale. You weigh a sample, punch in the quantity of the sample, then tare a big container and dump the whole lot in and it spits out the count (and tells you the weight of a single piece; if you were going to repeat this over and over, next time you could skip step 1, just punch in the weight of one)

Overkill for a one time or occasional job, but if you have to count things for inventory a lot, it's so nice to have.

[u/Resident-Zombie-7266]

Do they all have pendants? I feel like you could count the pendants pretty quick. That's a shit job though :/

[u/rheannahh → u/Resident-Zombie-7266]

The bin is deep. The pendants will definitely help though. We also have six (correction: seven) other bins mostly with small items inside to count, and have to take things down and clean the premises… all in about 20 minutes. No mention of compensation even though we’ve been asked stay over shift almost everyday until I finally talked to the corporate contact and began to shut things down earlier myself (seasonal job)

[u/ArnieismyDMname → u/rheannahh]

Found a crowd and gave them all away.

Me after naming the trash can "crowd"

[u/ARKVEN33 → u/rheannahh]

As someone else said, get a scale. Weigh 10 of any item. Dump out the bin. Put the bin on the scale and press the tare button, this will zero the scale with the bin on it (essentially the bin weight is zero), dump all of the items that you need to count into the bin on the scale. Make a note and do the math.

[u/etcpt → u/rheannahh]

Your regional government (state/province/whatever) has an agency that would be very interested to look into the wage theft your employer is committing by making you stay after your shift ends to do unpaid work. Give them a holler. Sometimes these things come with multipliers on the damages.

[u/Loonsonthelakes → u/Resident-Zombie-7266]

Yeah, dump it out and pick them up by the pendants. Maybe lay out stacks of 5 or 10 so you don’t lose count

[u/ChunkdarTheFair → u/Resident-Zombie-7266]

This would be the easiest way to tackle this. Also probably the easiest way to physically organize them too.

[u/splitfinity]

What is going on here?

[u/vinnymcapplesauce → u/splitfinity]

i have no fucking idea lol

[u/ked_man → u/vinnymcapplesauce]

I’m assuming it’s at a concession stand inside of a stadium. They count cups and things like this at the end of the shift to make sure the vendors aren’t giving stuff away at the event. You start the night with 200 cups and sell 100 drinks, you should have 100 cups left at the end of the night.

This is also a way to prevent theft by employees. You ring someone up, tell them the total, they pay in cash, you delete a few things off the order, give them the change back and then pocket the difference. I knew some girls that did this back in college and would make a couple hundred bucks a night scamming.

[u/AnEmptyBoat27 → u/ked_man]

Sure, but you’re paying more in labor than you potentially save on cups. And you piss off the workers. And having potential thieves count the inventory isn’t the best thought out prevention strategy.

[u/ked_man → u/AnEmptyBoat27]

It’s not saving on the cups, it’s saving on the lost sales due to theft. And at 5$ a drink for soda, if you’re 4 short, that’s more than the labor costs to count them.

I think some of these concession stands are operated by contractors/vendors, so it is on them to count it and if it’s short, then they take that off their cut. My brother in law ran one for a bit at a local soccer stadium. It was more hassle than it was worth. He basically broke even with lots of work and headache to put up with.

[u/VelvetMafia → u/splitfinity]

Just New Orleans things, I think

[u/marasydnyjade → u/VelvetMafia]

Minnesota Vikings. That’s their logo. Purple is their color.

[u/BayHarborButcher10 → u/marasydnyjade]

As a Vikings fan, this team is very appropriately in the mildly infuriating sub

[u/therealgookachu → u/BayHarborButcher10]

Heh. As a Minnesotan

[u/splitfinity → u/marasydnyjade]

Yup that's why I wanted to know what the deal was? Is their a vikings party or somrthing coming up?

[u/maggiemaxwell9 → u/VelvetMafia]

We don’t count beads in New Orleans 😂 we would never finish

[u/Difficult-Republic57]

What are they for? A parade?

[u/rheannahh → u/Difficult-Republic57]

Booth at a faire

[u/Difficult-Republic57 → u/rheannahh]

It seems impossible, why do you have to count them?

[u/PassivelyAwkward → u/Difficult-Republic57]

if I had to guess, they're marketing swag and they're using how many are left to determine how many were given away/how much the staff actually worked. Also for inventory/when to order more.

It's really not that impossible. When I was an intern, they'd have me count things like how many different promotional things we had like stress balls, pencils, booklets, etc. With this, you just grab a handful, count how many circle pendants there are and put them off to the side. As long as you're not dragging your feet, should only take around ten minutes; faster when you get use to counting with your eyes and by two's instead of one's.

[u/Difficult-Republic57 → u/PassivelyAwkward]

I'd still make up a reasonable number and have a smoke.

[u/PassivelyAwkward → u/Difficult-Republic57]

But since you've never counted, you have no idea about what a "reasonable number" is. You don't know how much the pendants take up vs the beads. If it were a handful, sure you could make a reasonable number but at this? You'd be lucky to get it within a 150 range.

I mean...seriously, how lazy do you have to be half ass a basic inventory?

[u/rheannahh → u/Difficult-Republic57]

I have no idea. They’re like worth five cents each. Surely it doesn’t matter to our client

[u/XRPX008 → u/rheannahh]

Do you work for the Vikings?

[u/azura099]

One two skip a few and one thousand

[u/thinkconverse]

Use the “Wisdom of the Crowd” - Get enough people to make a guess at it and take the average. It’ll probably be pretty close.

[u/KoburaCape → u/thinkconverse]

There's actually a video about how innaccurate people are with this!

[u/BeardedBandit → u/KoburaCape]

Inaccurate? All I've seen is how surprising it is that the crowd is so accurate.

New hope for humans in an A.I. world Louis Rosenberg | TEDXKC (YouTube, upload was 8 years ago, 16min long)

VSauce explains the Wisdom of the Crowd (YouTube, uploaded 1 yrs ago, 2:30min long)

BBC - The Code - The Wisdom of the Crowd (YouTube, uploaded 14 years ago, 4:48 min long)

[u/almostthemainman]

Weigh them

[u/not_just_the_IT_guy → u/almostthemainman]

This is the way (or weight)

Easy to get within an allowable margin of weather.

[u/cutebunnypink]

I'd just guess and be like anyways

[u/Specific_Interest259]

Idk why but that sounds like heaven to me right now😂 I really like mindless repetitive tasks and that looks like it would be sooo soothing to me! 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/Chrimaho]

Weigh one
Weigh the bucket.
Weigh the bucket filled.
Divide the net weight by the weight of one necklace.
Done.

[u/SupremeCripple_ → u/Chrimaho]

You can skip half that by weighing one and zeroing the bucket

[u/Adorable-Event-2752]

Ahhhhhh I LOVE to COUNT! ONE purple viking necklace ...ah, ah, ah. Holds it up to the light.

TWO purple viking necklaces ..... Ah, ah, ah!

It's time to go home... Already? TWO, there are two necklaces!

[u/Silent25r]

I could do a few of those bins in 20 with those pendants on them. 

[u/PunchDrunkPrincess]

I would split it into 4 equal groups, count one and multiply by 4. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that needs exact numbers. Or just count for you 20 minutes and whatever gets done gets done 🤷‍♀️

[u/QueenSema]

Count one box by pendants, then assume the rest of the boxes are the same. Also give away as many as possible ASAP

[u/MalWinchester]

Just the Vikings pissing off more people. Their fans know the feeling intimately.

[u/miepmiep_92]

Weight one. Than weight all. Now you know how many necklace you have

[u/Glass-Sheepherder-16]

Count out 25 and weigh them, record the result then put those ones in a big empty box. That number divided by 25 equals the things avg. weight. Weigh the rest with the box they're in, record the result and dump them in with the 25. Now weigh the old box they were in.

Box of things minus old box = things weight. Things weight divided by avg. weight = number of things. Report that number.

[u/tekela_1800and1]

Seems doable. How long it actually take tho

[u/rheannahh → u/tekela_1800and1]

It’s doable but not in 20 minutes

[u/vinnymcapplesauce → u/rheannahh]

what do you care?

boss gives you a job, and only 20 mins to do it, you only do 20 mins worth. If it's not done in that time, that's on them. Not your problem, you're not the manager.

[u/Jharrn]

Your getting paid to sit and count? I don't see this as an issue?

[u/rheannahh → u/Jharrn]

The issue is we had many other bins to count and various other tasks to do all in those twenty minutes, and I already had to escalate just to secure compensation for the times we’ve already gone over - and there was no heads up on going over this shift. Trust me I’d actually be down to be paid to count them just context is important. Doesn’t matter now though as we gave them all away so count was 0

[u/Kameron4567]

Count all you can for 15 min, that is the Total. The last 5 min as you are walking to clock out, empty the trash.

[u/LopsidedHelicopter35]

Just count the medallions. Don't even worry about sorting/untangling

[u/TimeToNutUp]

I wouldn't want to count anything with the vikings logo either.

[u/Express_Feature_9481]

How much are you paid? If it’s at are close to minimum just guess. Or take a handful out… count it, then just count handfuls and multiply

[u/PsychologicalRole238]

Buy a scale, see how much like 10-20 weigh and extrapolate.

[u/etork90]

Empty the box and weigh it, then weigh one necklace, put the necklaces back to get the total weight, subtract the weight of the box, then multiply the remaining weight by the weight of the necklace, and that should get you the total number.

[u/Desperate_Change_893]

Weigh 10 or 20 of them, then weigh full amount and do some math. It's how screws and bolts are inventoried in hardware stores. Also, it's the Vikings anyways and they suck, so who really cares in the end?

[u/Altenativeboi]

Weigh the bucket and subtract from the ‘dry’ weight of the bucket. Then weigh an individual bracelet and divide the previous answer by this and voila, you have a pretty good idea of what you have. You could probably do all that in 20 minutes.

[u/feyrath]

if you have access to a scale, do the following:

• count out 50 (high number because they look very light)
• weigh those 50. as accurate as possible. write it down
• weigh the whole thing
• weigh the container empty
• do math to get count

[u/EdmontonLAD]

Weigh one of them, them weigh all of them, then divide the weight of all of them by the weight of 1 of them. Bam. You have how many there are total.

[u/Killerzaxxon]

Counting each individual necklace like one...one...one...one...

[u/abgry_krakow87]

Great! Once the 20 minutes end, so does the counting.

[u/WhichVegetable8285]

Take out 1, weigh it.

Take them all out, weigh the container.

Put them all back in and then weigh it.

[u/MaxPrints]

Printer here. There are counting scales for this kind of stuff. You put a few on so you get a solid average weight of one (in case there are slight variances), then just throw the whole lot on there, and instead of a weight, you get a count.

Or, if you already have a scale and don’t want a counting scale, weigh out x number of units to hit an oz, lb, or kg. Then weigh everything and use that first count to get the final tally.

[u/mtnslice]

by the time you untangle them and measure them, you always have a count of 5. you ran out of time to count them all so you counted what you could, and that was 5

a good old dose of malicious compliance is what's needed here

[u/Bengis_Khan]

I’m from Minnesota and I can guarantee you that’s $0 worth of necklaces.

[u/EuphoricOwl0]

Get a scale, weight one and then weight the rest and divide the total by the weight of 1 necklace

[u/Pzykez]

get a scale find the weight of ten, weigh box, remove weight of box from total, divide total amount by 10.

[u/blixabloxa]

Dump the necklaces all out of the box and weigh the empty box. Weigh one individual necklace. Put them all back in the box and weight it again. Now, subtract the weight of the box you measured first - leaving the total weight of all the necklaces. Divide this weight by the weight of a single necklace. The answer is the number of necklaces in total. Should take you about 5 minutes total. Of course, you need some scales....

[u/INV-U]

Weigh 1 then the whole lot .

[u/Powersurge-]

There's at least 7.

[u/BluejayCold8535]

Weigh 10. Then weigh the whole lot. Do some maths and find the answer that way.

[u/jimmyjetmx5]

You can do it in two minutes. Weigh one necklace. Or 10 if the weight of one is negligible. Weigh the empty basket. Then weigh the full basket and find the weight of all the necklaces.

You’ll have a damn good estimate of necklaces for sale.

Don’t tell your boss. If he doubts your count, he can pay you overtime or count the shit himself.

[u/Falala-Surprise-90]

Dump them out. Get a postage or food scale. Tare the scale with the bin. Weigh 1 necklace. More if needed to register weight. Put all back in bin. Calculate how many necklaces in bin based on weight.

[u/CorbinNZ]

Disentangle one necklace. Weigh it. Remove the remaining necklaces and place in a pile. Place bin on the scale and zero it or record the value (to be subtracted later). Return all necklaces to bin on the scale. Take weight and divide it by the weight of the first. That's your number.

May not be 100% accurate. Some necklaces may have more or fewer beads. Doesn't matter. They gave you an impossible task in the time allotted. This is the easiest way to get a semi-accurate answer. Worst they can do is not trust it and count them themselves.

[u/Robotboogeyman]

Takes about 3 minutes to count them if they give you a scale!..

[u/RG_CG]

Weigh a couple individually, get a good reading on the weight, and then weigh them all.

[u/Krinks1]

Empty the container and weigh it.

Weigh one necklace

Put container on scale and zero it.

Add the necklaces and divide by the weight to get the number of necklaces.

[u/Distinct_Signal_1555]

Have a scale? Weigh one, weigh an empty box, dump the necklaces into the box, minus the box, divide by weight of one.

Had a similar issue in college but it was name tags, count 2500+ by hand or guesstimate with weight.

[u/PacificCastaway]

Can you weight it and then divide?

[u/milkdimension]

This is the kind of job where I would simply lie

[u/moist_man420]

Don’t worry about posting on Reddit and get to counting brother

[u/BoozeWitch]

I’m sure you dont have power over any of the process. But inventory like that should be managed by weight. Ya. Your count may be +- 1 or 2. But your manual count is also imperfect. Also, the cost is immaterial compared with the alotted staff hours.

Sorry you have a dumb and unnecessary task.