Going Postal

I never understood what that term meant until I started working for the government. I now fully understand why Postal workers go crazy. It's like a minefield of buearacractic obstacles. Meaningless, pointless, expensive, wastful obstacles. I call it the "beast." At some point in my career I had to decide to chill out or die of a heart attack asking "WHY??" Why do we do this or why do we do that and getting answers like, "That's just the RULES."

I'll tell you a story about my first staff meeting. About ten of us sat around a table as my manager (who is no longer here) said we are going to "redo" Thus And Such Manual. Okay. I can do that. Then she pulled out ten copies of the manual and said "Turn to page one, paragraph one, sentance one." Seriously we spent the next three hours "redo"ing a 90 page manual, and never got past the first paragraph. That was four years ago and we have NEVER finished reworking that particular piece. I remember looking around the table and calcuating how much money per hour the ten of us just cost the good citizens of Ohio. That meeting prompted me to ask my manager if I could present a summary of a book I had just read on Time Management....I still remember the blank stare she gave me. I could almost here that cartoonish *blink blink* sound when she blinked her eyes during the silence.

Alas my plight here has ceased to become a plight and I have officially become a slacker. I'm not complaining. I get paid well to be a slacker. As long as you don't rock the boat, things seem to drift along seamlessly toward that nirvana called retirement. At least I think that's the goal everyone is shooting for??

Geeze, I hope no one from the office reads this one...