Beautiful Bureaucracy
by Carrie Kosicki
Every job has to have a description and every employee has to have a job and everyone has to report directly to someone who has to report directly to someone who reports directly to god, himself. Every job falls under a department which is headed by a department head who reports to one of the people who reports to someone else. No person who reports to more than three people will have anyone who reports to him, because he’ll be too busy reporting to the three other people. It’s not possible to be a part of more than one department unless you’re in charge of people from multiple departments, in which case you will be a part of all of those departments and you will report to each of those department heads, unless you’re one of the department heads, in which case the other department heads of the other departments where the people who report to you work will be your peers. You will all report to one of the people who reports directly to god.
Each department will be required to meet once a month to discuss things happening in that department, and to do a quick head count to make sure all the heads are counted for. The head count must be done by the department head. To avoid fraudulent activity, the department head’s head cannot be counted by the head of the department and must be universally recognized by all other heads in the department.
Every department has to have a committee, and the committee must be headed by someone who reports to less than three people, because those people will be too busy reporting to the three other people who they report to. The head of the committee cannot be a department head, because that person would be two heads at once, which isn’t covered by the company health insurance plan. The committee members will be chosen by committee and the committee head will be selected from among those chosen. Once the committee head is chosen, he or she will select his or her own vice head in the event that he or she is beheaded and cannot fulfill the duties of his or her post. The department committees will meet once a week to strategize what should be discussed at the monthly department meeting.
Every quarter a quarter of all the departments will meet to discuss what’s going on in the other departments that quarter. These meetings will be led by a committee of committee heads. If any of the committee heads is beheaded between the time of that committee’s last weekly meeting and the quarterly quarter department meeting, the committee head’s vice head will serve on the committee for the quarterly meeting for a quarter of all departments.
All departments will gather once annually for the annual all department picnic. It will be pot luck.
Yes, we shall have a meeting to discuss the meeting we will have on Tuesday. In that meeting,, we will gather a committee to choose times and dates for further meetings. The objective of all of these meetings is to detail the meeting schedule.
LOL I love your blog. I hope you stop over and visit mine. If you like it you can follow through email or there is a facebook like button for my page.
Thanks for reading. I’ll definitely check out your blog.
Thanks you.
But if you deviate from this, doom ensues. Every time. Its an example of something counter intuitive that works.
Exactly.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Looking forward to reading more from you!
Ps. In these times of austerity we’re currently reviewing capital expenditure and it may no longer be feasible to have more than one head. In circumstances where two heads are essential, you will need to seek authorisation before implementing the second head, which will otherwise be kept on the pay roll in a reserve capacity.
Love it.
This is pure gold sir, absolutely incredible. I’m not sure what my department head will have to say about this, however…
Reblogged this on Catholic College Chronicles and commented:
This is possibly the greatest satire of bureaucracy I’ve read in my entire life.
Wow, thanks for passing it along.
My pleasure!
I wanna write a post on this post adding to the various posts you’ve mentioned? BTW which post do you hold?
This made me laugh out loud.
I think I have worked in this organization…
You’re not the first to say so.
Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for stopping by.
Ahhh yes, meetings, the alternative to work.
You neglected to cover situations where there is not a quorum.
I guess they could either reschedule, or just sit around and wait for a few days hoping others will turn up.
I think the second option would suit their circumstances better.
I create cartoons (see my blog), so the only meetings I have are with myself. Rarely any arguments, but on the occasions there is one, I normally win.
Ah, see, I save my quorum talk for posts about Congress.
Someone once said… a camel is a horse designed by a committee.
I’d never heard that, but I like it.
brilliant!!!!!!
Thanks so much.
Cannot say any better than rebecca2000 above. I am glad I got out of that rat race.
Thanks, Sherman.
My dad (86-years-old) still say, “My job is to make sure that you do your job. If you do your job, then I’ve done my job. So get to work!
The key is to say it really fast!
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Thanks. I assume after you’ve said this really fast, it’s best to walk away.
Exactly! Hahaha!
Why do i feel like Im in the middle of a spider web? Great writing. Glad i caught this post.
I’m glad you did too. Thanks for the kind words.
Like it…..
Thanks.
The mind boggles!
I actually had to read your post aloud, otherwise my mind couldn’t keep up.
Great post and congratulations on being Freshly Pressed.
Wendy
I got confused writing it, too.
Imagine what it would be like to live it.
Great post, lovely satire. I hate working in beaurocratic structures like this too! I’m so glad I’m not trapped by this race anymore, come see how I managed it on my blog.
Thanks for the kind words. I’ll be sure to swing by sometime.
Haha! So true and funny!
Thanks!
No, thank you.
Beautiful and brilliant. I thought only educational institutions had this problem.
Nah, I think it’s pretty well permeated our entire society now.
Fantastic essay. Congratulations on a brilliant satire.
Thanks, Jim.
HA! perfect Sunday night readying.
Thanks. I’m glad you stopped by.
“Once the committee head is chosen, he or she will select his or her own vice head in the event that he or she is beheaded and cannot fulfill the duties of his or her post.”
Almost made me spit out my coffee! Beautiful.
That’s just going to go to my head.
My head hurts!
What, this doesn’t make perfect sense?
Thank you so much for the sunday morning reading. Best one I’ve ever read in a while… made my morning.
That’s very nice of you to say. Thanks for reading.
Good Morning: Neither fiction nor satire, just plain old reality. Experienced a lot of this during my time in the private sector. I’ve worked in local gov’t for ten years and I’m much happier.
I’m glad to hear it.
Great post, just blogged about this myself yesterday, (sans satire), after a peace officer in my neck of the woods was beaten to death in the line of duty, and federal bureaucracy is preventing the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachments from lowering their flags to Half-mast… unbelievable.
It’s incredible the way common sense goes out the window. I’ll stop by and check out your post.
This is too close to the truth! I’m sure my committee members and department head would agree …once they’ve had a meeting about it.
They should get something on the calendar to discuss.
Reblogged this on Derrick Lee and commented:
‘In satire, irony is militant.’
Reblogged this on I Am Dunn and commented:
this is the most accurate description of Bureaucracy
brilliant…just brilliant.
Lemon..good. Being a stay at home mom who sits on my ass all day my brain has entered the Romeny zone.
awesome! you’ve caught the crux of it spot on!!! I’ve never reblogged anything ever. but I guess i will make an exception for this one. If you don’t mind that is?
Reblog away, and thanks for the kind words.
Is this an organization or a hydra? In restructuring an organization, are you really removing heads, or are you just creating space for more heads?
I’ll have to have a meeting to be able to figure this out.
lol…makes unemployment not sound too bad..you pick your own hours and no meetings! i tend to doodle, no one has caught me…not yet anyway lmao..great post!
This was delicious! Enjoyed it, though I admit I had to re-read a few lines
Keep writing!
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