Inbox No Enough
My cube has been slowly gathering piles of documents, folders and other detritus. It looks a lot like a tornado tore through the office and dumped the debris onto my desk. Much as I have this urge to eradicate this mess and restore order in my life, it appears that I'm fighting a losing battle. Just looking at my email provides proof of the Sisyphean nature of my task: my inbox now has more flags than the UN building.
On the bright side, my laptop seems to have grown past its rebellious phase, and settled on being a reasonable and civilized creature. No more petulant outbursts and random reboots. Which is a relief, since I can no longer afford the time to coax it into better behaviour.
Another thing that seems to have grown though, is the sheer amount of bureaucracy in the government. I've been told that the situation's actually pretty good where I am, so I shudder to think what's happening at other places. The procedures, manuals, authorizations etc stack and overlap one another until they form a huge ponderous mass that crushes the individual under their leaden weight. It's a challenge to stay sentient while being asphyxiated by all that mind-numbing detail. I really wonder how my bosses do it.
And thanks to political correctness, sentiments are now couched in such polite doublespeak that one must squeeze every drop of nuance out of an email to get its true meaning. Heaven forbid that one should express plainly one's (gasp!) dissatisfaction. Rather, one has gush about how one 'would appreciate it if (you get your sh*t together)' or ask if 'you would kindly (stop being such a frickin' dumba**)'.
I guess bruised egos don't make for good working relationships. Being the person that I am, I can't help but feel like the proverbial bull in a china shop (and not just because it makes me full of crap) - keep having to revise what I write to make it more tactful. Faith was more accurate than she knew when she remarked that I'm starting to slide into self-censorship. Wholly ironic, I'd think, given my employer.
Still, there's reason to be happy. After all, the weekend's almost here. I can almost hear my lost sleep calling out to me...
On the bright side, my laptop seems to have grown past its rebellious phase, and settled on being a reasonable and civilized creature. No more petulant outbursts and random reboots. Which is a relief, since I can no longer afford the time to coax it into better behaviour.
Another thing that seems to have grown though, is the sheer amount of bureaucracy in the government. I've been told that the situation's actually pretty good where I am, so I shudder to think what's happening at other places. The procedures, manuals, authorizations etc stack and overlap one another until they form a huge ponderous mass that crushes the individual under their leaden weight. It's a challenge to stay sentient while being asphyxiated by all that mind-numbing detail. I really wonder how my bosses do it.
And thanks to political correctness, sentiments are now couched in such polite doublespeak that one must squeeze every drop of nuance out of an email to get its true meaning. Heaven forbid that one should express plainly one's (gasp!) dissatisfaction. Rather, one has gush about how one 'would appreciate it if (you get your sh*t together)' or ask if 'you would kindly (stop being such a frickin' dumba**)'.
I guess bruised egos don't make for good working relationships. Being the person that I am, I can't help but feel like the proverbial bull in a china shop (and not just because it makes me full of crap) - keep having to revise what I write to make it more tactful. Faith was more accurate than she knew when she remarked that I'm starting to slide into self-censorship. Wholly ironic, I'd think, given my employer.
Still, there's reason to be happy. After all, the weekend's almost here. I can almost hear my lost sleep calling out to me...
posted by lit @ 8:45 PM
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