An organization of which I'm a volunteer member just published a bunch of new rules, some that will require us to upload paperwork in PDF format (because the computer systems aren't up to speed) that is thoroughly unnecessary, but moderately easy to quantify so the bean-counters want it. A nurse I spoke to said that she spends hours every day documenting in medical records, but that most of what she's documenting has more to do with lawsuit prevention than with medical care. An electrical engineer said he now spends more time trying to make sure his business is compliant with regulations and permits than he does doing electrical engineering. Some other people were complaining about how hard it is to do business in Central America - not only do they have offices that would make the US DMV of twenty years ago seem streamlined, but they also have government employees who are ignorant about their own policies and who are too lazy to do anything about it. Another organization has determined that we might have too many processes, so they implemented processes to evaluate our processes and came up with new processes to create new processes to improve upon or combine the old processes. It's amazing anything ever gets done these days! Sometimes it's hard to remember what we're actually supposed to be doing - not to mention hard to understand what other people are doing, when you have so much documentation to wade through. I wonder, is this trend like a pendulum where we're near the point of paralysis with paperwork (or computerwork), that will eventually go back towards a time when we all can spend more time doing what our actual jobs are? How can we get there sooner?
The USSR was like this at the end. They imploded. Yes, "simpler times", do come. After the implosion. Nothing less. Whoopee.
Hey, Vlad, we need a : prophetofdoom : smiley. It would look like the smiley, but be chalk white in the face, wearing a reaper hood, and be staring down at a globe. Possibly clutching the globe.
I wonder, is this trend like a pendulum where we're near the point of paralysis with paperwork (or computerwork), that will eventually go back towards a time when we all can spend more time doing what our actual jobs are? How can we get there sooner? - Prufrock The irony is when computers started getting more and more prevalent in the workplace they were viewed as the "solution" to all our time consuming paperwork/record keeping/administrative bullshit.
Computers did help tremendously with efficiency, but they also killed the secretarial pool. So now people who used to have someone to deal with the paperwork do it themselves, and the person who used to do it flips burgers. Nobody is less busy, just doing different things.
This is what I've been saying. For so many years now. And everybody just laughs, and points, and mocks. But I'll keep saying it: The bureaucrats need to get chokeslammed and told at gunpoint to shut the fuck up. And we don't ever let the bureaucrats carry guns, or hire loaf-headed fuckin' goons to carry guns on their behalf.
I can address the electronic charting that has hit nursing...it sucks ass. My wife, even on a day when the unit was short staffed (there's a joke some where in there) could be out of there by 7:45. Now with electronic charting, it would be nearly 9pm. Electronic charting has slowed things down a lot. It take a lot more time to do the job that used to be done on paper. It's mainly due to shitty software design.
Though, really, the problem isn't meetings -- it's managers who don't know how to use meetings appropriately or run them effectively.
If only a small subset of managers abused meetings or the abuse was overwhelmingly minimal I'd agree. On the other hand, in a world where 90% of drivers are severe epileptics off their meds, cars are a problem.
Not the developers. They only churn out what they are told to churn out. It's the project managers and management that should be hung by the yard arm. They are the ones that ignore the SDLC (systems development life cycle) or cherry pick the end users to get the results they want.
HA! Military meetings take the stupid to a whole....nuther...level! They used to be pretty simple! Put up a few hand-written/drawn slides for the projector, and put out your information. The boss-man says "got it. Next slide!" Just the facts, ma'm. Flash ahead to the video/Power Point world if you dare! Now holy shit, it takes a hour just to decide what font to use, what music to use, etc.etc.etc. And this is when I retired in 2006. My unit has meeting REHEARSALS! Yes, they had a pre-meeting just to make sure nobody would look bad at the real meeting. I can't even IMAGINE the midnight oil burned and man hours wasted on getting the perfect presentation these days.
