Jay is taking a government class this year in school. Every once in a while, he brings up something that they're studying. About a week ago, he asked "What's a bureaucracy?" How I wish I didn't know the answer.
According to Webster's, the word bureaucracy has a couple of different definitions. My favorite is "a system of administration marked by red tape, officialism, and proliferation." But, when Jay asked the question, I tried to give him a simpler answer. I told him that a bureaucracy is an organization that has lots of rules and plenty of people who seem to be there only to remind you of those rules.
Ever since Jay asked me what a bureaucracy is, I feel like I've been stuck in the bowels of one. Perhaps it's because it's getting close to year-end, with performance reviews, budgets, and financial close-out's high on everyone's radar. In any event, I am not a happy camper. It seems like every other e-mail I get at work is asking me to fill out this form or that form, complete this grid or that grid, or remember to check this box or that box. I've had it.
Just now, I got two e-mails from an otherwise perfectly nice lady at work. She was asking me to do something that someone else had just asked me to do, only she wanted me to do it slightly differently. I'm sorry -- that's not happening.
After a couple of seconds of consideration, I decided to delete her two e-mails. In fact, I hit the delete key pretty darn hard when I deleted them. Now, I'm going to pretend that I never got them. Yes, I know from the examples of David Petraeus, Paula Broadwell, and Jill Kelley that deleting e-mails doesn't really make them go away. But, as long as the FBI doesn't come after me, maybe I can get away with it.
