False Economies

Pointless Bureaucracy Journal

Okay, so one of the "perks" of my job is that I'm attached to an SLA that supports a lot of the uni's clerical staff. This is basically the textbook definition of public service cubicle monkey.

I went up there to roll over an ANCIENT computer. Standard policy is just to roll over the computer itself, leave all other peripherals the same. This old machine we're taking had a PS2 keyboard. Yeah, old school. So we needed to find a USB keyboard. We don't have any spares in our stores, so we scrounged and stole a keyboard off an old PowerMac G4. Obviously, Mac keyboard + windows machine doesn't appeal, and thus begins a discussion on supplying a keyboard.

Seriously, we had a 30 minute "discussion", involving 1 IT and 3 bureaucrats about getting a USB keyboard, whether IT took a previous USB keyboard that should've been there, if there were any spare USB keyboards in the department, roaming around and searching... All because they didn't want to buy one.

Let's think about this. Just MY hourly wage for 30 minutes would buy a keyboard and still leave change for lunch. Now put in the salaries of everyone else. Suddenly we're talking Optimus Maximus keyboard ranges, seriously.

Focus on the big picture people ... fiscal efficiency is NOT acheieved with keyboards, forms and cheap teabags.