Being of an artistic bent (stop it), I've been useful over the years to quite a number of people. "Gordon, my boss/manager/teacher/pastor has put me in charge of organising the advertising/posters/illustrations/publicity for our upcoming jumble sale/Christmas party/school reunion/rally and I thought of you. Could you help me out by doing me a banner/cartoon/diagram/map to help raise people's awareness/interest/curiosity/attendance?" Then they call up another poor schmuck to talk them into doing some other aspect of the task assigned to them, while they sit back and take the credit for the fruits of other people's labour.
This chain of events usually operates in descending order, with one person being assigned the task, who then asks someone else to arrange it all, who then asks someone else for help in some area of said task, who then asks various other people to do the actual work. Too many middle-men in my opinion. The person who initiates the process should earn their wage by making themselves aware of exactly who can do the job required and contact them directly. Then all the useless people whose only area of expertise is knowing someone else capable of doing their work for them could be eliminated from a needlessly long process.
This chain of events usually operates in descending order, with one person being assigned the task, who then asks someone else to arrange it all, who then asks someone else for help in some area of said task, who then asks various other people to do the actual work. Too many middle-men in my opinion. The person who initiates the process should earn their wage by making themselves aware of exactly who can do the job required and contact them directly. Then all the useless people whose only area of expertise is knowing someone else capable of doing their work for them could be eliminated from a needlessly long process.
Someone I know who works for a design/ad agency was once tasked with thinking up a name for an in-house magazine for one of their customers and asked me for ideas. I thought for all of two minutes before coming up with one that the person was delighted with. I was told later that the customer was also delighted, and no doubt lots of cash changed hands. I never saw a penny and received nary a thanks, yet was given the distinct impression that I should regard my invitation to 'participate' as being accorded a great honour.
Local government seems to operate on this principle. Just think of the dosh we would save taxpayers if we could eliminate all the pointless levels of bureaucracy whose only purpose in the overall scheme of things is to get other people to do the job that they can't do themselves. It's the old, old story, I fear - 'too many Chiefs and not enough Indians'. Got any examples of such instances that you'd care to share? The comments section awaits.
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