T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
Paperwork and procedures create work for some people, and
are therefore valuable to those people. They see and will always
see the importance of completing all the paperwork, and of fol-
lowing the procedures. That’s the way it’s been done, possibly for
years or even generations.
The general trend to digitize documents so they can be stored
and accessed is slowly overcoming the death grip of the paper
bureaucracy, but these folks are not going down without a fight.
If you find yourself engaged in completing, filing, sorting,
searching for, or trying to find room for paperwork that serves no
purpose other than providing work for someone else, then perhaps
you should seek an alternative. If you follow procedures and fill
out forms that are destined to be sent to a morgue where they will
never again see the light of day, you have an obligation to try to
change the procedures that are wasting your time.
Are a couple of unnecessary forms and an extra step in filing
really worth the fight it takes to get rid of them? Depends on how
many people you have to fight and how hard you have to fight
them. But you do have the power to stem some of your daily work
flood. You don’t need status or tenure if you have common sense
and the voice of reason on your side. Couch your proposal in terms
of the good of the organization, to achieve the goals you and your
boss share, and you have a chance to succeed.
It is worth it. It’s worth questioning the need for any process
that requires your time and attention. Get rid of it now and you
draw the benefits every day from now on.
TWO mOre FOrmS OF UnneCeSS arY WOrK—BUSY WOrK
anD WOrK aVOiDanCe WOrK
In a lot of office settings bosses create busy work for subordinates
rather than have to face the prospect of figuring out something real for
them to do (or to endure watching them play computer solitaire).