Chocolate-box pretty! That was our garden when the cherry tree blossomed:
the symbol of summer finally arrived. Then last year – nada! Absolutely
nothing! We called our local garden guru to ask what could have happened, and
he explained that there had been a virus doing the rounds
and a number of cherry trees had just died off. Ours apparently was simply
another sad statistic.
He warned, however, that it would be under a tree-preservation order and
that we would need town council permission to cut it down. That’s right – we
need council permission to cut down and replace a dead tree!
Like good citizens we duly phoned the council to explain the position and request
permission and were told we had to make the request in writing. We eventually
got around to this about a year later when we realised it was almost
cherry-blossom time again! (Oh, how time flies!) This week, several weeks
later, we received the response in the mail.
So far, so good. But what do you think it said?
The tree-officer informed us
that:-
- They had received our request;
- Would get back to us to let us know the
decision; - That if we hadn’t heard back in 60 days we had
the right to appeal to the national tree council, who happen to be at the other
end of the country!
Bureaucracy gone mad; this, admittedly, has a funny side, but it is also
rather alarming! Here we are living in times of austerity, when local
government is desperately looking to cut costs. Nevertheless here you have our
Town Council having to type, address and mail out at least two letters for permission to
cut down a dead tree. You
would think we were living in the pre-telephone era!
Barely understandable for a living tree, this seems insane for one already dead!
You can only wonder how often such lunacy is replicated? Unfortunately there doesn’t
seem to be anyone who recognises the waste. What really makes it galling,
though, is that this is at a time when central government is trying to compel
local government to reduce costs, and local governments nationwide are responding
that the only way they can do so is by cutting services and making staff
redundant. This, inevitably, results in public servants threatening strike
action. Truly!
It’s enough to drive one nuts, if only the signs didn’t suggest that we are
already nuts.
Who needs an employee engagement survey to find out if employees are
engaged? Is it any wonder employees are disengaged, if they are required to spend
an hour to do a minutes work? It has become a chicken and egg scenario, but I
think you would agree it is pretty easy to figure out which came first in this
instance.
Before you judge, however, pause for a moment to ask yourself if you don’t
have anything like this in your organisation right now? This is by no means
unique. For example, I get two envelopes on the same day every month from my
bank: one with my statement, and the other with the current interest rates. It
would appear that no-one at the bank has the nous to think these could go in
the same envelope, and reduce their mailing costs by 50%!
Please think about it and submit your (anonymous) examples of the bleeding obvious being
overlooked in your organisation. And how human talent is being wasted, misused, and abused. Perhaps I could even compile them all into a
book: “You DO have to be mad to work here!”