For those of you who don't know, the federal government's fiscal year ends on September 30. There is always a bunch of dollars that have to be spent at the very last minute or the money will disappear at midnight. Typically, lots of folks spend long hours on the last couple of days leading up to the 30th.
Federal employees are paid by the hour and earn overtime, and I will have to be at work, probably until midnight, on September 30. Because I will be working overtime, I have to put in an advance request for the overtime hours, and they must be approved before I can work them. Today, I put together the overtime request AND cover letter for routing. I was routing the request to my commander. When I route something to my commander, it goes through a route or chain of command including 6 different people.
This afternoon, the overtime request was returned to me, because it needs a higher approval. I found out that the overtime request needs to be approved by the base leadership. WHAT THE HECK! That means that in addition to the chain of command described above, the request will now go through at least 6 more people, and I mean IMPORTANT people. Don't you think these people probably have more pressing matters to deal with? So, not less than 12 people actually have to sign that piece of paper...
This is a ridiculous example of inefficiency. Do you really think that all 12 people need to approve those hours? No.
I have 3 words: LEAN SIX SIGMA.
1 comment:
What kind of world are you living in?? I am going to work this weekend and haven't even put in an overtime request yet. Of course, technically I should have, but it doesn't really matter. And anyway, only my direct supervisor needs to sign it??? Paige talked to some people from HEC yesterday...why don't you guys move here???
Post a Comment