Around ‘n’ Around We Go

Overhearing a phone conversation or two is one of the ‘occupational hazards’ of working in an open plan office environment. I work in an area of business where there are many processes, systems, forms... officialdom in a word. Officialdom with a smile!

One phone conversation I couldn’t help overhearing was an interesting one. It involved an advisor who does a similar job to me. They were playing a game of ‘chase your tail’ with an antsy regulator and it was almost comical.

(Bureaucracy... it’s enough to send this particular Myers-Briggs ENFP crazy!)

I couldn’t help thinking that the advisor in question was either unaware of the run around they were getting, or they were exceedingly patient--it could even have been a combination of these two and other reasons. I was taken, however, with their approach.

I got to thinking, with some people we never really get anywhere; it’s as if the primary goal of life for some people is to make it tough for others. Are these people proving difficult for a reason? Have they been asked to make it hard? Or is there something occurring at a personal level that requires reconciliation?

But I also have to concede, bureaucracy has its purposes too. Without it we’d come crashing to disaster at some point not having foreseen potentially cataclysmic events, particularly related with protocol, security and ‘political correctness.’ (The true intent of PC is love and care for others; it just tends to get pedantic from time to time--and it always will as we inevitably bridge (at times) the legalistic tension.)

So, how do we fix it? We endure it. Perhaps the Serenity Prayer points us also to a method that would work. God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change... the courage to change the things I can... and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

Around ‘n’ around we go... where we stop... nobody knows.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.