The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-06-10
BY PETER EDISON
Monitor-leoder Washington
Covvesnondont


tuned over to an anonymous
guest contributor to give you
an intimate picture Of what q
government hockworker thinks
about his job and just how
much confusion there really is
in wartime Washington. A re-
porter could write on this sub
jet all week and not do as
devastating q job as the un-
known and unsune scribe.
This is one Of those reveal
ing manuscripts which appears
every so often in big offices.
A second string bureoucrot
sits down at his typewriter and
pecks out q screed TO make il
appear that he is working. He
posses his work TO the fellow
at the next desk, who thinks
it's wonderful and makes six
copies, which he distributes to
friends. The chain letter men,
toIity swings into full oction
then, and the result is q piece
such as following revelotory
document which has been 90
ing the rounds Of the govern
ment departments:
The Guide to Administrative
Work or III Contact Joe on
That.
TO do administrative work
in the Government ct Wash
ineton, all you need is an Of
flee, q desk with two wooden
boxes and three buzzers on it,
and q secretary in the next
room. AS soon os you have
gotten seated ct your desk in
the office, three huge porters
appear to move two strangers
in with you, and you sit around
awhile and silently hate each
other.
"FinolIy they get your tele-
phone connected. BY this time
you have learned your secre-
tory's name. They have chang
ed the number on your office
door. So you get into another
office by mistoke when you
come back from lunch and you
work there several days before
you discover it isn't yours.
Eventually you get back
into your original office. BY
this time you have q new sec
rotary with O name that sounds
like Zrrshvtt, and you ore now
ready to go to-work, which
leads you to glance at the two
boxes on your desk. People
come into the office periodi-
colIy and put popers into one
Of the boxes. 1t is your job to
get them out Of that box and
into the other one, whence
they will go to someone else.
DESIGN FOR WORKING
Put the junk in two piles
on top. Of your desk. Try each
day to get most Of it changed
over from one pile to the 9TH
er; then you can go home.
Next day get most Of the stuff
back into the other pile, drib-
bling some into the outgoing
box. Be sure to check your
name off the list or they'll
bring it back TO you. BY this
time O new accumulation will
be found in the incoming box.
I'm time the piles get so
high you decide to report sick
and stay home q few dogs,
hoping O lot Of the Junk will
somehow vanish during your
absence. 1t won't. When you
come back the pile is two feet
high, you have O new secre-
tory, the position Of your buzz
er buttons is different, your
telephone number hos been
changed, three more desks
have been moved into your Of
flee, and your name is no long,
er on the door. There is q note
on your desk, addressed to Joe.
1t reods, ITS on my desk, but
| haven't had q chance to read
it yet. I'm swomped.
"You open your desk drow-
er and O squirrel hops out. The
place where your building is
wos q park six weeks ego. At
this point there is nothing you
con do but hold O conference.
"a conference is q slightly
organized method Of wasting
time. HobituoI conferees have
unhappy home lives and would
rather sit in the office and jaw
each other there than 90 home
and be lowed. During the ov-