[NOTE: Chopped off the tail end of the previous post for brevity]After the big 'post-9/11' re-org crested the Dept of HomeLand Security (couldn't they come up something better than that?) the USA wound up w/, as part of DHS, 'Customs & Border Protection' (which includes the 'Border Patrol') and 'Immigration & Customs Enforcement'.Sure sounds like there's going to be an overlap there doesn't it?Even back in the old, pre re-org, days, when crossing into the US from Mexico, usually no ID requested, you had to take sort of a 'pot luck' chance on who you were going to get, if on foot (if in a vehicle, you always got a US Customs agent.There would be, all w/ differing uni's (the new CBP still has different uni's, green vs blue, for BP agents vs Customs agents), Immigration agents, Customs agents, & BP agents assigned to desk duty for some reason or another.The easiest was Immigation. They seemed to be primarily concerned with citizenship.The toughest were the BP guys. I had some long dialogs with some of them that, one time, I feared would end w/ me getting thrown back into Mexico!One time everyone was switching into other lines to avoid the BP agent &, when he noticed that the other lines were moving so much faster, he actually stopped his line so that he could go talk to all the other agents & then, sure enough, all the lines slowed down.However, the easiest time I ever had was with, paradoxically, a BP agent!In retrospect, I think he must've been waiting to be terminated or something cuz' he just sat on a stool, instead of standing, at the counter, w/ his head resting on one hand, just waving everyone thru w/ the other hand!Ah yes, the good old days. When the family went down when I was young we would always drive across the border. The Mexican agents never did anything but glance at us. My brother & I loved it cuz' we would load up on an enormous amount of cheap fireworks which we would, unbeknownst to our parents, stuff into every nook and cranny of the family station wagon. If dogs had been in use been in use back then I'm sure the old 'wagon would've smelled just like a carbomb!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.On Wednesday, October 14, 2020, 07:27:08 PM MST, xxxxxx@gmail.com <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 9:53 PM Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:Well that depends on your definition of "insanity".I'm sure that someone could pick apart your fav admin config & declare it 'insane' for some reason or another.Judging from the folks I've talked to over the years, in both public & private employ, I've long ago ceased to be surprised to hear about instances of 'insanity' in any org.I think the sweet spot can be anywhere between 50 and 100 employees. After that, you're into no longer privately held companies and then you have insanity. You might stretch it to 200, but not much further.When one of the IT firms I worked for got bought, they wanted to have everyone feel involved (they bought several other IT firms across the country at the same time roughly - all had different process, clients, business focus, etc). To help this, they kept sending out stuff like "Person X who formerly held position Y has now changed to being in charge of group Z. Person Q has been placed in an 'acting' role in position X until a final decision on a replacement is completed."The problem was we didn't know where this position was (location organizationally or where in the country), we had no idea what business group they were in, we had no idea what they did beforehand, or afterwards, and the names were unfamiliar to all of us. They kept hitting us with these until everyone I knew (including middle managers) just stopped paying any attention to anything HQ sent because they figured it was a waste of time.It seems to me that once any org gets big enough, you can *always* find someone judging it to be 'insane' in one way or another.And that 'someone' could be either internal or external.And that includes me, btw.Well, if a government has a law and their own civil service is trying to cheat that law, then they are effectively committing a crime of some sort. That's something that you really don't want ever to get out and you don't want a court case to bring it public attention... so that would be an insanity in my books.Heck, I was still a part-timer when I personally made my first "That's insane!" observation.With big companies, it doesn't take too long.What I've observed is when governments (elected) get into power, they start to dictate things related to their agenda to their civil service. Fair enough, except that half the time the people pushing an agenda have promised things that violate laws, violate collective bargaining agreements, violate privacy or equity standards and processes, and in some cases they also fail to recognize international treaties we've signed that pertain. The politician wants his project to go ahead because he told his voters he'd do it when he got there and damn the torpedoes.One other example:
Customs / Immigration is on dept and Border Services is another. At one point, one department's minister was pushing a change that the other minister indicated was not going to stand the first court challenge, their lawyer seconded, and the originating department's lawyer said as much. But an ego and a commitment was at stake, so it got pushed a long way costing hundreds of thousands in the long run.One of our recent national governments (PM Stephen Harper) pushed any number of bits of legislation or repeals of same which brought Supreme Court cases... and I think they lost well over 90% of them costing taxpayers a stupid aggregate amount of money. Why? Not because their civil service briefers didn't tell the PM and his Ministers that this was the sure outcome.... but because even if they failed, they could say to their vote base they did everything they could (without mentioning costing taxpayers millions).Insanity.Big entities (gov't and civ and mil) tend to be siloed and any time they try to execute (in one brilliant push) to transform their IT in some major way, it is inevitably a fluster cluck. They rarely do small pilots, they rarely account for the massive number of departments with different processes and even contracts, and they sometimes even turn down the original system and get the hardware removed in order to ensure no going back.... even though it turns out the new system is a raging mess. We've been dealing with one of these for maybe 6 years now from IBM - our national pay system for all federal civil servants.And this was predictable.So was the mess with our long gun registry. Same sort of stupid approach.There's an impetus for leaders who are only around for a year or three and then hope to move up to show a great success so all great attempts must fit within about a two year execution window. No big project for a large enterprise of any sort happens that fast from idea to delivered and working product.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ACCELLERATED IMPLEMENTATION!Out w/ the old, in w/ the new!Anything 'new' is way, way better than anything 'old', don'tcha' know?We executed a plan like that to encompass all mods related to Y2K & also anything else that was pending.Total makeover, hardware, software, dept reorg, etc, etc.Caused a mess that went on & on for years & years.In fact, one of my, 'other' duties became sorting thru & trying to untangle the mess.It was still ongoing when I left, & w/i two years, the two admins primarily responsible for the mess also left!====================================================================================And, of course, it was TOTALLY INSANE for them to push me into retirement!That happens a lot too.p.s. no one who's 'internal' likes the idea of having to compete with 'externals' when a better (better=higher paying) job slot opens up but, in the course of my life, that seems to be the trend.Agreed, but at least up here, it guts morale.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Down here it does too, for sure!=============================================The AA/EEO people really love it & really push for it.^^^^^^^^(AffirmativeAction/EqualEmploymentOpportunity & here in the USA, once any org gets large enough it will have an AA/EEO dept monitoring all hiring & firing of "protected classes" of people. BTW, said people comprise somewhere around 2/3 of all people & the % is always increasing. The guy who was my direct boss for over 20 years, & who was in a 'protected' class himself, was always complaining about the extra paperwork he had to produce for the AA/EEO people.)The problem with any similar systems (and unions to an extent, though I understand the need for them to counterbalance massive corporate powers): When they start out, they are addressing a problem and they push hard and maybe 80% of the major issues get dealt with. But after that, they become an entity that must generate further initiatives in order to maintain their funding so.... then things start to go off the rails.It's like my dad working in a prison teaching small engine repair. Prison rules meant workshops had ONE set of tools and they had to be accounted for after each day. Sometimes they break. Dad went into stores, found 8 or 10 sets of everything. He asked about that - turned out if you didn't spend all your budget, it was assumed you didn't need the extra in coming years so they cut it (so when you need it, you could well not get it!). So they always bought new stuff even beyond needs just to keep their budget allocation.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Common in the public sector world.Every summer, as the FY end approached, the dept Director would go around making sure that everyone's budget was fully 'committed'.======================================================================================Insanity.I have NEVER been drawn to Megacorps or the Bureaucrat career. I don't even know why the latter is a Traveller staple when many other cooler ones weren't (like bounty hunters) for a long time.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Me too.Took one look at those, thought "Oh my, how BORING!" & moved on.=========================================================-----
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