Did you ever sit back and say WTF? I trust I do not have to define WTF because it is an acronym for a common expletive.
I am referring to situations that occur in life, when a series of events in your life begin to make no sense at all so you are driven to to say WTF? Now these events can be spontaneous happenings that when they occur in rather immediate succession, you want to say WTF? Largely, this response is because you are taken aback at how so many goofy events can stack up in a row, in rapid succession.
But the events that drive you to say WTF can be driven by the actions of other human beings. I would say that the majority of WTF situations are directly caused by human beings and are not spontaneous in any way or are matters of any happenstance.
Now, anyone who has had the "pleasure" of reading any of my drivel, would be well aware of my disdain for human stupidity (among other things that drive me crazy).
My latest WTF moment occurred this week at my work. Yes, it was human borne! Oh, and it also was the edicts of the "management" of the organization. So, let me tell you about it. Please.
Now, without going into detail which would serve no purpose, suffice it to say that my work involves people who apply for benefits. There are several different "categories" that the applications fall into. They are received in a rather constant manner, depending upon such idiosyncrasies as the time of the month and the time of the year. For some reason, we receive a boom of claims near the end of the month (actually, I know the reason but it is not necessary for this discussion). So, the number of applications received are reasonably predictable. Today's economy has driven that number up a little.
My logic says that if you have applications coming in the door at a relatively constant rate, and you have a certain number of people to process those claims and get them out the door, you can predict how many claims will be completed over a period of time. Wow, it's a thing called "capacity" to handle claims. If you do not have enough capacity to handle the influx of claims you have two choices, you can add more individuals to process claims, thus increasing your capacity, or you can accept the fact that your backlog of claims will be increasing. I suppose you could limit the claims you will accept but that would be nonsense, because people who are eligible to apply for benefits are entitled to do so.
So, what made me say WTF this week? I'm glad you asked? You didn't? I'll tell you anyway.
Our management team is very "reactive" rather than "proactive." This means they react to situations and move accordingly. They do not plan for production; they react to numbers of claims in any particular category. They are concerned at how the station will appear to the central office when they view the numbers of pending claims. Thus, they are constantly changing they type of claims they want us to concentrate on. THEY CHANGED THAT EMPHASIS EVERY DAY THIS PAST WEEK! They are dancing around like marionettes on a string! Thus, everyone processing claims are dancing like marionettes. WTF? Cooler heads need to prevail. By the end of the week I decided I need to concentrate my energy on those things that reflect directly on myself first and then I will work on their goals. I refuse to be a marionette!
