Duck you!

We want to upgrade one of our seasonal employees from Laborer I to Laborer II. It will result in a minor increase in pay but no increase in duties or responsibility. We found out that we no longer may fill out a simple Payroll Action Form and have it done. We must funnel the request through our client and the departmental human resources to the client's human resources. Then they will post an announcement for the new job. The employee must complete an entirely new application, even though we brought him on just three months ago, because it is a new position. Then we have to complete the hiring process just as if it were for a full-time job with more than one applicant (i.e. interviews and justification for hiring one person rather than another). I suspect this process should be complete in a month.

I got a call from one of the crew supervisors, asking me to submit a work order to weld a bracket onto the irrigation trencher. I phoned Sub to make sure this was okay, since we are nearing the end of the fiscal year and must be very careful with our expenses. Sub said this is a trencher we have rented. I told him we can't fix it ourselves because it isn't ours; we must return it to the rental agency and be charged for its repair. (Am I right on this?) Sub told me to show him where it says we can't perform the repair. I told him it is common sense because it isn't our property. (Darn, there I go, thinking again!) Sub then asked what needed to be welded because, if it's what he considers minor and inexpensive, he wants it done, and then we can charge the project for the repair, regardless of who owns the trencher. Sub also asked me to ask the supervisor what the welder's estimate is. I phoned the supervisor, who said he would have to phone the employee operating the trencher, who would have to phone the welder. (Yes, Sub could have phoned the welder himself, but Sub delegates everything, no matter how insignificant and easy.)

It struck me that neither of these tasks should be as complicated as they have turned out to be. It brings to mind a quote from Plucky Duck in the "Kon Ducky" episode of Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures. "Nothing simple is ever easy."