A celebration of bureaucrats and bureaucracy. Whether in government, business, or non-profits, meetings, reports, meetings, conferences, reports, and meetings constitute daily life in a large organization.
Bureaucrats are renowned for their dedication and tireless, unheralded devotion. No twentieth-century bureaucratic better exemplifies such devotion than James Hampton. He was a low-level staffer with the U.S. General Services Administration from 1946 to 1964. Working evenings and weekends from 1950 to his death in 1964, he created what one art historian has called “America’s … Continue reading COB-20: bureaucrats' devotion
Being able to maintain a good sitting position is a core competency for bureaucrats. In the video below, a bureaucrat working in the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission demonstrates the challenges that a conscientious bureaucrat faces. Watch it carefully and learn! The bureaucrat begins with a lean-forward, braced note-taking position. The problem with such … Continue reading COB-19: sitting position
In our continual efforts to increase appreciation for bureaucratic arts, we visited the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The art was generally well-labeled and neatly organized. The most important work in the Gallery was a wood cabinet entitled Bureau of Bureaucracy. The Bureau of Bureaucracy was large and intricately crafted, and included … Continue reading COB-18: bureaucratic arts
This month at the Carnival of the Bureaucrats we honor a true bureaucratic hero, Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. The comically rational blog Overcoming Bias described well what Mr. Petrov did: On September 26th, 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov was the officer on duty when the warning system reported a US missile launch. Petrov kept calm, … Continue reading COB-17: honoring Petrov
Peter S. Magnusson recently noted that, worldwide, “for the first time in 10,000 years, farming is not the dominating industry.” More specifically, the International Labour Organization’s Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) shows that worldwide in 2006, employment in services has exceeded employment in agriculture. Employment in services, agriculture, and industry now account for … Continue reading COB-16: bureaucracy is more important than farming