What do stacks of shoes and building permits have in common?

It was the summer of 1989. I had just finished my freshman year at Boston College, and was determined to get a job quickly so that I could maximize income over the summer to have spending money for my sophomore year. I followed the "path of least resistance". Instead of doing a quick job search to find the best fit, I followed a friend who had done the quick job search and got a "temp" job at a shoe factory in a neighboring town. It's interesting to me that I'm even writing about the job. You see, I worked there for less than a week. I was one of a select few people who were temporary workers there. We were the summer help, the additional labor. Most of the folks who worked there held the jobs as full-time jobs. Many of them smoked, taking advantage of the "smoke'em if you got'em" breaks many factories offer.

Anyhow, my tenure there was short. Aside from the boring nature of the job, organizing and stacking shoe boxes, styles and sizes, I ended up getting an offer for another temporary job at a records management company. It was another "path of least resistance opportunity" through my brother's job. But prior to leaving, I got a lesson from some of the full-time workers there.

It was my first day, and the floor supervisor asked me to stack shoe boxes by style and size. They were in a misfit pile of enormous size. At first glance, I would have never imagined that I'd be able to do it in a day, let alone less than a day. However after diving in and getting started, the job of organizing this pile was actually quite simple. Separate by style first, then organize each style by size. And although the original pile was gigantic, shoe boxes by themselves are pretty large, so putting a dent into the pile was rather rapid. Anyhow, I finished before lunch. I searched around for the floor supervisor, looking everywhere for him. I asked people who were doing similar exercises as I was asked to do, and they had no idea where he was. I kept looking. Guiltily, I didn't want to stand idle, so I kept looking. I finally found him, and he told me he'd meet me by my station just after lunch. So, he met me there. He was a bit surprised I had finished, and assigned me to another task for the afternoon.

Then, it happened. I was "greeted" by some of the full-time resources. They were none too pleased that I had finished my task in the a.m., letting me know that next time, it should take me a couple of days. And they weren't giving me an "estimate". They were telling me how long it should take. It was most definitely a threat. At the age of 19, this was the first time I encountered job protectionism, people fabricating how much effort was required to complete work in order to justify their position. If everyone was as efficient as I was that morning, they'd need fewer workers, and some might lose their jobs. Of course, if the company had excess bandwidth, maybe they wouldn't fire people. Maybe they'd make more shoes, have more supply and prices would be reduced for consumers. Then again, these guys didn't think that way. And so, feeling as though my efforts to streamline, improve and complete tasks were underappreciated, I moved on and left the factory behind.

This past week, I had the privilege of experiencing this phenomenon again. Although construction is way down in Chicago, the Building Department has actually gotten slower in their ability to produce permits. Major jobs (including my own) sit on hold while "project managers" reviewing the applications intentionally delay the completion of the review so their desks may appear busy. You see, if they finished their reviews as soon as possible, they would have no backlog. And if they have no backlog, they fear that they may get let go. So, my permit sat for 35 calendar days in "final" review status. The remaining task? Check a box and print the permit. That's it. And so, I went into City Hall, spoke to a manager, who had someone check the box and print the permit. I have my permit now. And my tax dollars continue to pay for the Building Department's project managers to sit idle.

Makes me want to put on a new pair of shoes.