Bureaucracy at Work

Nothing like starting work for the behemoth that is the Federal Government. Even subsets of that behemoth can't seem to function with any degree of great efficiency - take, for example, the Department of the Army. I was all set to start work on this coming Monday - until late last week, at which point I had still not been contacted with an official job offer. So I let the people at my office know (because generally my office works like a well-oiled machine - most of the time, at least) and they pulled some levers and I wound up with a job offer. Except, it was an offer to hire me as an intern again.

So I sent an email back and said "no, I graduated. . . .it's time to hire me as a real employee." So the people at my office pulled a few more levers and Monday morning I got an email with a corrected job title offer. Which is great - except that I woke up this morning to find out that I might STILL have to wait to start work, because they had offered me a bonus and the bonus had to 'wait in line' for approval.

Well, then they called me this afternoon to let me know that everything had been approved. Which is sweet, because it means I won't have to work at decreased intern pay anymore - I get my full salary. But my start date of Monday is still up in the air, because they keep asking for more documents. I had to sprint over to Staples just a few minutes ago to send off a picture of me so they can be sure I'm not a terrorist or something.

It's all just very frustrating. . . .and I think that the only reason I feel that way is that I'm tired of not having anything to do all day. I mean, what do I do every day? I wake up. I eat breakfast and brush my teeth. I go on a no-joke bike ride with Alexander for excercise. I come home and eat lunch and complain about how sore my legs feel all afternoon. Then I go for my evening run, take a shower, play a video game and go to sleep. There's no substance, nothing getting accomplished. That's why I love going to work so much, I think - it's a no-nonsense, fast-paced job with a steep learning curve, and every time you finish a project you feel like you've done something vastly important for the country and sometimes even for the world.

I'm tired of being bored.