This is a bit near the truth?

[cee-dee]

This was supposed to be a joke but..... doesn't it sound a bit familiar?

A Japanese company and a British company  decided to have a canoe race on the River Thames. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The British, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the British team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, British management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated again, the British management sacked the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to China.

[023mjc]

Oh yes,  that sounds sooooooooo familiar.   I wonder if that's the company I used to work for.

[Anonymous]

[theelench]

Yes we live in a bureaucratic state where one group of non-productive pen-pushers invent rules and then more pen-pushers are employed to enforce and quantify the results.

Where I live we have 3 town councils, a district council above that and a county council above that.  All bleeding the population dry with taxes and various charges for inadequate services.

My mother has dementia.  She has had six assessments despite there being nothing that can be done for her condition.  A seventh was recently proposed, which I refused to attend as they distress her.

So much money is being wasted on assessments that the only help she can get she has to pay for as there is no money to fund free NHS care.

I live in a leasehold flat (ex local authority)  the biggest item on my bill every year is admin.  Yet We have an ongoing (9 year) battle with the council to get the bins emptied regularly.

There's always money for the CEOs remuneration package but never enough for carers or road sweepers (this town has two road sweepers the others were victims of cuts).

[fallen-archie]

During a recent hospital stay I was in a side ward with just four people on it. One of them had severe breathing difficulties and had previously had a stroke. He had limited mobility in fact he could not move at all without two people to assist him yet he was accompanied day and night by two prison staff who spent there time watching horse racing on their mobile devices. Just along the corridor were two more doing a similar task. Given the nature of the crime committed by this individual I can only assume that they were there to prevent another sick patient from smothering him with a pillow not that anyone was well or strong enough to do it! But the point is that once again we have excessive use of resource which we pay for in order to resolve a problem, we are so good at it and never seem to learn.

[cee-dee]

Well goodness me, I seem to have posted something yet again which has attracted all these views but only a few posts?

[fallen-archie]

I don't trust these viewing figures, I mean apart from the ten or so regulars who the heck is interested in what is said on here. Unless of course they are people no longer able to access the site in order to post and my goodness there are plenty of them😇

[cee-dee]

It just puzzles me as to why so people look but don't post.

I realise that a small number of "controversial" characters used to manipulate the viewing figures...... but they're no longer around now so I think the viewing figures are pretty accurate.

[fallen-archie]

You can view even if you are sanctioned so I still believe that some do like to keep abreast of things. I just wish we could come up with a few more things to attract new blood. Facebook seems to have taken over and it brings with it many of the idiots that once occupied these pages and tbh that's the best place for them.

[jd.linklater]

If people view but don't post anything in reply, doesn't it just imply that they aren't interested enough in the post to have an opinion either way? That's how I would interpret it. It doesn't only happen with your posts, why take it so personally?

eg the Black Friday Shopping Madness thread has 76 views and no posts. I looked at it but thought it was too stupid to warrant a reply. Lots of people obviously thought the same.

[cee-dee]

I'm not "taking it personally". The idea behind my posting threads is to try to encourage a bit of posting, but the puzzle remains, that is, if there's only a handful of people who actually post here, who the heck are the other viewers and why don't they post?

[jd.linklater]

I have no idea, have you thought about asking Stephen Fry?

[cee-dee]

No, it's be as much of a waste of time as asking you?

[jd.linklater]

Stephen Hawking? Clutching at straws here.

[cee-dee]

[mr_mansfield_cooling]

You forgot to mention the crazy health & safety rigmarole.

[fallen-archie]

Now there's a word I haven't seen used for a long time, Rigmarole🤓Is it common to Mansfield and what does it actually mean?
I know my mother used it a lot when she was alive but it is ages since I heard it and the first time I have seen it written. Answers on a postcard please to Fallen-Archie C/O the local nut house👀😃

[mr_mansfield_cooling]

You here it occasionally now but it's old fashioned.
Britches is another one, meaning trousers.


In the middle ages Rageman or Ragman referred to a game in which a player randomly selected a string attached to a roll of verses and read the selected verse. The roll was called a Ragman roll after a fictional king purported to be the author of the verses. By the 16th century, ragman and ragman roll were being used figuratively to mean "a list or catalog." Both terms fell out of written use, but ragman roll persisted in speech, and in the 18th century it resurfaced in writing as rigmarole, with the meaning "a succession of confused, meaningless, or foolish statements." In the mid-19th century rigmarole (also spelled rigamarole, reflecting its common pronunciation) acquired its most recent sense, "a complex and ritualistic procedure."

[fallen-archie]

They say you learn something every day and today that's true for me! Thanks for taking the time to explain it👍.

[jd.linklater]

One of the streets in town  is known locally as Rigmarole Road, probably because it's such a 'complex and ritualistic procedure' to try and drive down it avoiding potholes and parked cars.