Wouldn’t it be nice if things just worked?
 
Is it just me or does anyone else find that things in general never seem to just work? Is it just me who feels that everything seems to be hard work? I’m not meaning that I’m lazy, but some things really don’t need to be such hard work, some things you just don’t need to make a meal of. I suppose it can't be only me that thinks this because there was recently a car ad that said 'Isn't it good when things just work' and also I saw a video of Seth Godin who did a lecture he called ‘It’s broken’, which explains very similar situations to what I’m saying here.
 
I’m talking about everything here. In our case, we buy a lot of equipment for our band and sometimes things just don’t work.  For instance we bought an item just recently and all it had to do was work. Plug in and owrk. Instead, 2 long days deciphering the incredibly complex manual, followed by a day of finding out the manual is a total work of useless fiction ensued. It works now, and it’s fantastic, but for Christ’s sake!

We’ve got a washing machine and it washes, but all our clothes come out with bits of fluff on them, so I have to spend time pulling them off with bit’s of tape. Buses (in London) won’t take money anymore (probably, because some of the drivers are incapable of counting). They’re always late and when they’re late they make everyone get off the bus until the next one comes, because it’s late! (?) We seem to have to 'mend' an awful lot due to things that have happened because it wasn't done right in the first place.
 
You can’t just phone up a company and talk to someone if you have a problem you have to go through a number of stupid automatic systems, mostly of which, don’t seem to work and all of which cost you a fortune, just to get through the bloody things! And then when you get through to someone they can’t answer your question because ‘computer says no!’
 
Then there are procedures! Who came up with this wonderful idea? Most procedures I come across are just there because, somebody needs to find themselves something to do or because somebody gets off on creating them. Mostly, there’s no need for them. It wastes everybody’s time in most cases and it often wastes money. It’s all red tape, just for the sake of creating red tape. Some people just can’t live without it, but it always seems to hinder things. I understand that there are certain jobs where it is important to have certain procedures in place, but most companies just go too far with it.
 
In many companies now (I’m speaking of my experience now with a number of companies I have worked for) we have certain departments. I won’t mention which departments I’m talking about, but most of us who have worked for a few different companies will know what I’m talking about. These particular offending departments, love procedure and seemingly love to cock everything up. And yet for all the procedures and little bits and bobs they put in place to make them look professional and like a real company NOTHING WORKS! The equipment doesn’t work, the procedures don’t work, the systems don’t work. Everything in this country at the moment just seems to be a bit, if not a lot like crap! If the bankers are anything like the people in some of these departments, no bloody wonder we’re in a recession.
 
I could go on and on all day with the problems that we seem to make for ourselves these days that really don’t need to be a problem.  But I’m not going to, because I have to go and solve some of those very problems I've been speaking of.