Living in the movie Office Space

I joined the Navy for a lot of reasons. They paid for my college, it was assured work, I would get to see the world. Most of the time, being in the Navy is a super exciting, thought provoking, never a dull moment job. But, there are times when the mind numbing tedium starts to get to me.

Now, I don't know if this occurs at all jobs, but sometimes, it seems that some folks at the Navy get really wrapped up in the packaging and not the product. I understand that the senior folks need a good, standard package so that they can process them quickly. I get that. I get that these people are busy and that we need to package a lot of information into a brief time. But, man alive, sometimes, it's just too much to take. For example, today I worked on a routing cover sheet. ALL DAY. Multiple revisions on the cover sheet. The inside of the package didn't get as much attention as the outside. It was the TPS report from Office Space.

Like I said, I understand the reasoning. That doesn't mean that I have to like it. I get so frustrated because if something on the inside is so important, why are we worried about the outside so much that it literally takes days to get it through the chain. Waiting in line outside various offices for indeterminate amounts of time, only to get sent back to the computer to make a couple of word changes drives me nuts.

I understand that staff work is different. We work on programs and instructions rather than driving ships. I know that the work we do is important and that we are affecting the fleet, but my gosh, somedays, it almost makes me miss being at sea. (Wait, did I really just say that?)