Is it any wonder that I find this mentality….lacking? No one who knows me is surprised, I’m sure. I hate everything, I’m told.

What is the world, though, when the completion of tasks is more important than the task’s purpose? As usual, I can’t help but ask, “why?” Naturally, this goes over like a lead balloon in the harried, “efficiency-driven”-yet-woefully-inefficient corporate bureaucracy that is my workplace. Where the motto is “I need it yesterday no matter how impossible and no matter how completely I botched the process before handing it off to you.”

As new crises and “challenges” trickle into my inbox, I’m struck with a deep-seeded need to find the root problem. I can’t help but stare into the mountains of miscalculations that led to the inevitable crisis we now face and ask why those errors were made. I can’t help but suggest ways to avoid those errors. And yet, I’m faced with “git ‘er done.” There is never time to address the root cause, because we are so harried with a need to resolve the issues caused by the root cause. It’s frustrating, is all.

It’s like Superman arriving upon a disaster scene and being told to work crowd control. “Or I could make the earth spin backwards and prevent this disaster from ever happening.”

“…just make sure these folks don’t go under the tape, hot shot!”

Would a little introspection be remiss in the modern world? Would it hurt if, instead of asking what we are going to do, we instead asked why we are doing what we do? To what end? For what purpose? And for what need? Albert Einstein said that “bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.” It’s possibly true for a creative process, but I can’t help but think an efficient bureaucracy is the last defense against the failings of any non-creative process necessarily involving humans.  And efficiency is achieved, not by doing without question in order to “git ‘er done,” but by evaluating each action for it’s value before acting.

Unfortunately, my bosses don’t agree.

                          

Anyhoo, it’s a new and innovative product from our friends at LYSOL®! I couldn’t find the exact ad, but here’s a similar one for the same product:

Cool! You know, I’m as worried about germs as the next guy. I probably wash my hands 8-10 times a day! I’m downright compulsive about it! And, hey howdy, do they ever raise a good point! I never considered how many filthy, disgusting hands might be pressing down on my soap dispenser! Seriously, when do people push on a soap dispenser? Right after…..you know! And also after…EEEW! I mean…you could be getting some NASTY stuff on your hands every time you go to…wash…uh…wash your…

HEY!!!

Yep…dumbest product EVER.

                          

Well, they are now taking portions of their hour and a half-long podcasts and uploading them to YouTube along with some visual aids. So far there is only one video, but it’s a great start. Check out their YouTube video after the break…

Anyway, be sure to check out their YouTube page, their website, and if you enjoy their stuff, I definitely recommend subscribing to the full podcast on iTunes!

The SGU is a weekly podacst hosted by Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist and professor at Yale. It’s produced in association with the James Randi Educational Foundation, the New England Skeptic Society, and Skepchick.org.