it has beenn pointed out to me that the Australian Defence Association has put quite the literary treasure online with “Major Furphy – Musings by the sometime Staff Officer to Air Marshal Barney Stoush, the Vice Chief of the Defence Force.
Hidden in the satire are some quite telling observations on the public service in general, and Defence in particular. Here’s one of the many gems:
Another tradition regularly exercised in the Department of Defence – massive re-organisation – is occurring again, albeit a bit late from the biennial norm. The particular bureaucratic beauty of this one is that it manages to cancel out most of the bits of the last two re-orgs rather than just the usual last one.
This will add renewed spice to one of the highly competitive games played among Russell Hill’s personal staff officers to the great and good: find the most silly job title in the Defence bureaucracy. I thought I had this month’s match won with ‘Corporate Identity & Popular Culture Co-ordinator’ (R8-LG-060) but it was not to be. I was trumped completely by the Flag Lieutenant to Chief of Navy with ‘Assistant Director Green Buildings’ (BP3-2-B089). I should add that to play the game you have to record the physical location of the incumbent to prevent competitors just inventing sillier job titles than the real ones – if that were indeed possible.
Loading ...
