I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to in the past few weeks about the amount of paperwork and extra things they seem to have to do at their jobs with each passing year. Maybe it’s that way across the board.

With the breakdown of society, the solid family unit becoming a thing of the past, and a general decline in many areas of our world, I feel as though the rest of us are called upon to pick up the slack. Do you know what I mean?

So many in our society aren’t pulling their weight any more.  There is an overall lack of attention to detail.  You have poor craftsmanship across the board.  You can buy a cheap pair of shoes and an expensive pair of shoes and they are both crap.

One of my friends has a senior staff member who he must answer to. Although everyone is encouraged in his business to take care of his or her own department, all the heads of departments have to report to the senior guy.

My friend said he used to write “war” reports: weekly activity reports. In those reports, he outlined with great detail all of the goings on in his department. He was to turn these reports in every week, even though they served little purpose. Still, he and the other heads of the departments dutifully filled out these reports and turned them in.

Over the years, he would be asked a question or there’d be some reference to his department in a comment or idea.

“Did you read my report this week?” This was a common question the boss was getting:  had he read the weekly reports, some of the questions and comments would have been unnecessary.

Then one day, it happened. He was in the office of the senior guy and was asked to come around to the back of his desk to look at something on his computer. As my friend walked around his bosses’ desk, he looked down at the floor.

There, in the “recycle bin,” was his weekly report. He had just handed it in, so there was no question his boss had read it. He wouldn’t have had the time.

My friend couldn’t resist.

“Is this the report I gave you this morning?”

His boss seemed tongue-tied, attempted to say he’d read it but realized he probably hadn’t had time. It was all very awkward and my friend’s suspicions had been verified. These reports weren’t getting read. A couple of weeks later, a memo went around that weekly reports would no longer be required of the department heads.

In my other conversations with folks from all walks of life and various occupations, many remarked that they were asked to do meaningless paperwork and spent a lot of time on non-productive work. The corporate world, the education world, folks in all professions feel this way.

I’m wondering how much of this paperwork is done just to make things “look” good. I’m wondering how many jobs might be eliminated if this paperwork were to be whittled down to only what was absolutely necessary. Did you ever wonder that?

Once upon a time, people were trusted to do their jobs, especially if they had been at it for a long time. It’s a shame that there are so many folks who take advantage or just simply don’t do their job. The rest of us, again, have to pick up the slack.

I think all people who start a job need to be watched and coached by a number of people for the first few years of their job. If they can’t cut the mustard, they are gone. We are certainly lacking in that area these days. Long ago, young folks apprenticed themselves to learn a trade, often training for several years.

Michelle and I recently saw “Sully.” It was a movie about the pilot who landed his plane in the middle of the Hudson River when his engines were disabled after taking off. He saved everyone on board, but the powers that be still questioned the heck out of him for the decision he made.

At one point, one of the superiors asked him what guidelines he used to decide between trying to head back to the airport and landing in the river.  The veteran pilot answered, “I used my gut feeling and my 40 years of experience as a pilot to make the decision I made, sir. I eye-balled it.”

Wow. If only most of us were trusted to do that these days. There would indeed be less paperwork and perhaps some of the powers that be wouldn’t be needed anymore.

It makes you wonder how much time we waste in our jobs today, doesn’t it?