Why doesn't frugality get applied at work?

My job is partially funded by an annual, and AUTOMATIC federal grant supporting resource protection.  Fine.  But I think I killed 4 trees this weekend just in paperwork.  Last year we had to do a 3 page federal form and about a 5 page narrative.  This year it's 18 pages of forms plus extra requirements on the narrative.  The fed agency that distributes the funds has a magic formula they use to determine the amount of funding (based on the overall federal budget and what it gives that agency and how many offices around the US they need to support...the number of offices increases each year).  So, THEY TELL US how much we are getting.  Why not just send it?  We do an annual report and send in an annual work plan.  Why 18 pages of forms this year?  It's taken me about 40 hours so far to ask for the money.  That is a full week where I'm not doing the stuff this grant is supposedly paying me to do!  If every office (most are 1 person offices) is losing 1 week of work trying to get the funding that the feds have already decided we're getting...how is that effective?  It's a giant waste.

One form I fill out is actually a form do to with the PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT! 

They did decide that rather than all fed-exing things this year, we can turn it in electronically, as a .pdf.  But since the electronic forms they send out can't be saved with new information on them or exported to .pdf (some sort of security protocol), so I fill in the forms, print them, and then scan them back into the computer.    We have to print them and scan them.  It's another waste of our time (as is writing this rant...oh well) and of paper.

Maggie Trudeau:

One form I fill out is actually a form do to with the PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT! 

 Hilarious but sad!

Maggie, I agree with you.  I teach special education, and the paperwork requirements (federal, state, and local) keep getting more and more - inlcuding the checklist to be sure we've completed the checklist.  My school district created a new program to write the paperwork, which was supposed to cut down on the number of copies because they could access them electronically.... instead, we have to print a copy off and send it to the district administration office, which cuts copy costs at the admin building but raises them everywhere else.  Especially annoying since my district created this program at significant to keep everything electronically... knowing the state requires paper copies.

karenteacher:

I teach special education, and the paperwork requirements (federal, state, and local) keep getting more and more - inlcuding the checklist to be sure we've completed the checklist

 

You are going to need an assistant to do the paperwork at this rate.

 

karenteacher:

  Especially annoying since my district created this program at significant to keep everything electronically... knowing the state requires paper copies.

Yep.  I have to send in a copy of the checklist they sent me showing that I checked stuff off their checklist.  Jeez.

I'm going to meet with our head of finance in about 20 minutes to see if he can figure out one of the new forms. 

 Seveal doctors I went to stopped acceping Medicaid and Medicae because they to hire additional staff just for the paperwork.

My physical therapist was speaking about what she had to go through just to register her change of address for her business. She said there were four forms, each about 40 pages long. It ook her days to get them all done.

The government wants reductions in spending. Well, how about cutting down on these masses of paperwork and personnel to handle it all, not to mention the personnel to try to untangle the messes they've made and clear up the confusion they create? Reducing mailing coasts and paper alone would save a lot. 

She said that she had gone an entire year without Medicare payments because of the mess-up red tape. She finally go it retroactively, but had to take a loan in the meanwhile.

It seems as if every time I go to the pharmacy or doctor or helping agency, they have more papers to sign. The reason I didn't get Senior Commodities this month is because they had failed to find my re-certification form I sent in a month ago.

They really need to simplify things. I'm afraid  the opposite is happening.

Oh tell me about it ,its the same way to get a gi loan you need to bend over and litterly get kicked in the keyster why chopping 10 trees down fill out 5 pages why kissing bootie at the same time thats what my former dh said when he got out of the army and still give people more papper work to do to finish off the first papper work so maggie there goes the red woods...

thanks for the validation!  The paperwork got sent off...masses of it.  I have yet to get a confirmation of receipt (maybe they are cutting down on that bit of paperwork).

It really is a time and money sink to do all this paperwork rather than our assigned tasks.  I've actually refused to apply for some grants because it might take us 500 man-hours to do an application meant to cover a project needing that same amount of labor. It's easier to just pay the salaries to do the work rather than to pay people to apply for the grant to pay them to do the work.  I get guff from the higher ups, but I know what my time and the staff time is worth.  And we work on cultural resources that are lost every day.   If we spend time on this paperwork, damage gets done because we couldn't be out in the field or on the phone to agencies.  I think educators often feel the same way.  By the time you teach to the test and do the paperwork, when do you get to really teach kids what they need to know?

Maggie does this have to do with a grant or is it the dept. you work with just needing every ones buget from the department somtimes government does that use to tick dad off when he was at the siecence and math tech dept. he was a teacher at the electronic and tech for computers and robotics he had to list everything done like that and it took 2 days just to list every detail of the departments they do so gets to be a royal pain in the butt

Maggie Trudeau:

thanks for the validation!  The paperwork got sent off...masses of it.  I have yet to get a confirmation of receipt (maybe they are cutting down on that bit of paperwork).

It really is a time and money sink to do all this paperwork rather than our assigned tasks.  I've actually refused to apply for some grants because it might take us 500 man-hours to do an application meant to cover a project needing that same amount of labor. It's easier to just pay the salaries to do the work rather than to pay people to apply for the grant to pay them to do the work.  I get guff from the higher ups, but I know what my time and the staff time is worth.  And we work on cultural resources that are lost every day.   If we spend time on this paperwork, damage gets done because we couldn't be out in the field or on the phone to agencies.  I think educators often feel the same way.  By the time you teach to the test and do the paperwork, when do you get to really teach kids what they need to know?

Maggie are you a teacher????