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This reminds me of a great scene[1] from the British show "Yes, Minister". It's from an episode called The Compassionate Society where a minister for Department
by maxwelldone 4y ago
This reminds me of a great scene[1] from the British show "Yes, Minister". It's from an episode called The Compassionate Society where a minister for Department of Administrative Affairs learns about a newly built hospital which has some 500 employees but no doctors & patients. The scene I linked is a conversation between the minister & his private secretary where the latter explains why administrators are essential no matter what.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAk448volww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAk448volww
Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLU-Evdlt-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLU-Evdlt-A
- iamstupidsimple 4y agoWow, I was just thinking about this scene as well! It really is timeless. Especially the bit about measuring success by activity and not results.
- jiggawatts 4y agoI used to think Yes Minister was the least humorous comedy on television, and I could not for the life of me understand why my father liked it so much. He lived under communism, with its dozen+ levels of government bureaucracy, so you can imagine why he thought it was hilarious. Once I had worked as a consultant for government departments, I suddenly "got" it, and now Yes Minister is one of my favourite TV shows of all time. The bit about hospitals is all too true. For example, just recently, I had to fill out a stack of paperwork to provision a virtual server for hosting an archived, read-only web site for data that hasn't changed since 2017 and has three (3) users. Literally a stack. As in, a pile. About a hundred pages, or a short novel. That nobody will ever read, except if the time comes to blame me for a shortcoming that they themselves could not have avoided.