The Faceless Bureau

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please hold

By the laptop breaker
A Consumer
3 Min read
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A few months ago, my laptop speakers stopped working when I needed them for a uni assignment that required using audio and video resources. Hoping to get it fixed quickly, I called my closest customer support store. After 15 minutes on hold I was redirected to a technical support team in another part of the country to schedule an appointment with the technician in the store I called. Surprisingly, I was only offered an appointment in 3 weeks’ time from the date when I called, and it was at a computer repair shop on the other side of the city. I couldn’t wait that long because the assignment...

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The best alien for the job

By A hardworking foreign national
A Consumer
3 Min read
T

I am a national of an Asian country who’s worked for public and not-for-profit organisations in a few different countries, including Australia and US. As an immigrant (affectionately known as an ‘alien’ in the US), I know how many hoops one must jump through to be able to live and work in another country. One of the worst ones is having to re-apply for your own job. Australian and US laws (and presumably many, if not most, other countries) require that organisations wishing to sponsor a foreign resident to work and live permanently in that country prove that there is no current citizen who...

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pulling up the ladder

By An ambitious bureaucrat
A Bureaucrat
2 Min read
p

When a new opportunity to pick up some expertise in running some important programs came knocking, I got pretty excited. It sucks that when I answered the door all I saw was a rope ladder being pulled up out of my reach. I’ve been a public servant for a few years now, and I’m good at what I do, with some successful projects to show for it. I’m ambitious to learn more and get further in my career so I can do even more for public service delivery. But it dawned on me with a new piece of work that my ambitions are completely blocked. Our department has been given the role to set up an important...

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(not) welcome to my country!

By unwanted foreign traveller
A Consumer
4 Min read
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A few years ago, a close friend planned to get married in South-East Asia. Several of our friends decided to make the trip over for the festivities. My partner and I even planned a longer trip around it. At the time, I was living and working in Australia, but was a national of a country notorious for always being close to/at the top of the list of countries with the worst passport. The list is based on how few countries you can gain entry to without applying for a visa in advance of travel. Needless to say, I had to apply for a visa. I completed my visa application and got my paperwork ready...

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WFH? WTF!

By thefacelessbureau
A Consumer
3 Min read
W

So I run a SME that has a handful of staff, and our work has us doing a fair bit of travel, not only around our home city but also interstate. Mostly we travel to co-locate and directly work with a bunch of different clients. To do this (and because we’re a small company) we often hire service office spaces when on the road, always using one provider in particular. Usually we just use them to do follow up work after a client meeting or chase up new leads. But then coronavirus happened. You know the story here: businesses got put on hold literally everywhere. Our little company was effectively...

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Overpeeled

By thefacelessbureau
A Bureaucrat
2 Min read
O

I’m an exec in a public organisation, overseeing a branch that’s just finished some policy work mostly outsourced to a consulting firm. But now it’s over, I’ve had one of my direct reports reach out to me, concerned. Not because of the work: the project was successful. They pointed out that while the work was successful, they felt like it was a missed opportunity for them to build some important skills and knowledge. After they spoke to me, I considered why this work had to be outsourced to a consulting firm in the first place. Because it had to be. There’s just no capacity to handle it in...

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A Fair Go

By annoyed parent of a schoolchild
A Consumer
4 Min read
A

Parents know which are the worst teachers at their kids’ schools. Even the kids know. No matter what the Principal might tell you, they know too. They just don’t seem to do much about it. My ten-year-old daughter will finish Year 5 this term. Year 5 is an important year that establishes a lot of groundwork for future learning. The Education Department even has a strategy that recognises the importance of these ‘middle years’, but that didn’t stop them sticking my daughter in a classroom with an incompetent teacher for almost an entire year – a year that my daughter and her classmates will...

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Self-wait Checkouts

By Flat-pack Master
A Consumer
2 Min read
S

I’ve not long arrived home from a visit to a flat-pack store. I don’t know about anyone reading this, but I’m certainly no fan of these places. Getting in and out as quickly as possible is always my aim, but it’s not easily achieved. During today’s visit the shop floor was typically overrun by customers, but that wasn’t what prevented a swift in-and-out visit. Today, it was the store’s checkout configuration that stood between me and my goal. After collecting the handful of items that I needed, I headed to the self-serve checkouts to make my purchases. This seems like it should be the fastest...

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too far from the action

By A regional education director
A Bureaucrat
1 Min read
t

As a regional director in the school system, I have to admit I’m pretty disappointed with how it’s being run by the state. A new strategy for improving educational outcomes for gifted and talented children was launched with great fanfare by the powers-that-be, all while schools in my region continue to have serious problems with attendance and attainment for disadvantaged children. I have had to deal with my fair share of parents, who are reaching out concerned about their kids falling behind, as well as with complaints from teachers. My teachers are far too busy and stressed supporting the...

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Out With the Old

By crusty policy wonk
A Bureaucrat
2 Min read
O

Policy work can be difficult enough without contending with ghosts of the past. I’m so tired of having to shape and mould my work around obsolete policies that are hanging around from the dawn of time. I’m trying to design new accountability measures, which have robust supporting evidence, but am constantly thwarted by a whole heap of existing constraints, including policies and awards, that restrict and prevent them. My colleagues and I have had to compromise on the design of the new accountability measures – which is fine, because making compromises is a normal part of policy development –...

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