Once upon a time the government had a vast
scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said someone may steal from it at night; so
they created a night watchman, GS-4 position, and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, "How does the
watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning division and
hired two (2) people, one person to write the instructions (GS-12) and one person to do
time studies (GS-11).
Then Congress said, "How will we know
the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a quality control
(QC) division and hired two (2) people, one (GS-9) to do the studies and one (GS-11) to
write the reports.
Then Congress said, "How are these
people going to get paid?" So they created a payroll division with a time keeper
(GS-9) and a payroll officer (GS-11), and hired two (2) people.
Then Congress said, "Who will be
accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative division and
hired three (3) people: an Admin Officer (GM-13), Assistant Admin Officer (GS-13), and a
Legal Secretary (GS-8).
Then, one year later, Congress reviewed the
operation of the desert scrap yard and said, "We have had this command in operation
for one year and we are $18,000 over budget. We must cut back overall costs!" So they
eliminated the night watchman.
