I work for a top five-customer service firm and it probably goes without saying we have about a million policies that guide almost every task we do. Everything from the way we interview and hire to our processes for providing feedback and terminating employment is outlined in close to 150 documents.? We even have a guy, Mike, who checks our compliance with these policies.

A few weeks ago I was forced to end an agent’s employment. I completed a request for permission to terminate, had my manager sign off on the request that’d already been approved by people who rank higher than him and, after letting the poor guy go, ran the final paperwork including an form requesting his HR file be closed out, a checklist to say I filled out that form and an automated script that included the same information that I’d just put onto the original form.

Once this was finished I had to email it all to a specific distribution list that’s actually made up of six or seven smaller lists. One of our managers has, unfortunately for him, made his way onto four of the distros included.? Finally fed up he sent an email to everyone on the list asking why he got four copies. I responded with a small jab, something about his being so dense it took four emails to get through to him, only I sent it four times.

Now, that’s mildly funny.? What is really funny is that three other people did it, almost word for word, and all doing it four times.? Nice.