work and bureaucracy

through conversations with others, i've discovered that my experience with the university's bureaucracy is not that unusual. and my experience is basically that the bureaucracy isn't so efficient. already in the master's program, there were glitches with paperwork pretty regularly. and working has its own glitches.

six months after beginning my job, my name is finally on the office door - albeit followed by a degree i'm pretty sure that i don't have (or maybe that's the degree the university did actually give me and my diploma's wrong?).

and it's only after receiving an email about getting a mailbox number that i discovered that i'd previously had a cubbyhole in the main office for my mail (and found a Christmas present in it). i guess i should have checked earlier about the mail, but i figured without students, what did i really need a mailbox for? and two of the guys in my office have never had a cubbyhole or mailbox number, so why would i get one?

bureaucracy also happens to be the theme of the newest exhibition at the university. and thus, the following (taken from the Vrije Universiteit website) is what i first see when i walk into work each day:

the look on the woman's face always makes me smile. and even if i complain now and then over things being inefficient at the university, usually people are pretty helpful in answering questions - once you figure out the problem and find someone capable of answering the question :)