…. and a few layers of bare skin too…

So today I resubmitted my voluminous package for a promotion to my boss. She’s supposed to sign off on it, then forward it to her boss who does the same, and give it to her boss who does the same, and finally up to his boss who endorses the whole thing (and his endorsement is the only one that matters). After that the package heads up to a selection board in Washington who decides whether or not they agree that I walk on water and then give me a nice fat paycheck…

The first stop should have been quick. 5 minutes to slap on a routing slip and then off to the next person in line… Three hours and countless phone calls and runs back and forth between offices to fix little nit picky things… I think the entire exercise hit the peak of ridiculousness when I was told that I needed to find out WHAT COLOR FOLDER THE PACKAGE NEEDED TO BE IN! The response - Blue. Except it then got worse when I was asked “light blue or dark blue!” It took every ounce of my being not to ask if I should find out the Pantone color code of the folder for her….

My friend Frank helped me a lot on this package. His advice was invaluable because he’s actually sat on these selection boards and he knows what the board is looking for. So I incorporated most if not all of his tips into my package. Great right? Can you believe my boss asked me why I was following his advice since I had no guarantee that he would be sitting on the board that my package was being submitted to!!!!

….and it’s only Monday….