I have an enviable job, but...

There are times when I feel frustrated by a lack of top-down communication.

A week go I was told to use my government-issued credict card to pay the room rental fee for a work function. No problem there, though the process is tedious. It was only $125, but I still had to get signatures from no less than seven people. Nevertheless, I took care of that.

After that, I had to enter it into the finance tracking application, and get two more approvals. Also no problem, though. I took care of that, too.

Usually, that's enough, but this particular location -- because it also serves food and drink -- required me to get a special authorization. No problem there either, though -- I saw that one coming. I secured that, and went over to the venue this afternoon to pay for the room rental.

When I got there, though, I got an unpleasant surprise. The person who was hosting the event had already paid for it. All those approvals and authorizations were for nothing.

That was bad enough, but that was the second time in a week that a lack of top-down communication has led to redundancy. A few days ago I went to a meeting, thinking I was going to represent my section.

That proved not to be the case. In fact, two other people from my section were in that same meeting, and neither of them knew there would be anyone else, either. That meant three people from our section came to the same meeting, because no one had coordinated with anyone else.

I have an easy job, and this time of year is particularly slow, but it's defeating when the ONE thing you do in a day turns out to have been a complete waste of time.