While I worked for the U.S. Army as a Command Historian, I wasn’t a bureaucrat. After all, I didn’t “rule from a desk,” which is what the French word means. However, in my job I learned a lot of how bureaucrats avoid cuts to their offices, and experienced such cuts myself.
In one of the commands I served in, they experienced a growth of 26% during the “Global War on Terror,” being from 2001 to 2011. During that same time, my historical office experienced a 66% reduction in personnel. And while I was the Command Historian at the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) it was even worse (the above photo is myself interviewing Brig. Gen. Laubenthal of the Bundeswehr). I was a one-man shop, supervising a property specialist, a museum at Vilseck, and a Military History Detachment traveling throughout Eastern Europe. And I was told I not only had to do an annual historical report, but I was to make up for ten-years’ worth of reports my predecessor failed to do… though he had more people, I might add. Oh… and I was to prepare four massive staff rides for the Commanding General (CG) and Command Sergeant Major. Needless to say, I was convinced my supervisor was smoking dope.[1]
So, what is the sneaky trick bureaucrats use when facing cuts in personnel? The first thing they do is cite their most important functions and claim they will no longer be able to do these critical things. For example, the National Weather Service is now claiming that if they take cuts in personnel, they will no longer be able to do their twice-daily weather balloon missions.
So, with that in mind, how did my historical offices continue to “make mission” after taking up to 66% in cuts, or worse?” Simple… we prioritized.
Wow… what a concept.
What the Trump administration needs to do is send people to those organizations that claim that they can’t make mission, and demand them to lay out their METL… the Mission Essential Task List. The METL will show what these agencies are supposed to be doing… and what they don’t need to be doing. In my historical offices, we laid out our METL and created a priority list of things we must do, then things that are good for us to do, and then things that are nice to do. By doing this, we could continue are essential mission with fewer people. More people would have been nice, and even important to have, especially for certain tasks… and particularly at USAREUR. But we had to live with the reductions… and this when everyone else around us was growing by leaps and bounds.
Now the cuts are coming to a lot of other offices. I say, “about time.” Most of these offices have more people than they know what to do with, and they waste plenty of time.
I will provide one good example of a waste of time for an Army historian. While I was the Command Historian at USAREUR, I was saddled with a 90-second “Today in History” blurb that I had to do each and every week at the Commanding General’s (CG) update brief (CUB). This one task, frankly one of the dumbest I ever was required to do, consumed one-fifth of my five-day week, preparing, rehearsing (yes… we REHEARSED update briefs to the CG!) and presenting.[2]
I was saddled with this by my predecessor, because he didn’t want to do his real task, which was prepare an annual historical report… you know, those ten reports I was to make up for when I took over the office. Historical reports involve a lot of work, long-term focus, and determination by an Historical Office to complete them. They are required by regulations and even, indirectly, by federal law. Doing the ”Today in History” nonsense took plenty of time, but involved no long-term focus and determination. In other words, for an historian, it was a lazy man’s way of looking busy. I tried my best to stop this idiocy, but only my request for early transfer back to the States ultimately ended it. To this day, I cite ending that nonsense as one my major accomplishments as an Army historian.
The reality is that many government offices do a lot of stuff they shouldn’t be doing. At one installation, a host of guys were nailed for surfing porn on their government computers. I had no idea how they managed to get around the blocks placed by our computer people, but they somehow did it.
I’m not suggesting that folks need to have their nose to the grindstone every minute of every day. I experienced that at USAREUR, and it burned me to a cinder within one year. However, I do know a lot of these organizations have plenty of people doing minimal work during the day. Moreover, and this is arguably the worse part, is that we have excess managers making up work to keep people looking busy, rather than focused on essential tasks.
So when it comes to cutting people, start with the managers, especially at the top.
We shouldn’t let offices use that sneaky trick to claim they can’t do their job. What needs to happen is to call their bluff. Tell them, “if you can’t do the mission, then you’re not needed,” and cut the office entirely.
That will stop that “sneaky trick” very quickly.
Russ Rodgers has several books published on Amazon.
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[1] I’m also convinced that my supervisor, a full colonel who retired to take a GS-15 position, actually wanted to be the USAREUR Command Historian, and was rankled that I got the position. For this reason he placed an impossible load on me.
[2] I could have cut a lot of corners and gave them garbage at the briefings. But I was too much of a professional to do that.
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