Keyword: Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Government Time

1. Never use one word when a dozen will suffice.
2. If it can be understood, it's not finished yet.
3. Never be the first to do anything.

Communication Language Murphy’s Laws

In a bureaucracy, accomplishment is inversely proportional to the volume of paper used.

Murphy’s Laws

Give a civil servant a good cause and he’ll wreck it with cliches, bad punctuation, double negatives and convoluted apology.

(1928 – 1999) British politician & diarist
Occupations People Work

Only a bureaucracy can fight a bureaucracy.

Murphy’s Laws

1. When in charge ponder
2. When in trouble delegate
3. When in doubt mumble.

Murphy’s Laws Speech

A giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

(1799 – 1850) French novelist & playwright
Government

Typesetters always correct intentional errors, but fail to correct unintentional ones.

Murphy’s Laws

An inexorable upward movement leads administrators to higher salaries and narrower spans of control.

Money Murphy’s Laws

The organization of any bureaucracy is very much like a septic tank. The really big chunks always rise to the top.

Murphy’s Laws

Bureaucracy is based on a willingness to either pass the buck or spend it.

Government

If anything can go wrong, it will do so in triplicate.

Government Murphy’s Laws Problems

To beat the bureaucracy, make your problem their problem.

Murphy’s Laws Problems

Government organization

Oxymorons

Bad regulation begets worse regulation.

Murphy’s Laws

An enterprise employing more than 1000 people becomes a self-perpetuating empire, creating so much internal work that it no longer needs any contact with the outside world.

Murphy’s Laws

The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau.

(1879 – 1972) U.S. governor (South Carolina)
Government Life

The spirit of public service will rise, and the bureaucracy will multiply itself much faster, in time of grave national concern.

Government Murphy’s Laws

In a bureaucracy, good ideas go to too far.

Murphy’s Laws

In a bureaucratic hierarchy, the higher up the organization the less people appreciate Murphy's Law.

Murphy’s Laws

The effort expended by the bureaucracy in defending any error is in direct proportion to the size of the error.

Mistakes Murphy’s Laws Problems Time