by Margaret Pearce
Once upon a time there was an Institute of Technology inhabited by Administration (busy), teachers (conscientious) technicians (eccentric) and sundry member of the V.P.S.A.
It was an old overcrowded little place. The Administration (busy), struggled with Murphy’s law that anything that can go wrong will and prayed for better days. The teachers (conscientious) taught in ancient inconvenient class rooms. The technicians (eccentric) repaired inadequate equipment on cramped work benches. By some miracle however, the Institute actually functioned successfully.
One day, the prayers of the Administration (busy) were finally answered. The Institute spread itself thankfully into a spacious new well-designed building where everything worked. The Administration no longer had to spend its time and energy on Murphy’s law and praying. It now had leisure to consider that if its teachers were conscientious its technicians were distinctly eccentric.
In the interests of efficiency and with permission from the School Council, it started pruning staff that didn’t quite fit the Institute’s new public image. This led to a sudden rise in the membership of the V.P.S.A. by insecure allegedly permanent staff and an appeal against dismissal to the Public Service Board by one bewildered technician (eccentric).
The other inhabitants of the Institute then took sides over the momentous question. Was the technician (eccentric) inefficient and negligent as the Administration righteously claimed, or was the Administration playing nasty games?
Among some observers there was a growing uneasiness about where the Administration’s ambitions towards a more efficient new image Institute would lead. This caused some edgy staff members to fold up their tents like the Arabs and silently apply for transfers.
Supporters of the Administration pointed out that the Administration, being busy, could do no wrong and an efficient public image was an improvement. There was some deterioration in public relations however and the supporters of the Administration gave up talking to the critical observers.
The Appeal Board sitting to prove or disapprove the question was cascaded with papers. There were affidavits in quantity showing both the righteousness of the Administration as well as the inefficiency of the technician. Confirmation of the accuracy of the affidavits by most of the technicians and other relevant sources was conspicuous by its absence, but to compensate the Administration produced even more paper.
There were obsolete, current and future work sheets, incompleted and completed, filled in retrospectively and/or in advance, and sometimes for a change not filled in at all. There were carbons of memos and copies of job instructions, and a few more hastily sworn out affidavits.
The three members of the Appeal Board vanished under the pile of papers looking bewildered and were not seen again.
Now in an unnamed suburb, there is now a modern spacious and well-designed Institute of Technology, inhabited by Administration (unloved) teachers (insecure) and technicians (resentful) and everybody is a member of the V.P.S.A.
The moral of this tale is that it is an ill wind that blows no good and improving the public image of an Institute, although it does little for staff morale, is a great boost for union membership.
The End
Margaret Pearce’s early education was limited to eight years at eight different primary schools. She spent very little time at any of them owing to various illnesses and accidents. She was launched on an unsuspecting business world first as a typist, then a stenographer, and then a secretary and then a copywriter at an advertising department. Later, she completed an Arts degree at Monash University.
Margaret has had primary and teenage books published as listed on Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle and writers-esxchange.com.
She lurks in the hills near Melbourne and is still writing.