Not terribly long ago, I attended a workshop, and near the end of the session, these awesome little goody bags were distributed. At least, my peers and I thought they were awesome until we actually opened them — that’s when faces dropped. The pen and pad are standard, but at least semi-useful. But what the fish are we supposed to do with a plastic football and frisbee? Sure, they provide sufficient entertainment for all of five minutes, but the question is: how is this efficient? For an organization with a limited budget, aren’t there better ways to put the money to use? Even with an unlimited budget, we could surely, at the least, be a little more creative. I get that these novelties are for the sake of promotion and I get that there are budgets created for this explicit purpose, and if the money in that budget isn’t spent, we don’t get that money next year. But the existence of inefficient budgeting is proof whoever writes the budget isn’t privy to the needs of the party, that the machine isn’t well-oiled and therefore probably is not as productive as it could be.
Failing a budget revamp, I think we could come up with something more useful and interesting than mini footballs and frisbees, most of which are left in seats or tossed into the trash — either way ending up in a landfill. So not only are we wasting money but polluting.
How about we skip a step and throw shredded dollar bills in a dumpster? Why not create something we actually use, so when people reach for that object, the logo embeds itself into our minds. We aren’t stupid, so there has to be a reason for the lack of efficiency. I say it’s laziness. People are smart; people are dynamic. Look at your tech — you have a cell phone, a computer and six months from now it will be defunct. No one needs a degree in computer engineering to come up with better ideas for promotional toys.
But look at the bigger issue. I’m not whining about not getting a cool toy, I’m trying to illustrate a point: do you see any parallels here with, say, public education or, haha, the government in general? What about in our personal lives? Are you an efficient operator? I’m sure as pie am not. I’m a Starbucks addict, and if spending nearly $5 on a soy latte tri-weekly isn’t ridiculous, I don’t know what is. I could save that money and buy new shoes or put it toward my future motorcycle. While I’m usually pretty quick to be self-deprecating, I have a feeling I am not the only one suffering from unthought.
Be aware of the trap consumer mentality offers. Think: am I managing my time? Could I be more productive? Proper resource utilization doesn’t mean living some sort of rigid, militant lifestyle. So-called “senseless” actions like screaming on a roller coaster are not senseless because you get something out of it. You get the yay-I-get-to-act-like-a-lunatic- without-being-carted-off feeling that’s just as much a part of being human as being productive. Emotions are not senseless, they are part of the human experience. Participating in acts that make things harder for you in the long run is senseless, not chilling or partying on Friday night. Staring at a textbook for an hour is senseless. Formulating a new study plan and only spending 30 minutes with the textbook is not senseless because you actually learned from your study session and you’ve freed up at least an extra 30 minutes for yourself. Boy, just spending an extra second thinking can sure make life easier. What would happen if government workers tried it?