At The Evil Empire (the large corporation where I work), they implemented Six Sigma about four years ago. Under this practice, they christen people with Kung Fu names (black belt, green belt, etc.) and review company processes, streamlining them to make sure they are done as quickly and cheaply as possible. And surprise surprise — this study in efficiency resulted in a “workforce reduction” about six months ago. So basically, each one of us is now doing the job of two people. If you need to take a bathroom break, you best schedule it in your dayplanner, people.
With all this focus on efficiency, I find it profoundly ironic that every day, several times a day, people in my department (me included) must leave our office area, walk down a long hall, ride the elevator up 7 floors, and then rat-maze our way to a tiny closet of a room to get, of all things, WATER. Keep in mind that, like most people, I probably get water 3-4 times a day. At 10 minutes roundtrip, this equates to 40 minutes a day spent on procurring water. Once you figure in the 4 bathrooms breaks it takes to part with said water (45 minutes) you’ve lost almost two hours a day to water. I would submit it as a possible Six Sigma project, but I’m betting on the fact that the end result would involve either catheters or IV drips or both.