I spent my last half hour at work tonight updating my procedures manual. Of course, these days we don't get any printed procedures. No, Bloatmeal has embraced the 21st century and all procedural directives come to us via e-mail. However, archaic old me insists on printing out the mails and keeping them in a binder. There's a bit of lag time between when I print out the new info and actually get around to putting it in the binder. Hence the half hour spent on my procedures manual. But that's not the point of this rambling. My point is that I noticed a) how much more frequently procedures are handed down than in days past, b) how much more verbose they've gotten (Well, verbose isn't really the right word. The page count has increased, but it's more due to adding illustrations than adding words. Back in the day when the power that be had to actually print out and photocopy a procedural description, the pics were rare and small.), c) how quickly the tend to get updated (or should I say corrected?), and d) how there's more of a tendancy for individual employees to send out their own procedural declarations. (Actually, I should scratch d)--those declarations tend to be made on first shift and it could be that the individuals are acting under orders from the supervisor.) Anyway, sometimes I wonder if this increased communication is a good thing. But I can't complain too much about folks taking advantage of electronic communications. I've probably written more on this blog in the past four months than I've written in my journal during the past four years....