Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress thought someone may steal from it at night; so they created a night watchman, GS-4 position, and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning division and hired two (2) people, one person to write the instructions (GS-12) and one person, a Management Analyst, to do time studies (GS-11).
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a quality control (QC) division and hired two (2) people, one (GS-9) to do the studies and one (GS-11) to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So they created a payroll division with a time keeper (GS-9) and a payroll officer (GS-11), and hired two (2) people for clerks (GS-7).
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative division and hired three (3) people: an Administrative Officer (GS-14), Assistant Administrative Officer (GS-13), and a Legal Secretary (GS-9). Then, one year later, Congress reviewed the GAO report of the operation of the desert scrap yard and said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget. We must cut back overall costs!”
So they eliminated the night watchman.
