April 2, 2011

Ten People to do One Job

How do you employ people in a country as densely populated as India? Give them government jobs at the airport and have ten people do the same job, in succession. I had my ticket and passport inspected about 30 times from the moment I tried to enter the airport to the moment I sat in my seat on the plane. In fact, my boarding pass and passport where inspected three times within 100 feet of the plane's doorway - just in case something magically changed in my paperwork.

Sometimes the inspectors, who are wearing military uniforms, actually take two to three minutes to inspect the documents, just to ensure that their job is justified and they are invaluable to the system - especially as lines inevitably develop because of their inefficiency.