How to Work for Bureaucracy

I know it can be difficult working for a bureaucracy, and working as an Ambulance Paramedic, Emergency Medical Technician, is no different to any other major bureaucracy. So, if you’re a Paramedic, you’re likely to work for a Bureaucracy and have an incompetent Bureaucrat for a boss. Fortunately, there is a simple way of doing everything in a Bureaucracy, and these easy steps will actually make it easy to succeed in a bureaucracy:

1. Find the policy – Bureaucracies love policies, procedures, or standard operating procedures (SOPS). If you want to get something done, you have to find the form that says you can do!
2. Fill in the forms completely – nothing is easier for a Bureaucrat than stamping – “Denied” or “Rejected” on a form that has not been completely filled out! Even if the information is clearly not relevant, or redundant you must write N/A or repeat previous information, so that the form is completed.
3. Follow the correct procedure in submitting the form – just as it is important to completely fill in the form, it is compulsory to follow the correct policy in submitting it. Now, every Ambulance Service is different – but from my experience, if I want to apply for anything, I have to follow a certain chain of command. In this case, I have to complete the application forms and send them to my manager who then sends them to his manager and so forth until someone either succeeds in rejecting my application, or fails and allows me to have what I have applied for.
4. Lastly, Bureaucracies hate change (just don’t do it to them!). Therefore, if you want to change something, you have to find a form which somehow suggests that you should change something, and then slowly (always very slowly) you need to suggest to senior management that “they” are the ones trying to change a certain aspect of the work, and that “you” the Paramedic are willing to help “them” achieve “their” goal.