"Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. The Department of Energy said someone may steal from it at night, so they created a night watchman position, GS-4, and hired a person for the job.

Then the Department wondered, How does the watchman do his job without instruction? So they created a planning position, and hired two (2) people, one person to write the instructions, (GS-12) and one person to do time studies (GS-11)

Then the Department wondered, How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly? So they created a Q.C. position and hired two (2) people, one GS-9 to do the studies and one GS-11 to write the reports.

Then the Department wondered, how are these people going to get paid? So they created a time keeper (GS-9) and a payroll officer (GS-10), and hired tow (2 ) people.

Then the Department wondered, Who will be accountable for all these people? So they created an administrative position (GS-14) and hired two (2) more people , an assistant administrative officer (GS-13) and a legal secretary (GS-8)

Then the Secretary said: We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget; we must cutback overall cost...' so they laid off the night watchman.