We’re pleased to announce the winners of the November round of our ‘We’re inundated with managers’ contest. We’ve received many fantastic submissions and, as a special holiday treat, we have decided to double the number of winning entries for this round!
In the ‘absurdity of the employees/management ratio’ category, congratulations to:
- A member from Osoyoos, who reports a ratio of six managers for two employees, explaining: “This is the number on a random weekday (not a weekend or evening as managers don’t want to work those). Breakdown: Two officers doing the job. Three administrative superintendents, two operational superintendents, and a chief.” Only missing is a partridge in a pear tree!
- A member from Walpole Island, with ten managers for four employees, stating: “My initial submission was ten managers to eight employees (this is total who work there) but in office that day were actually four officers to at least ten managers.”
And in the ‘originality of the submission’ category, congratulations to:
- A member from Lansdowne, who shares a classic CBSA tale: “Fishing season was upon us and lots of traffic was headed north! I walked over the overpass to see a lineup well past US customs while coming in to relieve night shift. That morning, we had two chiefs, two administrative superintendents, two shift superintendents, four officers that morning — and no shift schedule made for the day.”
- A member from Headquarters, whose anecdote answers the question ‘do we really need so many managers?’: “I was on a team of three, one manager and two analysts. When I went on parental leave, that left one manager to manage one analyst. When I returned from leave, the manager left for another role in a different department and CBSA elected not to replace them. Funny thing is the work never missed a beat with just us analysts. We were even without a director for a good stretch, and we still managed (pun intended).”
Thank you to all who participated! We’ll be announcing the winners for the month of December in the New Year (previous submissions will also be considered, so no need to resubmit them).
