I have a forest growing in my office - It's paper overload!
January 19th 2007 08:32
Blue gums - used for paper production
There is a forest growing in my office!!
In our part of the world we have the ever-encroaching timber companies tempting the farmers to lease out their best bits of land so that they can grow trees for the pulp mills – for paper production. While it has to be said that the money is very handy and has helped many farmers to either survive, or semi-retire, it is with some regret that they must leave their properties to the big companies who are only interested in planting neat rows of blue gums. These will eventually be cut, leaving paddocks full of stumps that will need to be re-cleared – with memories of the old days of grinding out the stumps and years of stick picking! Or, if it was a good crop it may be re-planted by the company. Sadly, some of the best land for farming crops is used for this purpose, as the companies are very selective in what will produce the trees- (naturally they need to please their shareholders).
Add to this the farming magazines and information sheets. Most are sent to the re-cycling bin after a few weeks but there is always the few which have “an interesting article” that has to be kept. Also, as both of us tend to get onto committees there is always the odd set of minutes and agendas hanging around looking important. Often this paper trail spreads like an animal with tentacles onto the kitchen table and bench and even the dining room table.
No wonder we can rarely find a square metre of clean desk on which to write and we can never find the phone book or the calculator when we want it. It really amazes me how we manage to manage the business at all!
The other thing that amazes me is that when we have visitors and I have to dump some of these paper piles in a box, to get it out of the way, how little of that pile ends up being missed as being essential documents for our daily life! It may sit there for weeks before any of it is needed.
I know of one businessman who used to put all the mail in the bin- except the ones with the red words - “pay now or die!” on them. Now I don’t advise that – because I don’t think it is fair to another business not to pay them on time – but I bet his desk didn’t look like ours!
O.K, we can get a lot of these things over the internet now, and perhaps that is the way to go – but what would happen if I miss finding out something really important because I didn’t read my emails???!!! I am a lost cause – caught in the web of information overload and I am unable to find my way out?
"Right" - she says with determination. "Here is my New Year's resolution - better late than never. I am going to get all my banks and others to stop sending me their paper accounts - and just get it all off the internet!" Let's just hope the internet works when I need them! Alright, it won't stop the need for blue gum timber industry encroaching on farm land, but at least I may not be drowning in paper! Now where is a bit of paper to write out my New Year's resolution? ........... (sigh!!!)
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Comment by Anonymous
I think this is the funniest of all your posts so far - and rings such bells with me. We have three desks and a huge built-in wardrobe in our house, and they are all crowded with bits of paper looking for a home. We've worked out where to put the bills so that they are paid on time, but what do you do with important articles, important letters, even last year's Christmas letters ...? Any ideas?
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