Wasting time

This morning I was called to a meeting at the Ministry of Health. It was a five-minute meeting with a pakida - a bureaucrat lady - and the result was a morning wasted. She simply did not take the time to study the design and to read the protocol, and I had to explain it to her. Her behaviour was royal, I mean, I was told it was my privilege that she received me at all and she never even sat down, she talked to me from the heights.

Then I visited a client to collect some money, but he did not pay me as the factory had received a letter commenting the design. He was much depressed by the long letter, so I read it carefully with him, and it appeared that they wanted designs in 1:20 scale and other nonsensical demands. I spent the evening writing the answer and could not stop making a satire of it, of how many trees had to die for the enourmous drawings demanded, that so on, but in the end I sent a satire-less letter at 1.30 AM.

It is depressing to waste my time with low-quality pakidim and also not getting paid. In order to survive, I shall have to reject small projects, because the trouble is much and the pay nil. I also have to improve the quality of my clients, hi tech companies are able to pay more and are more respected. The bureaucrats hate dealing with small old shops in bad neighborhoods, because they feel humiliated and ashamed of being involved with them.

The fantastic effort required to deal with bureaucracy and its nonsensical demands makes me wonde if there is a better way. In fact, bureaucrats love to receive presents. The only way to do that is collecting more money from customers, and that is what Dror Zonnenschein learned to do. His prices are astronomic and out of relation with the product he delivers (kitchen designs), all because the trouble involved in dealing with bureacracy. I designed for him a system in Ramat Gan a year ago, he didnt pay me for 4 - 5 months as he could not collect his fees because the Ministry of Health had more and more demands (more paper, not a better kitchen). The kitchen is being remodelled only now, a year and half later, so I presume that in the end he succeeded. Dror is an internationally recognized kitchen designer, and he is working more and more in Europe. I will have to do the same.