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Editor’s Note: This column, “LBWA” (Leadership By Wandering Around), is based on the premise that, in order to find out what’s going on in the field, a parks and rec leader has to leave his or her desk and “wander around” the area of operations, talk to people, ask questions, and kick around ideas with the individuals in the thick of delivering services to the public. So the author will bring up issues and ask the leaders among the readership to share their knowledge and experiences.
I’ve really come to hate the term, “bureaucrat.”
There may have been a time when the word had a positive connotation, but these days it carries a stigma synonymous with a mindless pencil-pusher who makes no rational decisions when an irrational one will do, and whose whole being is guided by “the book.”
This irritating word comes from the French word, bureau, which means “desk”; so generally it is associated with a desk job. As we know, a job in parks and recreation usually takes practitioners away from the desk since the “job” and the customer are out in the community.