A Government run on Post-Its

I have become what my boss kindly refers to as a "surplus employee," and, Navy IT being what it is, the wait time to get another computer now exceeds the time I have left in my current job.  This has forced me into somewhat of a nomadic existence--I roam the halls in desperate search of colleagues who are out sick. 

In Discovery Channel terms, I am pretty sure I've fallen right past "hunter-gatherer" and "scavenger" and devolved directly into "parasite."

Though my current station in life has made me into an office pariah of sorts, cubicle-squatting has given me some fascinating insight into my co-workers.  While most of this insight is related to personal medication preferences, I have noticed that the operation of our office depends entirely on Post-It notes.

Entire cubicle walls are canary.  Every important phone number and email address is haphazardly affixed to a wall somewhere.  User names and passwords create a yellow frame around computer monitors.  I'm not even sure how these things are staying up.  I saw a Post-It note today from 1999.  If there is an agency that tracks office supplies world records, I submit this Post-It note for the Stickiness Endurance (Middleweight) category.  But seriously, a decade-old Post-It?  That is crazy.  Temporary three-inch-square sticky storage was not meant for such extremes.

I know I can't expect our octogenarian workforce to fathom the Outlook contact list, but I think it is time for us to step up to a more modest technology.  You know, new-fangled ideas like Rolodexes, address books and index cards.  Because I am convinced that if someone were to rearrange all our sticky notes overnight, our government would fall to its knees.