Letters: crime really does pay

Walking through treacle

Sir: Rory Sutherland suggests that poor productivity can be correlated with the explosion of roles designed to support those ‘who do actual, useful work’ but, in practice, only act as anchors buried in the deepest mud, impeding progress (The Wiki Man, 6 January).

Winston Churchill, frustrated at the length of the administrative tail of his armies in the North African campaign compared with the modest proportion of those actually fighting, defined them as ‘useless mouths’. The NHS offers an excellent example of this principle: the number of frontline clinical staff over several decades has increased but has been overwhelmed by those in
non-essential posts.

Sutherland pinpoints the bloated HR industry, but the NHS could add a mountain of counting, auditing, reporting, appraisal and PR activities, not to mention those who justify their existence by arranging meetings which achieve little.

I vividly recall, during my term of office as chairman of our consultant medical staff, attending one weekly meeting of the executive board when we were invited to construct a new mission statement.