In the last month I’ve produced five TV shows in Florence and Rome. In the process we’ve worked with wonderful people, without whose help we’d never have been able to do our work. To each of them I am very thankful.
During the filming process, I gained a respect for the cost to a society of a business environment encumbered by a bulky bureaucracy. Italians must be wired differently than Americans because they live and work in a society almost crippled by a cancer-like bureaucracy. I worked with many good people during the process, and don’t mean to complain about them personally. But the system they work within is, as they themselves kept saying while trying to work with their counterparts in other wings of the bureaucracy, “incredibile” (pronounced “een-kred-EE-bee-lay,” while shaking a hand in the air).
Bureaucrats kept saying to me, “I know you don’t have to deal with this in America” ‘ and then would soldier on, producing a fraction of what they might have if they’d simply been able to stand up and reinvent things in the interest of productivity. Here’s my take on it as an observer (who’s thankful to work in the efficient business environment we enjoy in the USA):
Within Italy’s bureaucracy are many zones of responsibility that are separate and equal, mutually dependent but unable to communicate efficiently, if at all. Each apparatus has legions of people working within it, but is hierarchical to the degree that people on a lower level are frightened into inaction if the senior person, called the “responsabile,” is not present. And it is the higher-ups who seem to be important enough to be not at their desk, for various reasons. Responsabiles seem disinclined to empower people below them to make decisions, as they think this would take authority away from them. No one below would dare question the way this throws a monkey wrench into the hope of getting anything done, so they just keep treading water on the government dole. Therefore, if one person is out of town, out to lunch, at a meeting, on vacation, or whatever, a simple decision cannot be made. Like a strange and nightmarish rash, the bureaucracy grows and grows.
In the last month, while trying to get permission to film in a particular place, I would often need to list exactly which pieces of art we hoped to photograph. Since branches of a hopelessly bureaucratic system ‘ almost by definition ‘ do not communicate with each other, we would need to repeat the process of making this list several times. Then, when we’d finally get to a sight, the responsabile there would sit down and scour our paper for something out of order. Typically, we could photograph whatever we wanted as long as it was on the list. If we neglected to add something ‘ even as simple as an extra portrait bust or case of jewelry ‘ we would not be allowed to photograph it. If we asked why, the answer didn’t take logic into consideration. It was just a matter of what the paper said. End of story.
Anyone with a degree is referred to respectfully as “doctor” (dottore or dottoressa). Directors of one sight would complain about not getting any media promotion…and then people at the same sight would refuse to let it be featured in a TV show. And getting the two decision-making arms (which didn’t realize that they were at odds with each other) to talk to each other was not an option.
I found the bureaucracy so pervasive that people with initiative have become demoralized, which is understandable among people whose initiative gets them nowhere. This results in an internal brain drain. I asked a very impressive and well-off parent what he aspired to for his kids, and he said, “To get a government job.” Why? “Because they’ll have job security and a paycheck at the end of the month.”
I rarely dream about my work. But for the last month, my frustrations with the Italian bureaucracy have worked their way into my dreams.
I think this why Italian has historically had so many money troubles even when it is good times for everyone else. I live in California and during this time of crisis with the budget, it is amazing how many duplicate things have been cute out of the budget. At a certain point you can`t cut everything out because we won`t function. But if Italy would they could stream line quite a bit. I think they will be on Europes list of troubled countires permanently. My grandfather complained 30years ago that when he would go back to visit his sisters the same holes remained in the streets as when he left as a young man.
I`ve read enough books about the differences (in general) between Europeans and Americans when it comes to taking initiatives in business and in other hierarchical endeavors. Europeans are generally more hesitant to do anything without first consulting their superiors. There has been a theory that Americans beat the Germans in WWII partically because they would seize the moment to, for example, storm a machine gun nest without asking their commanding officer if they were allowed to do so; the Germans couldn`t imagine such initiative – EVERYTHING was done by the rigoruous book, including asking permission to take any action rather than acting on one`s own accord. Of all the faults that the American enterprise/business system has, at least it`s not as heavily bureaucratic as most European models. Still, the average European enjoys twice as much (or more) vacation time as the average American. Some things certainly sound better over there! But yeah, I can imagine the bureaucratic hell you must go through, Rick, in securing permits to shoot video somewhere. Oh, mio Dio!
people from france, italy and spain who worked for me in the u.s. always marveled at how we are able to get things done quickly. on the other hand, they had lives outside of work in those countries.
I`ve just started working for a British firm and there is definitely a different view toward the need for personal time. You are expected to take you holiday and if you`re working late, you`re encouraged to go home rather than the race to see who will stay in the office the longest. I am hoping that this is the happy medium between Italian bureaucracy and the 24/7 mentality of many US businesses.
My british friends in Leeds worked very hard and played very hard. Plus they had a wonderful, hilarious sense of humor. I would say that because of the latter they were always at least as effective as Americans at their jobs. I might add that Rick Steves has at least one or two current british guides (one a guide in Spain/Morocco) who mirror that work ethic and humor. It was only when my british colleagues came over to work in the US that they became a tad dour.
site not sight!
It`s a commonly told story in Austria that if you want to do anything that is even slightly outside the normal the stock bureaucratic response is `it can`t be done`. But then after much discussion and consideration, there is often a way to get it done. The initial response speaks volumes. The concept of `customer service` generally does not come as second nature in Europe, as it often does in the US.