Government economy

[Sandy H]

A guy stopped at a local gas station and, after filling his tank,
he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to
drink his cola and watched a couple of men working along the
roadside. One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then
move on. The other man came along behind him and filled in the
hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was 25 feet
behind filling in the hole. The men worked right past the guy with
the soft drink and went on down the road.
"I can't stand this," said the man tossing the can into a
trash container and heading down the road toward the men.
"Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me
what's going on here with all this digging and refilling?"
"Well, we work for the government and we're just doing our
job," one of the men said.
"But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up.
You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the
taxpayers' money?"
"You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning
on his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of us:
me, Elmer and Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer sticks in the tree, and
Leroy here puts the dirt back. Elmer's job's been cut... so now
it's just me an' Leroy."

[Lisa Salberg]

OK the HR Mgr in me loves that one!