I don’t speak bureaucrat
General March 13th, 2007
I’m filling out the Engineering Open House Exhibit Reimbursement Voucher form, and it doesn’t make sense to me. It looks like EOH took some official reimbursement voucher form from the university and hacked a few more fields into it for their record keeping. I fill out the part at the top, but then get confused. The instructions at the bottom read:
Receipts must be original copies taped (not stapled) to an 8×11.5in piece of paper if they are not full sheets.
Staple all receipts listed on this sheet to this sheet. If you have more than 5 items use additional forms (do not write in any more than 5 on this sheet.)
This concerns me, because I’m a native English speaker, and I don’t get it. I can’t imagine what some of our international visitors encounter…
First, what’s an “original copy”? The original receipt? A first copy of the original receipt? Either say original, or say copy, but don’t say both.
Second, I’m not sure where I’m going to find 8 x 11.5 paper, but rest assured I will.
Third, you told me not to staple it, and then you told me to staple it. Apparently I need to stop by Office Depot to get all the adhesives required to submit a dumb receipt.
This is why it costs $85 to reimburse me $15. No wonder the state’s losing money.
Okay, okay, I get it. They’re saying tape the original to an 8.5×11 sheet and staple THAT sheet to the original. But they should say that instead of posting two contradictions. Fortunately, I’m an engineer, and I’m good at following instructions. I plan on cutting a 8 x 11.5 piece of paper, taping the original receipt to it, and stapling the original receipt to the first page so it unfolds like Jacob’s ladder. I’ll add a note that says if they don’t like how I did this, they should fix their dumb instructions.
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