The Invisible Infrastructure

My day starts not with intellectual stimulation, but with the 'WTF' folder. It’s a digital graveyard of emails from faculty members who think administrative processes should magically bypass government rules because their research is 'too important' to be delayed by a file moving through the chain of command. They view us as bureaucrats; we view them as people who have never had to balance a budget or answer to an auditor. The irony is that when the AC in the lecture hall dies, or the internet cuts out during a crucial exam, or a vendor refuses to deliver equipment because the payment has been stuck in the concerned section, the same people who call us 'paper-pushers' are the first ones at our desks, demanding immediate action.