Are You Kidding Me?

I had the great joy of renewing my driver's license today. As with most simple tasks I have, it turned into an experience. Somehow I managed to miss the memo that the local DMV had moved. There was a lovely sign on the door of the old place telling me that had move and even what street they were off of, but no address. I guess it is a good thing I have a phone. After a couple of calls with Rocky, we figured out that it is back behind the new city aquatic center, because nothing goes together like giant swimming pools and driver safety (?). This new building is shiny and huge (serious tax dollars sunk into this one). When you walk in, there are people sitting waiting with clipboards and numbers, but nothing to tell you how to get a clipboard or a number. After walking around for a minute like an idiot, I gave up and asked someone how they managed to get a number. My favorite answer to the many, many people I saw asking this question was, "You stand there in the front until someone gets good and ready to talk to you and they will give you a number."
After I got my golden ticket, I filled out my paperwork and watched as other confused people came in. There got to be a pretty long line of people waiting to wait. A smoker sat down near me followed by a man who was wearing a LOT of cologne (insert standard rant about perfume). Just as my eyes started to water, my number got called. While the nice lady typed up my information, I causally mentioned that they might  consider some sort of sign to let people know how the waiting for a number thing works. She said, "We aren't allowed to have a sign." This was not exactly the answer I was expecting. I had to enquire further. They had a sign, but it wasn't "department regulation" so they had to take it down. I love a good mystery. This one took me all of about 2 minutes to figure out.
Not long ago, there was a big promotion about shorter wait times at the DMV. They made a pretty big deal out of how quickly they moved people through there. When I got my number there was a time code on it so that there was a computer record of my wait time. Do you get it yet? The wait time clock doesn't start until you get a number. If they put a "Wait here" sign up, then they have to count that in their average wait time numbers. They have cut your wait time in half not by being more efficient, but by making you spend half your time there waiting to wait!
Anyone else looking forward to the brilliant minds behind this taking over our health care?