The 333 Story

There is this one small detail of this story revolving now over FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress FBI attorney Lisa Page.  They are both page one news, and have been so for several months.

In the texts that have been recovered and reviewed....there's this one interesting number that pops up.

The two of them....on a daily basis....averaged 333 texts total.

It means from wake-up each day (remember, they are married, but to other folks)....to evening....about every five minutes, one is sending a text to the other.  Throughout the work-day, at lunch, walking between buildings or offices, etc.

You have to figure in a eight-hour day that they owed the government for their monthly pay-check....they were involved in typing a text collection for at least 90 minutes each and everyday. If you subtract lunch, coffee breaks, and the text episodes....they were basically working for four hours a day.  That's it.

Each was likely making $100k a year as a GS-employee....for four hours a day of work.

Around eight years ago, I got into a discussion with a co-worker over the effect of email and automation, and we came to the conclusion (or agreement) that automation really hasn't improved the quality of work or the amount of work over the past thirty years. If anything, we seem to do less work now.

If I supervised either individual?  After looking over their past behavior....I'd do everything possible to limit their access to systems and actually herd them toward productive work.

The question to ask....of the hundred-thousand folks in DC....how many of them are in a 333 text per day mentality?  That's what ought to worry a lot of people