...Our company had a process to seek approvals for changes in budget from year to year. It was very burdensome and took a large amount of time. The cost of every change to any budget other than inflation had to be calculated, reported and approved. Then the new standards had to be issued and used in the annual budget process.

One of the items that always perplexed me was that every fourth year we dutifully calculated the cost and production for the extra day in Leap Year. It took a lot of time and required approval by every manager though we had no power over it.

So, upon becoming a manager and finding such approval to be meaningless, I issued the declaration that we WOULD NOT spend the time and effort calculating the cost and production for the added day. We would add those only in the final budget.

Within minutes I had a red-faced, highly agitated employee in my office screaming that I could not do that. We HAD to calculate that cost and production so that our costs would be accurate. She demanded that I change my declaration for the less than one-third of a percent change that Leap Year presented. I pointed out that we made many other changes between the time we approved standards and the calculation of budget costs and that nobody really needed to approve leap year. I stood firm.

She took her case to a higher manager who looked at her with a puzzled scowl and asked, "Have we really been approving leap years all this time?"

It ended the discussion and the idiocy of seeking management approval for something not in their control.