This quote about the unsettling effects of constant reorganisation is credited widely to Gauis Petronius Arbiter, a Roman courtier at the time of Emperor Nero, around 27 – 66 AD. However, there is some dispute as to whether he actually did say it. Other sources credit it to author Robert Townsend in 1970 and others still to an anonymous soldier pinning a notice with a similar sentiment to an army bulletin board in WWII.
Whatever the provenance anyone who has worked in a large organisation of any sort will recognise the feeling all too well.
