Self-taught MBA

I seem to have been left temporarily in charge: staff leaving haven't yet been replaced. My boss wasn't paid tremendously more than me, and seeing as he was about to have a nervous breakdown (caused by up to 350 hours (unpaid) overtime a year), I can't see that maybe getting part of his salary pro-rata, is going to do anything for my fragile mental health.
Nonetheless, I have learnt some things:
1. Try and know what you are talking about (see 2 below)
2. Learn to be good at bluffing
3. Keep your head down
4. Make sure that specific requests by higher management are carried out, and that they know they have been (and allow yourself to be smug when you know other (proper) managers haven't done said tasks)
5. Cultivate sympathy, especially with friendly fellow managers and assistant directors.
6. Write impressive reports that are largely plagiarised from elsewhere, to be distributed to influential people eg Councillors under your own name.
7. Get rid of staff to manage: in my case, 3 have left, two are crocked with knee injuries (coincidence), one is not required to work skool holidays, one has a young family to Christmas with, leaving you with time to do 1 to 6 above.
8. Ignore the telephone ringing incessantly in the other office because it will only be trouble.

Additionally I get to go to lots of meetings to watch other people smile and bluff, and to attract sympathetic looks when I report the state of my section, and to go to personal meetings with the Director/Commissioner because there aint nobody else to go (see 2 & 7).

Whether this method will actually achieve anything, transport-wise, for the upright yeomen and women of the Borough, remains to be seen. We can maintain this state of treading water for just so long until we start to drift backwards. Like a lot of local government, nobody notices when you aren't doing anything, until suddenly the roads aren't mended, or the bins aren't collected, or there are 1500 streetlights to replace all at once.

As they say, there is no "i" in "team", but there is also no team with just I.