I work for the government.

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by HTownMarine, Jul 9, 2019.

  1. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You have no idea. Telling you about it doesnt do it justice. You wouldnt believe it unless you saw it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2019
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  2. Texas Republican

    Texas Republican Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    My ex-wife worked for the FDIC 30 years ago. The stories she would tell would depress me. Many people there just to collect a paycheck, producing about 5 hours of work in a 40 hour week. Things that wouldn’t last ten minutes in the private sector.

    Government ... ugh.
     
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  3. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I work in the sewer. Telling you about it doesnt do it justice. You wouldnt believe it unless you saw it.
     
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  4. Eleuthera

    Eleuthera Well-Known Member Donor

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    I believe you, totally.

    When I was discharged from the US Army in 1972 I felt the same way.

    Seeing the government in action, being on the inside and seeing how inefficient and strange it is, is the sole reason I could support the draft. Every citizen needs first hand experience on how screwed up the government is.
     
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  5. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We all work for the Government unless rich...for about a third of the year.
     
  6. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ever seen 200 people sitting around doing nothing for three weeks and get paid for it?

    I hadnt until I worked here.
     
  7. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I've never worked at a business in the private sector where innovation is frowned upon because becoming TOO efficient means a reduction in spending, thus a reduction in the budget.

    Have you?

    I've seen things here that would cause people to lose their minds at a civilian company. It really is fascinating.
     
  8. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    So does the OP.
     
  9. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    My wife worked for the government for 30 years managing computer systems, reviewing and evaluating new systems, ordering the ones that performed as needed, installing them in management's hundreds of computers, running classes to train the managers, and answering questions on the phone. She says the people she worked with were hard working, dedicated, knowledgeable, and reliable.
     
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  10. fencer

    fencer Well-Known Member

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    That is the standard line for government workers. If they admitted they were slacking they might have to do more. I'm sure the guys at the SEC that were watching porn all day while the economy tanked said they were "hard working" too.
     
  11. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    Riiiiiight. Those posters who worked for the government and criticized and denigrated government coworkers are "correct" in your bias, but anyone who reports the opposite is a liar. IOW you tailor your conclusions to fit the current story into your biases. Well listen pally, it was THIRTY YEARS of her coming home and telling stories of her work day and I gave you the "flavor" of her experiences. So you can stop trying to make it out to be otherwise.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2019
  12. jay runner

    jay runner Banned

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    When I worked in the big shipyard here sometimes one crew assigned a certain task would have to wait for a another crew to finish in a space before they could work on their assigned task.

    The company built "bull pens." Workers waited in them while their assigned task was held up. Any boss of any craft could come to a bull pen, grab you by the elbow, and make you sweat cleaning welds in the inner bottom or work trash clean up in the inner bottom hauling heavy buckets by hand up to main deck. When your assigned task was clear to proceed with, your regular boss could call you back to your normal job. It was so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

    Since the bull pen made any boss's efficiency numbers look better, workers didn't get to sit for long in the bull pen. It was very good. Very, very good. It was absolute just, honest work for a day's pay.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2019
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  13. nra37922

    nra37922 Well-Known Member

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    Been there done that.

    The ones that worked gave the others a bad reputation.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2019
  14. Darthcervantes

    Darthcervantes Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We all know go ernment jobs are a cake walk yet most of you people want to give them more power...get a clue!
     
  15. fencer

    fencer Well-Known Member

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    The "flavor" you shared is your opinion of her opinion of what constitutes "hard work". She and her co-workers could be the exception to the rule, but the rule is government is full of people who claim to work hard but have no clue what real hard work looks like. Its human nature to want to be paid as much as possible and do as little as possible for the pay. Government workers have no bottom line, and little or no accountability. Why would they work harder than necessary to keep their jobs? This is why government is so bad; it is made of systems that incorporate incentives that are counter to hard work and productivity.

    If you want to get a good indication of the differences between government and private sector, find engineers that worked for your state department of transportation (DOT) and then left there to work for private engineering companies. Those engineers will have worked a regular day at their DOT, shuffling plan sets and "working" on projects that never get done. When they go to the private sector they discover real deadlines and accountability. They have to account for their billable hours and complete projects in a timely and budget minded way. I know one engineer personally who spent 7 years at his state DOT and never completed a project. In the 3 years since he left the DOT to work for a private contractor he's finished dozens of projects, many of them for the DOT since they outsource projects that actually need to be completed.
     
  16. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    And so you persist in asserting that YOUR view of government work is the only valid one. Bullshit.
     
  17. fencer

    fencer Well-Known Member

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    How could it be otherwise. I believe my view is valid and yours is not. I don't find it at all surprising that you persist in asserting that your view of government work is valid, though so far you've asserted it without reference to anything but opinion, while I've presented an actual argument. If you want to impeach my view you'll just need to establish that what I've said about human nature and the incentives of government are not true. Whining about my persisting in believing what I say isn't a productive argument.
     
  18. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    I presented the 30-year work experience of my wife and you tried to claim she didn't really know what see saw and experienced. Pretty nervy. But add to that the reliable and good quality work of many police departments, fire departments, Social Security, and Medicare to name a few, and there are others. But four are enough to disprove your claim.
     
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  19. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I said nothing about the people.

    There are very smart people who work here.

    Still, I've never seen a place where efficiency is frowned upon. If your wife worked for the government, there's no way she could argue her place of business strived for efficiency because they didn't.
     
  20. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    You didn't mention business management in the OP either. In fact, you didn't say much in the OP. Again, you didn't mention management in your second post in the thread either.

    Does a fire department strive for efficiency?

    I worked for a 160-year old firm in the paper, lumber, and pulp business and I can tell you it was shockingly inefficient with people sitting around surfing on their computers.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2019
  21. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There has been, literally, 200 people not working for weeks at a time.

    Nobody works
     
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  22. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes. They don't have 6 people doing the job one person could do.

    They dont have an unlimited budget where if you mess something up, oh well.

    If they flipped a truck, someone would be fired. Not the case here.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2019
  23. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    So you know there are efficient government operations. Great. I'm done here then. Bye.
     
  24. Gdawg007

    Gdawg007 Well-Known Member

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    So you posted a thread in a form that is driven 100% by conversation and yet you can't tell us about it?

    I work in corporate America. If you think there is zero waste, think again. If you think it makes sense to pay top executives what we do, think again. A business is nothing more than a means to make a few people rich. That concept alone is corruption and "waste," waste being corporate jets, junkets, and other money spent that the average worker sees zero benefit from.

    The US government isn't perfect, but it's far less wasteful and corrupt than the vast majority of governments out there. Complain where appropriate, but you didn't even do that!
     
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  25. HTownMarine

    HTownMarine Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So as long as SOME places are efficient, it's cool if others arent?

    Well, it's no wonder why people are okay with government run healthcare. Never mind government anything has never made money... some places are efficient so theyd probably be good at running our healthcare system.
     

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