I work for the government.

First, bargaining is still an important issue. For example, a lazy government could try and enforce an incomes policy. Second, unions provide a key "voice" mechanism (arguably more important where government hierarchy runs amok)

 

Guess I have a hard time understanding exactly who 'government' is. In theory, its 'us' but in reality, its a bunch of fat cats who appoint other fat cats to do their biding. Would be fine with me if we wiped the slate clean and started over. Nothing created in the federal govt ever goes away. We're up to our necks in fat cats.

 

Government is typically most problematic when right wingers are in power mind you. They blur the boundaries of the private and public sectors. Through attempts to deregulate, they actually inflame government waste through influence costs.

 

Murray Rothbard may be able to help with the question of who government is. This is about an hour but well worth the time.

 

Maybe a tiny difference, but having worked thru 3 pictures hanging in the reception office (Rep/Dem/Rep), theres not a bit of difference in the overall operation. Things have been done the same way for 40 yrs and dont change, regardless of who's in office.

Having said that, there were a lot more perks under Obama... like shutting down the day after if a holiday fell on Thurs... and other wasteful benefits.

Feds just got a nice fat across the board raise, so its not like theyre suffering under Trump.

 

Dems, although an umbrella group, have been controlled by right wingers for yonks. There are only differences in the crassness of the ties.

There are periods where pubic sector wages, controlling for human capital differences, outweigh the private sector counterparts. That's typically the recognised importance of human capital in public sector jobs mind you.

 

Not sure, but they make my job very, very, easy. I'm half considering joining.

 

In my agency, fed employees could work from home 2 days a week and the union was pushing for 3. Mgmt announced the new limit is 1 day a week. The tribe is NOT happy.

Flex-a-place is one of the dumbest perks they offer. For a few positions, it may be productive, but for most, its a way to wear pajamas and watch tv all day, but get paid for it.

 

I was a supervisor in two union companies, it's much the same way. You can fire employees but you have to go step by step and cross every t and dot every i. Most supervisors don't want to go through the hassle. My best friend was a manager at Ft Meade working in a department that handled security clearances. I recall him saying he recently fired someone, although I don't know the specifics. That guys supervisor can do something, but he doesn't want to. I can understand to a certain extent, suspending my clerk was the hardest thing I ever did and her two previous supervisors let her slide every time.

 

Not to mention the fact that those government workers bemoaning how horrible government is seem to be more than willing to continue to suck on the taxpayer teat and bitch about it rather than find a "real" job in the private sector and live up to their stated vaunted principles...

 

I've not worked for them- but I've done business with them, and I've had people who were government supervisors in some of my own programs.

I can agree that waste of money, waste of time, and extremely poor management of both finances and people are rampant- and I've seen that since my first exposure to it in the early 70's. The level is pretty much beyond the comprehension of the average person; they just can't believe it. If any private business was that inefficient, it would be belly-up in short order.

 

Sounds like your "solution" would be to eliminate government.

 

You misunderstand me. I did a decade in Food Stamp, TANF and Medicaid eligibility and another six years in CPS. I agree with your wife. I was pointing out the rank hypocrisy of the OP and those government workers who agree with it. If they walked it like they loudly talk it, they would be out in the private sector showing us all how it's done. Instead, they take taxpayer money and bitch about it. They are the very thing they impotently piss and moan about.

 

Got it... good lil robots should turn the other cheek and pretend not to see waste & corruption. Youd make a great federal employee.

 

DC has a large number of ghost staff. These are actual people who do not have a job title but are part of a pool of people who have been hired to fill future positions. The argument is that it takes a long time to vet an individual for a particular job. Nothing is required of them but some do office chores such as filling, making coffee, running errands etc. Many are AA hires whose numbers swelled during the Obama years. I learned this some years ago while working in DC, the company I worked for had government contracts and from time to time it was my job to schmooze with the right people to maintain the company's relationship with Uncle Sam. What I learned is this is a practice that began sometime in the 70s and snowballed to what it is today. Every federal office has such a pool. A good example of this is between the House and the Senate there are over 13000 congressional staff divided between 535 members. Entry level salaries are in the high $40s an top out somewhere in the 70s. Actually those numbers are small compared to the federal bureaucratic juggernaut. The number of federal employees is 2.1 million.

 

And yet, they risk nothing by doing precisely dick about it, while safely sucking on the taxpayer teat. My critique stands.

 

Do you honestly think one 'Norma Rae' can make a ripple of difference?

I understand why nothing changes... unlike private business which is cyclical in nature and encourages teamwork, govt work is self-perpetuating and its every federal employee for his or herself. A Grade 12 is a Grade 12, no matter what function they perform.

In my agency, the union requires that every empty cubicle have a sign that reads EMPTY CUBICLE.

Our tax dollars at work.

 

No matter. Nobody here has proven that government workers are less dedicated to their work than private sector employees that I can recall. But there's sure been lots of opinions thrown around.

I call this a dead issue after 90 posts of getting nowhere.

 

For what it’s worth, I was chatting with a long time employee of the FSA yesterday. I had to make an appointment to drive 30 miles to sign one form. It’s been five years or so since I’ve asked anyone down at that office when they will implement some kind of web based document signing. I asked again yesterday. She said maybe in 4-5 years. She also informed me they started working on the system in 1999 or 2000.

I’ve had these conversations with this employee before. When this employee retires in a few years they plan to start a business to be a middle man between the producers and the FSA. The idea is to provide the service of dealing with the inefficiencies of the government on the producer’s behalf. I will be one of their first customers.

Another recent experience I had with government was trying to get a replacement Medicare card and become the SS payee for my mom.

I called the SS head office. They said to call my local office. They said to walk in to the local office. It’s a 1.5 hour drive away. When I got there it was closed (unannounced). I called again. They said I could do it all in a phone interview. I set up an appointment for them to call me in two weeks. They called. Told me it was impossible to do what I needed over the phone. Said to walk in to the office. So I called to make sure they were open. Drove down again. Took a number. My number was called. The nice lady said I had to do a phone interview, she couldn’t do it at the office. Set up another date two weeks out.

I was getting desperate so asked my uncle if he could try as he is in another state and lives close to an office. They told him to hire a lawyer and have my mom declared incompetent by a judge. I told him to forget it, I’d try the phone interview again. Nice guy called right to the second. Took my information in about a minute and a half. No lawyer, no judge, no hassle. Told me it would be finalized in two weeks. It is. I have the new card.

I could go on and on. My dad once took SS disability for a few months after a bad logging accident. When he went back to work and tried to end benefits nobody in the state knew how to do it. Apparently never seen it done. Took longer to get off the system than the period of time he received benefits. They’d say he was off but send a check. He’d call and they would say it was the final one and to go ahead and cash it. Two weeks later they would want the money back. Finally he just started stacking them up. It was patently absurd.

I’m sure this is all anecdotal and I’m just unlucky.

 

The actual Norma Rae certainly did, because she had the courage of her convictions and put her job - not to mention her life - on the line for those convictions. The OP, on the other hand, posts meaningless threads on an internet forum bitching about it, while profiting handsomely from what he's bitching about and not lifting a finger to change things. In every way, a perfect example of 'Murican conservatives...

 

I could give you literally thousands of examples of similar stories of bureaucratic ineptitude from major corporations. There are entire websites dedicated to just that. Hell, Google "cancelling Comcast service nightmare" for a few.

Or:

Wells Fargo
AT&T
Sprint
Time Warner
CitiBank
Bank of America
Best Buy
WalMart
GM
Ford
Dodge
Dell
Compaq
Any friggin' electric or gas company
Exxon

Just to name a few. Government hardly has a monopoly on lazy, stupid, inefficient employees and bureaucratic black holes...

 

For every hard working person in a government job, there are ten who are not.

 

The same can be said for the private sector.

 

BS and you know it. Not saying that dead weight doesn’t exist in the real world (ie private sector) but it’s a fraction when compared to an organization that spends other people’s money, on other people. Which is the absolute most inefficient way of doing it when it comes to economics.

 

Can you prove that is not just your personal bias and opinion?