Civil Service Employees

[buggyone]

This is just my personal rant that I want to express to the forum.

An acquaintance sent me one of those "Fw: Fw: Fw" emails that had gone to many, many addresses - you all know those kind.

This one had a series of photographs of humorous errors such as a package of corn labeled "watermelon", a package of blue & white frosted cookies labeled "black and white cookies", parking spaces with the curb in front so it would be impossible to park, a gate whose opening arm did not even reach the curb, etc. The title of the email was "It was your job and you screwed up - obviously Civil Service Employees!"

The idea that anything screwed up royally is the fault of civil service employees really ticks me off. Sure, there are some in every office, private sector or public sector, that are slugs or screw-ups but certainly not the majority of the employees.

My wife worked for 32 years at the Dept of Transportation ensuring the safety of airline passengers and the viability of airline transportation nationwide. I worked for the Dept of Veterans Affairs for 38 years and am proud to say that I created jobs for and placed hundreds of veterans in careers and jobs.

I am sure there are many others on this forum who have been civil service employees and have worked very hard in their careers and have the proud feeling of helping others.

[ilovetv]

Consider the source. What kind of friend or acquaintance sends you something that slaps your career in the face and makes a mockery of it?

We all know of a few real, factual examples of government bureaucrats doing things or making policies that only hinder productivity and probably waste taxpayer money. But to stereotype all the employees as being that mindless or useless is really pretty ignorant.

I'd send it back and tell the sender to stop sending me this stuff and to stop stereotyping thousands of people whom you've never seen/known on the job.

[Monkei]

This is just my personal rant that I want to express to the forum.

An acquaintance sent me one of those "Fw: Fw: Fw" emails that had gone to many, many addresses - you all know those kind.

This one had a series of photographs of humorous errors such as a package of corn labeled "watermelon", a package of blue & white frosted cookies labeled "black and white cookies", parking spaces with the curb in front so it would be impossible to park, a gate whose opening arm did not even reach the curb, etc. The title of the email was "It was your job and you screwed up - obviously Civil Service Employees!"

The idea that anything screwed up royally is the fault of civil service employees really ticks me off. Sure, there are some in every office, private sector or public sector, that are slugs or screw-ups but certainly not the majority of the employees.

My wife worked for 32 years at the Dept of Transportation ensuring the safety of airline passengers and the viability of airline transportation nationwide. I worked for the Dept of Veterans Affairs for 38 years and am proud to say that I created jobs for and placed hundreds of veterans in careers and jobs.

I am sure there are many others on this forum who have been civil service employees and have worked very hard in their careers and have the proud feeling of helping others.

My wife and I both retired with a combined total of 68 yrs with the VA. It is indeed a slap in our faces when we not only read dismissive items like this but meeting with low information citizens who also think our heatlh care insurance is and still is free and that we don't pay taxes. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

[Down Sized]

Consider the source. What kind of friend or acquaintance sends you something that slaps your career in the face and makes a mockery of it?

We all know of a few real, factual examples of government bureaucrats doing things or making policies that only hinder productivity and probably waste taxpayer money. But to stereotype all the employees as being that mindless or useless is really pretty ignorant.

I'd send it back and tell the sender to stop sending me this stuff and to stop stereotyping thousands of people whom you've never seen/known on the job.

A FEW???
:popcorn:

[2BNTV]

I have a much older cousin in AZ that sends e-mails to another cousin in NY about things that seem to get him upset. My cousin in NY then fowards this info via a distribution list to me.

Although I love my cousins, why do they assume that all family members think alike politically or on any other issue that seems to get them hot and bothered?

I ignore these pleas that are not family related and just go on the next thing.

[DandyGirl]

As a retired Government employee I dislike those declarations too. Every work place has fantastic employees and bad employees. I've worked with some dedicated and brillant people and some lazy and uncaring people. That's life.

[Jim 9922]

As a retired Government employee I dislike those declarations too. Every work place has fantastic employees and bad employees. I've worked with some dedicated and brillant people and some lazy and uncaring people. That's life.
At least in private businesses you can easily get rid of worthless employees! For me, accepting or continually working with bad employees is not acceptable or a good life.

[Portia]

I was a state employee for the dept of mental retardation..which was a real hard job at times..I have a metal bar in my arm to show for my hard work .. but in the end it was the most rewarding job I ever had .. I never regreted working for the handicapped and would glady do it all over again.. because they are much more grateful then some normal individuals that are in main stream society...

[Monkei]

At least in private businesses you can easily get rid of worthless employees! For me, accepting or continually working with bad employees is not acceptable or a good life.

Have you ever been a supervisor or manager for a federal agency? It takes paperwork and a well documented case but getting rid of a federal employee is not the work of god or a hell freezes over moment.

If getting rid of bad employees is so easy in the private sector why do I meet so many of them with attitudes throughout the week?

[twinklesweep]

At least in private businesses you can easily get rid of worthless employees! For me, accepting or continually working with bad employees is not acceptable or a good life.

Worthless employees are worthless employees from day one. Employees don’t start off like a productive “house on fire” and then suddenly become worthless. It is management’s responsibility to evaluate these employees before giving them job security (which came about for on-the-job political reasons), and if that manager is a “worthless employee,” he or she may well contribute to keeping other worthless employees working.

I might add that this type of job security is not set in stone; the law still allows management to correct the malfeasance (or nonfeasance) of one of its own who allowed job security to a “worthless employee.” But this is a sword with (at least) two edges. Here’s a true story:

Does anyone remember keypunch operations, back in the days when computers were mainframes in large, air-conditioned rooms and info was batch-fed to it? A woman who had started out as a consistently hard-working keypunch operator with a high accuracy rate evolved into one with a poor rate. Now remember, this is objective; her accuracy rate was not anyone’s opinion or based on personality or political issues but was simply measured as a percentage. The division head just wanted this woman out of her job, since she simply wasn’t appropriately productive in terms of his needs.

Here comes the rub. This was an older woman but not yet of retirement age, a member of a minority group, who was raising and supporting her grandchildren, who had developed arthritis in many parts of her body, including her hands, and added to this was the onset of some uncorrectable vision problems. The division head assumed that human resources personnel would handle her “being brought up on charges” (sounds awful, but that’s the language of the law). When he was told that no, he would have to address the board in her presence in terms of presenting the “charges,” he changed his mind very quickly! Instead, he transferred her to another department in his division where her limitations did not impact--or did not impact anywhere near as much--her job performance.

How sad that in the private sector, a person like this can simply be fired without recourse.

[spk7951]

Have you ever been a supervisor or manager for a federal agency? It takes paperwork and a well documented case but getting rid of a federal employee is not the work of god or a hell freezes over moment.

If getting rid of bad employees is so easy in the private sector why do I meet so many of them with attitudes throughout the week?


It is not easy to get rid of bad employees in either the private or public sector, especially if they are union. That statement is not meant as anti union but based on experience. I spent some time as a union officer and saw cases where someone really deserved to be fired but the NLRB would almost always rule in our unions favor by saying "progressive" discipline had not been applied. Friends that worked for the state of CT experienced the same. Salary workers had less protection in the private sector.


Back in CT one of the things I really did not like hearing was during a snowstorm whatever governor we had would come out and say that non-essential state workers did not have to report to work. Really! To me that really sounded kind of de-meaning to be telling people they are non-essential. Never understood the need for that phrase.

[Jim 9922]

------If getting rid of bad employees is so easy in the private sector why do I meet so many of them with attitudes throughout the week?
Apparently the owners/managers of those companies aren't doing their jobs properly. You won't find that at the companies I am/have been, associated with.

[njbchbum]

At least in private businesses you can easily get rid of worthless employees! For me, accepting or continually working with bad employees is not acceptable or a good life.

you can't be serious! nepotism reigns supreme in the private sector!

[Geewiz]

At least in private businesses you can easily get rid of worthless employees! For me, accepting or continually working with bad employees is not acceptable or a good life.

Spoken like a person who never worked in a unionized environment. Of course we know unions are bad things; that is, until you have been fired for no good reason.

[mulligan]

Obviously some people know NOTHING about organized labor.

[Cedwards38]

I worked 29 years in the public sector and have now worked for 8 years in the private sector, and I find examples of waste, incompetence, arrogance, laziness, and incredible creativity, competence, and sincere desire to do a good job in both. People are people, regardless of where they work, and frankly it is insulting to stereotype one or the other based on some few experiences.

As for getting rid of incompetent employees, its not easy, and shouldn't be easy to fire someone, but it can and is done by those who care and who are willing to do the hard work involved in doing it right.

[gmcneill]

It is not easy to get rid of bad employees in either the private or public sector, especially if they are union. That statement is not meant as anti union but based on experience. I spent some time as a union officer and saw cases where someone really deserved to be fired but the NLRB would almost always rule in our unions favor by saying "progressive" discipline had not been applied. Friends that worked for the state of CT experienced the same. Salary workers had less protection in the private sector.


Back in CT one of the things I really did not like hearing was during a snowstorm whatever governor we had would come out and say that non-essential state workers did not have to report to work. Really! To me that really sounded kind of de-meaning to be telling people they are non-essential. Never understood the need for that phrase.

No need to feel insulted or demeaned! I have to believe that no slight was intended.

As a now retired 33 yr employee of a SoFla city I experienced many hurricane response situations. At our agency- and I have to presume at any other agency- the term "non-essential personnel" directly referred only to those employees who did not perform emergency response duties.

For example, an accountant in the Finance Department is "non-essential" when
the job task is to clear storm drains during rain squalls in advance of a storm.
Using another analogy, firefighters would be "non-essential personnel" in the e
an IT network malfunction.

I presume that "non-essential personnel" is understood to apply to the particular situation, not the employee. I suppose that the Gov or whoever is in charge could change the reference from "non-essential" to "those personnel who are not members of the agency's emergency response teams..."

But that's not a suggestion that one would make during storm preparation or storm recovery modes.

[nitehawk]

This is just my personal rant that I want to express to the forum.

An acquaintance sent me one of those "Fw: Fw: Fw" emails that had gone to many, many addresses - you all know those kind.

This one had a series of photographs of humorous errors such as a package of corn labeled "watermelon", a package of blue & white frosted cookies labeled "black and white cookies", parking spaces with the curb in front so it would be impossible to park, a gate whose opening arm did not even reach the curb, etc. The title of the email was "It was your job and you screwed up - obviously Civil Service Employees!"

The idea that anything screwed up royally is the fault of civil service employees really ticks me off. Sure, there are some in every office, private sector or public sector, that are slugs or screw-ups but certainly not the majority of the employees.

My wife worked for 32 years at the Dept of Transportation ensuring the safety of airline passengers and the viability of airline transportation nationwide. I worked for the Dept of Veterans Affairs for 38 years and am proud to say that I created jobs for and placed hundreds of veterans in careers and jobs.

I am sure there are many others on this forum who have been civil service employees and have worked very hard in their careers and have the proud feeling of helping others.

So now you Fw: to TOTVs Thanks I just love --- never mind

[buggyone]

So now you Fw: to TOTVs Thanks I just love --- never mind

What are you saying? :shrug:

[kb8tpw]

This thread misses the real point. Most email systems have methods of shutting down a person's emails. I would shut them down so fast it's not funny, just like I UNFRIEND my Facebook friends that continue to use "f-bombs: in their messages and forwarding. I do not appreciate it and don't need to subject my other friends to such baloney. But here I go getting off topic. I too am a retired civil servant and very used to snide and un-whatever comments about civil service employees. I, as suggested above, consider the source and press on with life. Same for union member comments. Life is not a crappy email...........

[redwitch]

Once upon a time I was a civil service employee. I worked hard, did my job efficiently and effectively. So did my co-workers. However, being the greedy wench I am, I switched to the private sector and became a legal secretary. So, went from a possible career where everyone would assume I was lazy and incompetent to a career in which my employer was the brunt of every possible joke that could imply said employer was, at the very best, a snake and, obviously, I was the ground upon which that snake slithered.

Neither one attitude particularly bothered me nor those with whom I worked. We knew we weren't lazy and incompetent. My bosses knew they were good guys working in a profession that actually did a lot of good. Sometimes, that's what matters most -- that we know we're not as assumed. Basically, I knew the jokes and prevailing attitudes in both fields. I also knew that they weren't true. I think jokes like these are a lot different from bigoted jokes -- we have a choice as to where we work. We don't have a choice about the color of our skin or ethnic background.

A friend would never send me something that would demean me in any way, shape or form nor deliberately make a comment that would hurt me. That someone sent you this says far more about them than it does you or your wife.