OK, I'm ignorant and boring. Another piece of evidence that public sector people feel entitled and hold the taxpayers-employers in contempt. I am grateful to have read your posts. Can I use them in my e-mails?

NO EMAILING MY POSTS!

i don't believe i indicated that i find you boring and ignorant in general...you are reading what you want into my posts.

you are ANYTHING BUT boring in matters OTHER THAN the private sector vs the public sector!

taxpayers who do not accept that the vast majority of public sector employees are just doing their jobs to the best of their ability to insure that the needs of all residents are provided for are held in contempt by the public sector employee...along with the sniveling, whining and abusive taxpayer at any customer service location!

good question! should you ever find the answer you can prob make a fortune selling it!

I rest my case...

thank goodness!

njbchbum; all I'm going to say in response to your numerous attempts to cloud the issue of, and you attempt to defend your job as essential, is that your responses literally reek of "entitlement". Your attitude is the reason people hate the public unions.

lol! good one!

Abusive taxpayer? I feel you have set back public relations quite a bit. I will never look at a public sector employee the same again.

i guess you have never been on the receiving end of an irate customer! it doesn't matter how you look at them really. just treat them with respect. if you don't receive respect from them - call their supervisor - just like you would do with a private sector employee.

I served my country, I know irate and I know how to handle it and I bet I didn't get one tenth of your salary.

#1, you didn't answer my question. Do you consider those employees of the construction company (and NH is a right-to-work state so there's a good shot at least some were non-union) are public or private workers?

#2, the gas tax hasn't covered highway construction and maintenance costs for quite a few years. Are you in favor of hiking the gas tax for that purpose?

njbchbum I just caught sight of your reply. Let me say that I am sorry my comments were not clearer. I did not mean to imply that all union workers malinger, etc. The initial union movement did much to help the average worker. However over the years unions have shifted their roles in a manner which is counter-productive. they did so in order to justify their existence.
I put myself through college night and so i worked days and was forced to join two different unions. I witnessed first hand how some workers with the blessings of unon bosses game the system. these are the kind of guys i jokingly say created workers compensation. Let's take the guy I know who was seen sticking his barfe foot i the snow. when one of my friends ask him what he was doing he said "I have a work comp hearing and I need to get my foot and leg cold and red before I appear in front of the judge" Many of my co-workers were not happy with nonsense like this because they recognized it reflected badly on them. The situation has only gotten worse over the years. Salary and benefits are way out of balance with comparable private sector jobs.

You might be surprised to hear me say that by some measure I want to see collective bargaining. However my rationale would be different than what union bosses are doing because they are pricing workers right out of the market...that is the economic reality . another aspect of this is that unions have such an influence over politics and forcing workers to vote for people and issues they would not otherwise.

This issue is not personal its economic. conersely I will tell you I am not happy about the 1% either. However, if anyone thinks they can get the best of them they might want to look back in history. this 1% has the means and resoruces to escape much at present and I suspect creative enough to adjust for any future changes

So again my apology because my comments seem to have misled you on my thinking

Having worked in both the private and the public arena, in my OPINION, the absolute worst irate customers, are those who hand you their MEDICAID card! Curiously if the customer hands you a PRIVATE insurance card and they have good reason to be irate, they can be dealt with quite easily with a simple Please forgive our mistake! Those who have free coverage and therefore pretty much everything for free, will not be appeased. They have usually not been wronged, but pursue the issue to the very top, having their arses smooched all the way up! ...FACTS!

i'm hoping you meant to post more to the point that most/many of the irate customers with whom you have dealt were those who provided medicare cards; and did not intend to broad brush all medicare insureds as irate and not capable of being appeased.

and in my experience in both employment arenas - some of my worst 'customers' often responded with a tantrum to my explanations of fact, law, rule and/or reg with the phrase, "well, don't you know who i am?' or "well, i'll have to write my representative about you!" or best of all..."well, that can't possibly be right!". my favorite resolution to those incidents was when i received an apology from a higher up for having been insulted and treated as poorly as i was by the 'customer'!

Those with MEDICAID cards (not Medicare) usually are harder to please, and usually these folks have complaints that are not based on reality, and when they do have a complaint, it is rare that a resolution can be found to satisfy them, even when that resolution is above and beyond what has been offered to the patients with private insurance. Not all Medicaid folks are difficult to please...no biggy, just throwing it out there.