Getting your money's worth out of government

The government worker stereotype is of a spiritless worker either doing make work or laying around doing nothing. That isn't true but the image lingers. I had first hand experience this week with one of the real causes of malaise in the civil service ranks.

Everyone likes to believe if you work hard and bring more than just the minimum work then you will be rewarded with promotions and better pay. For the most part, that is actually what happens. Then we get to the dirty little secret in the civil service ranks. Those job bulletins are often no more than a end run around the laudable goals of hiring the most qualified person for a job. I have seen too many times the hiring authority give the so-called competitive opening to someone clearly not the best choice. A manager hired for a technology department who had never worked in information technology. A customer service manager hired into the same department with no experience in computers. An elections official hired without actually ever conducting an election or even worked as a deputy or a full-time assistant to an elections manager. The list goes on and on but you have to wonder what runs through the hiring authority's head.

It is bad enough to hire someone based not on their actual qualifications. What is happening to the employees who thought they had a competitive shot at the new job? How often must this preferential treatment in a supposedly open process occur before the rank and file employee starts to give up and just does the minimum needed to hold onto a job?

Government has a ton of managers but I don't see many leaders. I also do not see many veterans in leadership either. I wonder if there is a connection? I don't know but unless government at all levels starts to lead and inspire their workers, we the taxpayers are going to increasingly take it in the shorts.

Time to crank up this blog!

Okay, what has happened in the last few months worth mentioning? Not much. The left wing press corps continues to harp on and on and on about the President. Anyone within 20 miles of this President is toast as far as the left wing media is concerned.

Some wonderful people passed away. Some sports figures passed some great career marks but are tainted because they cannot or will not answer critics about allegations over drug use. That is one that has always started me both laughing and shaking my head. If everyone in the upper levels of sport takes performance enhancement drugs, exactly who is at a disadvantage? The left wing media loves to rhapsodise on the rights of addicts to use their drug of choice but let an athlete take something than all hell breaks loose. Pitiful.

I promise more later but that is enough for now.