The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: 5412 on October 29, 2009, 07:48:44 AM
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Hi,
Well I saw an article today that really riled me so I wrote a letter to the local paper that likely will go unpublished. Thought you might appreciate seeing it.
regards,
5412
Dear Editor,
I see where many Hillsboro County employees will be on leave Friday, a move to save taxpayer dollars. I also see where the president is pushing "volunteerism" and one lad on the video I saw said basically that is volunteering your time and "working for nothing". Perhaps all the government employees around the country who are facing pay cuts should pave the way and "volunteer" to show up for work anyway.
My son works for a large national company and they all had to take a 10% pay cut in lieu of people having to lose their jobs. They still work a full week. Why is it government employees can take the day off where the private sector "volunteers" to work a full week and are thankful to have a job?
If the president wants an initiative towards volunteerism, government employees should be leading the way......
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There actually is an answer to that, though you probably don't want to know it.
At least two answers, really, since one is fiscal law: The government is legally obligated to pay for what it gets, including labor, which keeps them from doing crazy shit like just taking stuff without compensation. The other one goes back to the Civil Service Reform Act and similar state laws, prior to which there was the 'Spoils system' where employees worked a lot more hours than they were paid to keep their jobs, to include on their boss's political campaigns, since they were all out on their ass if the other party ever won an election.
There are many corporations, your son can always work for another one and vote with his feet, staying there is only encouraging them and the real talent normally leaves first when that kind of stuff happens. But there is only one government, so there is a fundamental difference in terms. For that matter, if he is an hourly employee, his company is probably violating the FLSA, and if he is a salaried employee or he's doing it because of a profit-sharing compensation package, the 'days off' or only notional anyway.
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What we didn't see was Congress voting down their pay raise this year, instead, they allowed their pay raise to be instituted this year. We don't see Govt Employees (Civil Service Types) taking pay cuts in order to help reduce the deficit. I won't begrudge the military folks a pay raise because they deserve it.
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There actually is an answer to that, though you probably don't want to know it.
At least two answers, really, since one is fiscal law: The government is legally obligated to pay for what it gets, including labor, which keeps them from doing crazy shit like just taking stuff without compensation. The other one goes back to the Civil Service Reform Act and similar state laws, prior to which there was the 'Spoils system' where employees worked a lot more hours than they were paid to keep their jobs, to include on their boss's political campaigns, since they were all out on their ass if the other party ever won an election.
There are many corporations, your son can always work for another one and vote with his feet, staying there is only encouraging them and the real talent normally leaves first when that kind of stuff happens. But there is only one government, so there is a fundamental difference in terms. For that matter, if he is an hourly employee, his company is probably violating the FLSA, and if he is a salaried employee or he's doing it because of a profit-sharing compensation package, the 'days off' or only notional anyway.
Hi,
My son is salaried and has been with them over 25 years and is one of their top producers. I appreciate your filling me in on the background of the government. I do have a question. Is there anything that would prevent an employee from volunteering to work if they so desired????
One should also note that BO crammed down a pay raise for all federal government employees this year as part of the stick-it-to-us package. That fact alone should give folks a clue as to just how out of touch these folks really are. Let them try to survive in the real world with a for profit corporation for awhile.
regards,
5412
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Speaking just from my experience with people in DOD and DOJ, a lot do (Everyone I know certainly has), at least in the professions as opposed to trades, though technically it violates some laws including the Anti-Deficiency Act (The set of laws which prohibit agencies from spending more than Congress has appropriated and authorized for them), since that unfunded work creates an obligation on the agency's part to pay for the value of the services received, but it hasn't budgeted to pay for that. Since it is the employee's regular job, and longer-term issues like ratings and promotion might be affected, any such unpaid time can't be regarded as a truly voluntary 'Gift.' As far as the gift issue itself goes, Congress severely limits the ability of agencies to accept gifts that further their mission, since Congress wants to be able to control what they do via the 'Power of the purse,' so Congress regards any such gifts as 'Unlawful supplementation of an appropriation' issues beyond a certain very low threshold ($1000 in the Army, for appropriated fund activities; nonappropriated fund activities benefitting morale, welfare, and recreation instead of the actual agency mission have a much higher acceptance authority).
In a lot of ways being a Federal professional (Doctor, lawyer, comptroller, engineer etc.) is like working a job with the worst features of hourly employment and the worst features of salaried employment combined...all the pay and benefits are based on hours only, you have to account for every hour each two-week pay period, your leave is based on hours, there is almost never any overtime authorized and it actually pays less than straight time for a lot of the long-service pros, there is no meaningful performance reward in the sense that it exists in the private sector (And in a way just as well, because since there is not a meaningful way to judge ROI for government services, it would devolve into an office politics game pretty quickly, which is what has happened with the rather modest incentives under NSPS in many places), but the demand or mission is still there and has to be met whether the resources are sufficient or not.
It is by the way a myth that it is impossible to fire a Federal employee, it is probably easier than firing an employee in a private sector union shop. But, like managers in a union shop, Federal managers by and large don't see it as worth the battle to take a disciplinary or performance action short of firing, so they wimp out on doing any of the required preliminary work building a record of problems until it becomes a crisis. Then they piss themselves whining about how 'Unresponsive' the system is to their 'Needs' when they can't go straight from 'Unblemished record' to 'Fired' in one leap on the problem child.
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just like in the army, you wanna get rid of a problem, you have to show a pattern in the paperwork. that's why joes actually prefer getting smoked to paperwork, if they're smart at least.
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just like in the army, you wanna get rid of a problem, you have to show a pattern in the paperwork. that's why joes actually prefer getting smoked to paperwork, if they're smart at least.
Yep, the necessary groundwork is based on the same kind of due process, progressive discipline, and rehabilitation attempts as that required for doing an Army separation board for 'Chapter 13, Substandard Performance' or 'Chapter 14, Pattern of Misconduct.' Of course the actions themselves don't look all that much alike once the groundwork is all in place.
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Yep, the necessary groundwork is based on the same kind of due process, progressive discipline, and rehabilitation attempts as that required for doing an Army separation board for 'Chapter 13, Substandard Performance' or 'Chapter 14, Pattern of Misconduct.' Of course the actions themselves don't look all that much alike once the groundwork is all in place.
My former (very large) employer subscribed to the theory that it was easier to give them good appraisals, and promote them to positions where they could do no real damage.......likely why they are bankrupt now......
doc
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My former (very large) employer subscribed to the theory that it was easier to give them good appraisals, and promote them to positions where they could do no real damage.......likely why they are bankrupt now......
doc
Often referred to as "FUMU" in some circles.