Are you the type of person who doesn't like to try very hard? Who, once you get a job, like to kick back and relax, assured that it's very unlikely you'll ever be terminated? Then check this out.
click here to read on: Want a Job Where You’re More Likely to Die Than be Fired? Try the Government
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I worked as a manager for over 15 years in government and believe me, I TRIED to file poor employees. The problem was that as soon as something negative hit their personnel file, I was brought up against EEOC, Grievance Process, you name it. It would end up taking so much of my time to defend that I would give up. I did have better luck with those employees who had obvious behavioral issues - they were much easier to defend (i.e., the supervisor who walked the hallways screaming that she hated her staff, the employee who would curse out loud as he strolled through the lobby.)
I'm sorry, but I giggled at the thought of your employee who cursed loudly as he strolled through the lobby. That is utterly hilarious--hilarious for me, that is, because I didn't have to deal with it.
And I should clarify that it's the senior management who makes the rules that are the problem, not necessarily the line managers who are stuck with the day to day problems.
Not just federal, state level as well. I worked as a contractual worker in a state office and the only people working in that office were the new state workers (who were still of the mindset that they should work for their paycheck) and the contract workers. One long-time state worker was waiting for retirement, and his wife worked for a school district. They lived off her overly large paycheck (she obviously wasn't a teacher), and he would always brag that his overly large paycheck went immediately into savings or for investments because his wife made so much. He would sleep in his office, and I'd have customers asking me, "What's that loud grating noise?" Yeah, he was snoring. You could hear it even after we'd close the door. He'd lose files (we worked with people who had disabilities, and this was a huge hassle and potential lawsuit since it included their entire medical history as it pertained to our business with them), and when his assistant was looking for one she instead found a huge briefcase full of hardcore porn magazines. She was flabbergasted and had us come in to verify that she had seen it before going to our supervisor. The supervisor did nothing, so the assistant went to the main office above our supervisor. The "big guy" in the state for our department came to our town from the capital and talked to the employee in his office for about five minutes. We then saw the employee take his suitcase out and put it in his trunk. The "big guy" left, and nothing else was said or done.
This guy did no work, slept, and apparently used porn in the workplace, but no one wanted to deal with trying to fire him. He knew it would be a long, tough battle to get him fired (and I have heard other state employees brag that if the supervisors try to fire them, they'll go to the union with tons of doctored "records" of sexual harassment or other grievances), and he would often say that he could do pretty much anything and still not get fired.
It was one of the worst worplaces I've ever been in, because of the attitudes of state workers. The state was in a huge decline, so anytime a worker retired or left, they'd hire a contractual worker to replace him or her. It was crazy, because they went through contractual workers like mad, as the workplace was so bad and we had no incentives to really stay there for very long (our benefits were through our home company and not through the state), and if you happened to look cross-eyed at a state worker and they didn't like it, they'd "report" you for something to have you fired immediately. (Right after I started training, the person training me was fired for putting down the phone "too loudly" once -- or that was the excuse, anyway. She had reported a state worker for misuse of work supplies. I had no one else to train me in, and I'd only been there a little over a week. Trial by fire in a hostile environment was just great... ;) )
I'm posting somewhat anonymously, since I still need good references from the actual supervisor as well as my contracting company, but I'm glad to be out of that place. I wouldn't have stuck around even if I had been hired as a state employee, especially with that level of incompetence around me.
I am a state employee and we do have some people who are goof-offs, and they give the rest of us a bad name. However, despite unions and Civil Service protections, we do fire people for not doing their jobs. You just have to document and have an HR office willing to support you.
That is, if you get in. I have tried for many years to get a government job in our area, but I am not a wife, girlfriend, son, or daughter... I am someone who works very hard at her not for profit job and wants something more stable. The closest I got was a second interview and then a letter saying, "We liked you and there was nothing wrong with you, we just didn't hire you."
I thought this article was fairly timely, in light of this blog post. Even government workers whose actions end up killing people can't be fired, apparently. This is simply ludicrous.
Post a Comment