[Filo]

Have you ever worked at a job in the public domain?

Yes, and I've worked for various government entities as a contractor (LA Mental Health, LA DPSS, Army Medical Command.)

In total I've met only a few people who could provide half of the service of a lobotomized Olive Garden waitress.

But, individual capabilities aside, the point I'm making isn't that the people who work at the DMV or Police Dispatch deserve abuse, it's that the DMV and Police Dispatch as entities do.

The unfortunate fact is that this will inevitably spill over to the employees themselves.

The other unfortunate fact is that many of the reasons that these entities are as bad as they are (and they are really, really bad) is because of the employees. . .

But my bottom line isn't to provide gratuitous abuse. My bottom line is to find a way to stop the government from destroying 1/3 of this nation's productivity in exchange for pretty much nothing.

If a few dispatchers or DMV slugs have to get an earful to meet that goal then so be it.

You've got to break a few eggs. . .

[Hodar]

the point I'm making isn't that the people who work at the DMV or Police Dispatch deserve abuse, it's that the DMV and Police Dispatch as entities do.

Hard to believe, but I'm inclined to agree with you on that point.

Unfortuntately, a lot of what you just posted it absoutely correct. Gov't bureacy both protects the workers, as well as makes their lives a soul-sucking drudgery. But, the way these departments are funded, it's almost impossible to hire someone, it's almost impossible to fire someone. Don't hire a minority, file paperwork. You end up with tons of employees, some are driftwood who know that they are 'safe'. Others are really great people, but they can't get promoted because of seniority, or Gov't guidelines - so they are stuck and eventually lose their motivation.

Then there is the unending drudgery of the job itself. I pity the Post Office clerk, who faces endless lines of people. Selling stamps, weighing boxes, fetching the boxes that someone has to pick up. I know what a 'good day' for me is, then I wonder what a 'good day' for this poor person is like. No matter how fast they work, or how slow they work - the lines keep coming. People are impatient, and they are stuck on the receiving end. They are powerless to hire additional help, they are stuck in a broken system.

This is where industry was supposed to shine. Good people got promoted, bad people got fired. Bonus's provided incentive where merit raises failed. Then the bean counters decided that bonus's was wasted money; that everyone is replaceable, loyality was for fools, and it's easier to layoff the plant and move the factory out of the country.