While I was at a concert recently, I wasn’t trying to listen in but happened to overheard a snippet of the conversation of the people sitting next to me during the intermission. One of them referred to someone who “retired after a 36 year career as a public servant.” That struck me. That term “public servant” is one you don’t hear much these days. I think it was more used when government employees were held in higher esteem. Why are they held in lower esteem now? I’d say it mostly has to do with Republican attacks on government and government employees. These attacks are often direct and angry — as in claiming that government is always the source of problems rather than the solution to many problems or that there’s some “Deep State” that frustrates Republican presidents — but they’re also indirect. Underfunded government agencies render poor public service feeding public perceptions that government employees are to blame for frustrating interactions with public employees. It’s an anarchistic approach that claims, in essence, that government is so terrible that we would be better off with no government. If you can’t directly end government, make it function worse and worse to move the public in the direction of your view, mindless opposition to all government.
We need to honor public servants. They do a super job often under difficult circumstances.
21 comments:
Let me help you out. People who largely approve of a government agency, often have little interaction with that agency. Take your local Police. If you work "normal" hours and are in bed by 9:30 PM and have no interaction with Police and crime rates are low... You're probably going to think favorably of the Police. On the other hand, if the same Police department pulls you over several time when coming home from work at 1:00 AM for no apparent reason... You're not likely to have the same opinion. If it takes you 6 years to get approved for SSDI, you might be less favorable to SSA than someone approved in 3 months. If you go every 5 years to DOT to get a license without any issues...you might feel differently than someone who has to get medical forms every year for seizures that they haven't had for 15 years. If the IRS confiscates your paycheck for FICA taxes you couldn't afford to pay when your income was from a paper route and your wages are being garnished for medical bills you incurred when you had no insurance, but, made just a little too to get Medicaid... you might feel differently than someone who always gets a refund. If your a farmer that has drain tiles that the EPA wants to call a navigable river in order to control you, or people in East Palestine, you might feel differently about the EPA than a Sierra Club member in San Francisco. I hope this helps...
Well said
I think it's mostly the poor service one gets at the DMV, SSA or other offices. It may be due to not enough funding/employees but most complaints I hear about have to do with poor attitude on the part of the employees.
This country has a schizophrenic relationship with taxes and government services. I think the sign we all laughed at during the height of the Tea Party idiocy "Keep Government Out of My Medicare" summed it up best.
Federal employees make a nice big anonymous, amorphous boogeyman for Republican politicians. It's not as juicy a target as whatever disenfranchised group they're hottest after in the moment- gays, immigrants, transgender. But it's a reliable pinata to fall back on, and they can't ever help but take a few whacks.
Agreed. Front line government workers, in my experience, do their best with limited resources. While there is a cynical political aspect to the attack on public service, upper level management in government (specifically, the Senior Executive Service (SES), the highest ranking government career employees), contribute. They are rarely held accountable, lobby and release press blaming others including rank and file employees for failures, and serve themselves above all else. The SES should be political appointees only, and maybe higher GS levels should be reinstated to fix this self serving class of government workers
No we dont need to honor them.
The government employees are not the same as they were years ago, they are not of the same quality at all. Anyone that has had dealings with government agencies, both state and federal knows they are not dealing with the capable employees of the past, but with place holders, just doing what they need to do to keep getting paid.
I was an agency member, but I did not stay, I am glad I didnt and I do not feel bad about leaving either.
With this attitude, I would wager that feeling of being glad you left is mutual.
I’d say many of my colleagues do indeed work hard and deserve respect for their service. But a lot of others don’t, in mg opinion, because they don’t work hard at all, and/or do such dumb things that I sincerely wonder whether they’re even able to put on a pair of pants without help. And there seems to be a direct relationship between these undesirable qualities and the size of their salaries.
Given the subject of this blog, you can probably guess which agency I work for.
You apparently are getting one side of the story.
Notice how it conveniently depends on the job. Police firefighters military Intel are all good saints doesn't matter if a drone strike kills a wedding party or a spy balloon flies over the continental US nevermind the privilege of hiding behind classification but if a civilian agency inconveniences you with a form you don't like to make sure the law is administered as written heaven forbid.
People are much more likely to complain than praise. Plus, it's easier for them to detect a bad attitude vs knowing how long it takes to process things or how things work.
I cried the day that my favorite SSA employee retired. She was efficient, correct and when she wasn't correct, she admitted her error. Loved working with her. I appreciated her and that appreciation was reciprocated. There are outstanding employees wherever you go. There are lackluster employees wherever you go. I don't care if it is a private enterprise or public. I am going to start making a point of complimenting public servants for a job well done, when appropriate, because of the horrid political atmosphere toward government employees these days.
Respect is earned not given.
No, it is common courtesy to treat everyone with respect.
Amen, 11:43. Question for 7:55, though: Do you think civil servants should treat members of the public with respect only once each individual person gains our respect?
Then dont yell "NEXT!" to me like we are cattle to be herded for your pleasure. Dont look at me like I dont know what I am doing, because I dont, nobody teaches a class in how to manage Social Security and even people that work for Social Security say it takes years to learn. Answer the phone. Return the damn phone calls. I have to jump when you call but I am pretty sure the guy I dealt with has retired and never returned a phone call in his career. Return my documents. You make me do stuff in ten days, but you get to move at whatever pace you want. Process my claim timely.
Maybe then you will earn my respect, until then, well you get what ya give.
Don't tell me that I could have done this online, I tried, but it didn't work, so I called, but appointments were 6 weeks out, so you bet I got up and stood outside an hour before you opened, because I had absolutely nothing better in my life to do but stand on your sidewalk in February. And I don't care that it will all be retroactive to the date of the call, my landlord doesn't take that kindly when I am waiting on my retirement check and not getting paid, because for the third time I have had to straighten out an age question and the people at the courthouse know me on a first name basis and send me Christmas cards because I have had to go in and get original documents so many times that I am sure my identity is being used elsewhere because you cant misplace the documents that many times in the same office. Oh he doesnt work here any more. Really? Appears he didnt work when he was here and now I am back again and you still dont know where all my original documents are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The reason you aren't getting return calls is that, due to Congress not providing anywhere close to adequate funding for staffing, the few employees that remain in the FOs are interviewing from.the time they arrive at the office until the time they go home. Employees used to be given one "desk day" per week when they would not be required to interview and instead use those right hours to return voicemails and develop their pending claims.
It is not our employee's fault that their offices are chronically short-staffed.
Stop shooting the messenger and instead get in the ears of those representing you in Congress.
Also, treating customer service reps rudely will get you nowhere. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
Also, treating customer service reps rudely will get you nowhere. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
Here is a 1 finger salute to your threat. You need to be in a different line of work if you hate people.
Again, if you think treating workers in public facing roles (whether that be an SSA employee in a field office, a customer service rep at your favorite big box store, a server at a restaurant etc.) with contempt is a good idea, you are fooling yourself.
Follow the golden rule. It isn't hard.
I am five months in to proving that SSA cant type in my birth date right. I respect that a lot, it is impressive. It isnt even a month or a year thing, it doesnt change my payment or eligibility, its the 12n not the 22nd. You supply them everything, they say that everything provided is correct, you do it multiple times and the problem remains.
I respect that, you dont get that level of service everywhere, it takes something absolutely special to achieve that level. I plan on building a monument to the service I have received if and when i get my retirement check, from the application I filed in November.
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