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It's the govs own fault
1. Government employees make peanuts compared to their private sector counterparts. I'm talking about the rank and file, who have most of the detailed knowledge, not the top 5%, who seem to get nice packages. In the past, this was offset with really good benefits packages. But over the last decade, this has waned. As one example, government offices have started following the private sector trend of making their employees pay for part of their group health insurance, and each year, the employee portion continues to go up. Add in the political and bureaucratic aspects, and why would anyone want to be a public employee? It doesn't pay.

2. Our governments (federal & states) do next to nothing to prevent extreme outsourcing/offshoring by corporations. This is particularly an issue in science and engineering fields. The result is that there isn't a base of experienced private sector employees for government facilities to draw on.

3. Reverse discrimination: failed affirmative action policies have caused some very qualified people to eschew government jobs after being initially rejected in favor of a lesser qualified person who met the "profile" being looked for to increase the "diversity" at that office. Yes, it happens; it's not rare, and its reverse discrimination. Employment should be strictly on merit.

These are just a few of the factors leading to lesser numbers of people willing or able to step into government jobs. One personal anecdote: I, for one, have no intention of leaving the private sector, having seen a relative work many years and be underpaid and underappreciated. At one point, another person quit, and this relative took on all of those duties in addition to his own..."temporarily". Guess what? It wasn't so temporary. Several years later, he's still doing two people's jobs. This relative was good enough at what he does, that he could get it all done and done well. His union in recent years has averaged raises of 1.5%. And for the past 2 years has had no raise - the contract expired and the state refuses to conclude negotiations. When your raises aren't keeping up with a cost of living adjustment level, there's something wrong with that.
Posted by: techboy_z   Posted on: 01/26/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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It's the govs own fault  techboy_z | 01/26/06

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