Empathy, Not Sympathy
I was reading another blog the other day discussing how Federal workers are beginning to panic about their futures. “What will I do?“, “How will I pay my bills?“, “Where will my next paycheck come from?“
I can empathize – I’ve been there; I’ve even been a GS employee at times. And I’ve been laid off before.
Well, welcome to the real world.
It’s a bit of a shock when someone comes to you with a termination notice: “Project’s been cancelled, we need to cut costs“.
Said message usually brought by someone who knows they won’t be laid off and whose main job is terminating others when not shuffling papers.
Sometimes you might get two weeks notice; seems these days you’re more likely to be walked out the door right then and there.
A certain complacency sets in when you’re assured of not being fired. You might get re-assigned, but you do continue to get a paycheck.
You know who’ve been the most assured of not getting fired from government jobs? The support staff – secretaries, HR, accounting, legal. Those that do the work are often subject to project funding – and those who “support” the work are often the least likely to be let go. All too often – in my experience – these are the DEI hires, the “affirmative action” hires, those who have “rights” but little responsibility and even less accountability.
So, yes, I have empathy for these workers – I’ve been in that position and at best, it sucks. Then it goes downhill from there. Their cocoon is bursting and they now find themselves in the same position Biden put the oil pipeline workers in when he first took office. Other examples abound.
Welcome to the world of the private sector …
What was the government’s advice to the oil workers when the pipeline was shut down putting 11,000 people out of work?
“Learn to code” as I recall.
I wonder how much sympathy these same Fed workers had for those workers, knowing that their jobs were “guaranteed?
Biggest trouble in this country now is not enough jobs for too many people.
It’s going to take a while to shift things back to production. There will be undeserved suffering.
And there’s no way out in the short-term.
I’m in favor of tariffs on principle. While costs will go up in the short run, the nation will be better off if we return to being a “producer nation” as opposed to being a “consumer nation”, i.e., welfare state. Make money real again, bring production back to this nation, decrease the actual unemployment numbers, not just those unemployment numbers based on those who collect government welfare. The number of people without livable work right now far exceeds the official numbers – our economy is in very bad shape.
It’s largely a tax code and regulatory issue. Out-sourcing is a tax deductible expense (or was when I was in that game); employees are an expense of a different sort. What would happen if the cost of employees was a deduction from gross revenue? What would happen if “labor-saving” equipment was taxed at a rate proportional to the number of “laborers” it replaces?
Someone would figure out a way to pay off the legislators that we allow to make those decisions to benefit the few at the expense of the many
…
What would happen if there weren’t so many regulations discouraging small start-up businesses?
What the country now needs – especially in light of the current state of the educated public – is more jobs for ditch-diggers and porters.
And fewer jobs for HR, “administrators”, “administrative assistants”, and the like.
Rant over … and I didn’t even really get started.
“What would happen if there weren’t so many regulations discouraging small start-up businesses?”
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THAT right there.
I started my biz in 1986 and since then the regs have went through the moon. In 2006 I decided enough was enough, I was shouldering too much and not earning enough to compensate. So I shut down and retooled. Got leaner, and meaner. I let my employees go, let my office go, got rid of almost everything.
Where we lived in FL I was required to have 8 different business licenses. Here in IN I’m not required to have any. And on and on. What’s the point in earning $1mil if you’re only allowed to keep $100k? Just make $100k and cut everybody else out of the picture.
As my Czech friend used to say, “When the rules get tougher the people get sneakier.”
I used to believe I owned a company but in time I realized the company owned me, and I didn’t like that arrangement….so I upset the applecart and stepped off.
Eight licenses to be an Architect? Wow, that’s a lot. What type of licenses were they? Could you list them here?
I only saw a couple that were required– https://www2.myfloridalicense.com/architecture-and-interior-design/
There will never be a reply to that question.
As some of you may know about 25 years ago a new DEI hire(lesbian) was hired by the university my DH had worked at for 12 years.
He was a department chair and had designed a new program. Stanford took their cue from him to start a similar program. DH’s department/program made it into the Top 10 of US news and world report for management classes.
After she was on campus trying to act like she was qualifed and competent she called an “all campus meeting”–faculty, students, staff, administrators. She got up on stage and announced “her vision” for the future. She also announced my DH would not be in charge of his department or his own work anymore. She made that announcement in public without ever having discussed it with my husband beforehand. When we refused to stay on and “make her look good” we asked the business consultants she had hired to teach her how to be a campus president. Their response was chilling. “She had to make your husband a public execution like that in order to get everyone on campus to respect her. “It’s called shock and awe”. When we refused to work for them in any way they blacklisted him. He has spent the last 25 years patching together part time work. He was fifty six when they destroyed his career. He is 82 now and still trying to patch together some income producing projects. He began his professional life as an architect. Two major visitor’s centers designed and built for the USFS. He then completed a M.A and Ph.d (with distinction) in another management field. He wrote the book which is considered the groundwork for the field.
He told me today that he had let his architecture license lapse because we could not afford the $1,000 to renew it every two years.
During the first five years after he was fired I went to 23 attorneys in the Seattle area asking for thier help. None would accept our case. Each man said the same thing:
“I can’t the women will destroy me” Two men cried. One let me know they would put his brother in jail on a trumped up charge if he accepted my DH’s case. Not to worry–he was a former US attorney!