Friday's Panic
Brian works for company A but they contract him out to agency B.
Friday morning Brian's boss at B came in and told Brian how much they loved the work Brian does but that due to a Congressional Mandate they had to cut support staff and that they had no choice and that Brian would be on 1/4 time at the site for the rest of the year.
Brian called me in a bit of a panic to let me know on his way to being late to his dentist appointment to have a filling replaced. (Yeah, great day when going to the dentist is a reprieve from something worse.)
For those that think that cutting government spending and eliminating programs instead of actually asking the wealthiest 10% of Americans to acctually pay their taxes! - guess what? There is no fat to cut anymore. You are now cutting the people who support our security agencies. You are eliminating the jobs of excellent workers who make sure that the government is actually getting value for their money. You know the $160,000 armored SUV with the doorlock issue? You're forcing the government to fire the person whose job it is to make sure that _doesn't_ happen and whose job it is to get the SUV builders to fix it.
After the dentist Brian made some panicked phone calls to Bosses at A looking for work. (gotta love a 3 day weekend too for making sure to make things difficult).
Meanwhile, the people Brian works for/with at B got all in a dither and several spent the morning polishing up resumes, calling head hunters etc.... because frankly they didn't want to deal w/ the SNAFU that would be left by not having Brian doing his job.
Thankfully, by the end of the day Boss A called Brian and explained that it had been worked out at higher levels and that Boss B got confused and didn't know that higher ups had already manuvered to save Brian's job.
On the good side, Brian's ego got a bit of a boost from seeing just how crucial his coworkers/bosses see him. On the negative - see above - there is no fat left in government left to cut. Republican obstructionists in Congress aren't just playing chicken with minor programs. They are now playing chicken with large parts of our security system. Maybe you think TSA and other "letter agencies" could be more competent. Fine! There's always room for imporvement. But keep in mind Democracy is the worst form of government except for everything else. Before you vote to cut/defund any more government programs please tell us what you are going to put in its place that's better.
Friday morning Brian's boss at B came in and told Brian how much they loved the work Brian does but that due to a Congressional Mandate they had to cut support staff and that they had no choice and that Brian would be on 1/4 time at the site for the rest of the year.
Brian called me in a bit of a panic to let me know on his way to being late to his dentist appointment to have a filling replaced. (Yeah, great day when going to the dentist is a reprieve from something worse.)
For those that think that cutting government spending and eliminating programs instead of actually asking the wealthiest 10% of Americans to acctually pay their taxes! - guess what? There is no fat to cut anymore. You are now cutting the people who support our security agencies. You are eliminating the jobs of excellent workers who make sure that the government is actually getting value for their money. You know the $160,000 armored SUV with the doorlock issue? You're forcing the government to fire the person whose job it is to make sure that _doesn't_ happen and whose job it is to get the SUV builders to fix it.
After the dentist Brian made some panicked phone calls to Bosses at A looking for work. (gotta love a 3 day weekend too for making sure to make things difficult).
Meanwhile, the people Brian works for/with at B got all in a dither and several spent the morning polishing up resumes, calling head hunters etc.... because frankly they didn't want to deal w/ the SNAFU that would be left by not having Brian doing his job.
Thankfully, by the end of the day Boss A called Brian and explained that it had been worked out at higher levels and that Boss B got confused and didn't know that higher ups had already manuvered to save Brian's job.
On the good side, Brian's ego got a bit of a boost from seeing just how crucial his coworkers/bosses see him. On the negative - see above - there is no fat left in government left to cut. Republican obstructionists in Congress aren't just playing chicken with minor programs. They are now playing chicken with large parts of our security system. Maybe you think TSA and other "letter agencies" could be more competent. Fine! There's always room for imporvement. But keep in mind Democracy is the worst form of government except for everything else. Before you vote to cut/defund any more government programs please tell us what you are going to put in its place that's better.