>  > Here, depending on what group your working with, I think parts of our state
>  > government actually do a pretty good job considering the lack of resources
>  > they have.

> If they do good, I think it's in spite of themselves. I did a stint in local g
> ernment and was amazed at the lack of concern over performance. Yes, the missi
>  is good and true in most cases, but when it comes to execution it seems to fa
>  apart more times than not.

> My experience with local government was that most people want to keep their he
> s down, don't make waves, do as little as possible, and retire with a pension.
> on't do anything that could jeopardize that pension. The less you do, the less
> ou're noticed, the better.

> Your mileage may very. I hope it does.

Maybe it is an issue with the local government you worked for.  Also, I am
guessing you worked in IT maybe, which made a difference for me.

I worked for one cabinet that dealt specifically with IT for the rest of
the state.  My experiences there were not necessarily reflective of what I
said above.  They had the lack of resources bit, but the "ground troops"
were often (but not always!) eager to engage.  Management was usually the
obstacle... wanting to do what they wanted to do rather than what the
customer (another cabinet) had asked for.

On some occassions, they'd get it lucky and get it right, i.e. what the
cabinet was asking for really wasn't in their best interests.  Usually,
they just wanted to sell them whatever new stuff that had, in turn, been
sold to them by some less than reputable salesperson.

My experiences in two other cabinets leads me to believe that, while ther
are a few "heads down" types, there are a lot who really want to do the
best they can for the taxpayers and/or their other customers.  The "heads
down" and "do nothing" types found their opportunities to be even fewer and
far between than the other employees, which either discouraged them out of
government or forced them to pick up the pace.

I never worked in Education.  I will throw that out there as, in my state,
many of their employees are unionized, they get different (usually better)
benefits, and, based on our school systems, many are not using the money
given to them wisely.

Mike

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