My dad worked for the federal government his whole career. He wanted and got the security of what civil service offered (at least until now) and also geographic stability in that we only moved once for his work.

I actually got an offer from the government after I graduated from college but turned it down because I didn’t want to move to Texas. I ended up in a career in a technical field in corporate America – for a small piece of their business as a federal contractor.

I’ve been retired for nine wonderful years now, and it occurred to me only recently that I could identify with the upheaval that the people I know in civil service jobs are experiencing. My employer laid off thousands of people year after year (seemingly) and you were always looking around wondering “who’s next.”

It ended up being me eventually because my manager had to meet a quota and after I said I was leaving my name got added to a list.

The people steering the government today have experience on the corporate side but little to none on the government side. Yes – things could be run better and more efficiently – but profit margin and shareholder satisfaction don’t translate to the civil service and government.

When your actions affect millions of people through taxes, social security payments, Medicaid, disaster relief, food safety, vaccine safety – the list goes on – you want slow, steady, reliable. Sudden change is nobody’s friend. Innovation is best left to the corporations you hire as contractors – you look over their shoulder and make sure nobody cuts corners.

I remember reading about unmanageable masses of cars at COVID testing sites being organized because managers at local Chick-Fil-A restaurants offered to help streamline the process.

A big part of my concern is accountability, or the lack of it. More will be revealed, but right now there’s a lot of finger-pointing and arguing about who is responsible or not, who is official or not, who is legitimate or not. Chaos doesn’t belong with the civil service. Courts are working things out. Congress should be working things out. We’ll see what happens….