Government Workers

One more rant, just a sidebar.  Yes, we all know that government workers don’t do much work.  We waste everything, really, and just go to meetings and eat donuts.  Fair enough.  It’s all true.

But most of you work at jobs where people want your services rather than avoid them. You go to a restaurant because you want food, or shop online because you are seeking something.  You prepare a report that someone wants.  You repair something or install something that was requested. You entertain.  You heal or alleviate.  You steer someone to the person who can help them, you defend them in court, you evaluate how they might best manage their money.  Sales can be a bit different, because sometimes you are handling something that people really don’t think they need, or know they would like, so you have that hurdle to get over.  But usually they want something, and sales difficulty is that they get it from you instead of the next guy.  Or the objection is often not that they don’t want it, but they can’t afford it.

Everyone likes the idea of an orderly, well-run, fair-play society, but policemen and courts spend a lot of time delivering a service to people who are uh, actively resisting and not very grateful. Teachers certainly get some kids glad to be there, but they also put a lot of energy into getting them to do things they would rather not.  When you head to a government agency to get something and stand in line, it is often not for something that you wanted, but something you have to have because this agency says so – a registration or a permission or a license. 

Who thanks a prison guard?

This is in the background of size-of-government discussions, I suspect.  Government workers bring you services you don’t want.  Oh, you want them in theory, because you know what it would be like if all those other people didn’t have zoning laws or traffic laws.  But at the point of delivery, really, you’d rather not be seeing me, thank you very much, let me go now and I’m not taking your fucking meds. (Damn cops should be out catching real criminals instead of…what the hell do they do down at that school all day, anyway?)

Even when it’s a necessary intrusion, a good intrusion, it’s still us horning in and stopping everyone from running next to the pool.  We get used to ignoring you when you complain, because the last five people also complained about the same thing.