You remember this guy? "What we've got here...is a failure to communicate." A few Oregon public employees have been reminding us of that by complaining that losing a few work days to "unpaid furlough" is an unbearable burden.
But in the scheme of really grim contemporary events, is that cluelessness a big deal? I think it's more of an annoying distraction. This week's piece asks whether downstream blaming or making decent decisions upstream is more likely to get us what we want.
2 comments:
Sometimes making decent upstream decisions includes the proper placement of blame for failed policies, procedures and individuals. How else is accountability to be clearly established, and punishment or compensation exacted? Further, without the exercise it is easy for later-day revisionists to re-cast history in any manner they might choose, obscuring once again any honest observation and reporting.
Jeff, I take your point that public employees could be enjoying the stability of a job in comparison to those who have lost their jobs, homes, retirement plans, etc. instead of whining about unpaid furlough days. I would like to offer another perspective though--that it is a far different situation for a group to come together and offer to reduce their hours for the good of the whole vs. being "told" that you will reduce your hours and you have no say in this. I've personally been in each situation and when I volunteered to sacrifice for others, it actually motivated me to perform at a higher level than before.
Also, in reference to Public Employees, a useful construct to understand us may be the concept of Career Anchors. These are values, attitudes and motives that guide and constrain our career and act like bungee cords to bring us back to our core values. Career anchors literally bring us back to our roots when we get a little lost and stray too far from them. Two key career anchors that seem to motivate public employees are 1) The Security and Stability anchor for those who like conformity and being compliant (e.g., Govt. Jobs), who choose stability, including health care and retirement benefits, over risk or higher paying jobs with less security. 2) The Service Anchor for those who prefer work that manifests one’s values and that will make an impact (with less concern about making money). When the public employees made psychological contracts with the State to have those career anchors fulfilled but now they are perceived to be broken (unilaterally) by the State, then it follows that public employees would complain about the burden of unpaid furlough days. (By the way, there are several career anchors; these are the two that probably motivate the majority of public employees and may be useful to better understand the perspective of the public employees.) Thanks. From A State of Oregon Professor
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