This explains the decline of the U.S.

[Belinda Barfield]

So, there I am, standing in a local government office . . . waiting . . . waiting, the line growing and growing. As in most offices of this type (at least in my experience) the staff appears to be completely oblivious to the fact that they are actually at work and that there are people waiting for them to do their job. I couldn't help but overhear several conversations, one of which I found to be comical and truly sad at the same time.

Supervisor: "This is your third reprimand."
Employee: "You ain't got no right to reprimand me, and you cain't fire me, I does my job."

I truly wanted to ask the question, "What exactly is it that you does?"

[Rod Sheridan]

So, there I am, standing in a local government office . . . waiting . . . waiting, the line growing and growing. As in most offices of this type (at least in my experience) the staff appears to be completely oblivious to the fact that they are actually at work and that there are people waiting for them to do their job. I couldn't help but overhear several conversations, one of which I found to be comical and truly sad at the same time.

Supervisor: "This is your third reprimand."
Employee: "You ain't got no right to reprimand me, and you cain't fire me, I does my job."

I truly wanted to ask the question, "What exactly is it that you does?"

Probably teaches English..............Rod.

[Jason Roehl]

You should have seen the polling place where I voted.

It was a roughly 25'x25' room with ONE door. The door was near one corner. Along the wall to the left were tables for the poll workers to check us in. There were 3 people doing the initial check-in, which simply meant that they scanned a barcode on our election/precinct reminder postcard, had us sign it, then they stamped it. That's the first trip into the room.

Then, I had to exit the room to get in the next line, the front of which was the fourth person working at the far end of these same tables. The point of that line was to then get the electronic voting card which activates the touchscreen voting machine with the correct ballot for my precinct (we have "voting centers", which means we can vote at any polling place in the county). Once I got that card, I had to again exit the room to get in line to vote at one of about 6 or 7 machines arranged in a quarter circle along the back and far right walls from the door.

To summarize: one door, three lines, genius. My solution would have been to hold up the first line until the successive stations were ready to process the next voter.

[Callan Campbell]

You should have seen the polling place where I voted.

I just read an article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday that talked about how many private homes used be the polling places in Chicago years ago if a ward didn't have a large building to use like a school or church. The most memorable was apparently the polling place where you voted in someone's bathroom next to the toilet. Insert your own joke about candidates and politics here...
Anyway, it's down to just 4 homes being used now, and used to be somewhere around 1600/1700 at the height of the home usage! Imagine, you could ask your neighbor to fry up some eggs while you checked out the ballot.

[scott spencer]

So you don't think the solution is to dumb down any requirements so that the dumber than a box of rocks crowd can occupy positions of importance?

[Doug W Swanson]

Sounds typical for a government job....

Here in St Paul last spring there were some road crews that got caught lazing around on the job. Supposedly there were problems that went all the way up to the head of the department. Instead of the dept head being fired or reprimanded, he just moved back into his previous job in the dept. and nothing happened to him.

Seems like no one is responsible for their actions or their employee's actions anymore.....

JMO

[Belinda Barfield]

So you don't think the solution is to dumb down any requirements so that the dumber than a box of rocks crowd can occupy positions of importance?

Is it possible to dumb down any further? Some things are so dumb downed I can't figure them out! I can follow written directions to the letter but give me a book with a bunch of photos and I can't figure out how to turn on the camera. By the way, I spoke with my pet rock and he is highly offended as he feels his level of intelligence is far superior to that of the others in the box from which I rescued him.

[glenn bradley]

Supervisor: "This is your third reprimand."
Employee: "You ain't got no right to reprimand me, and you cain't fire me, I does my job."

I'm sorry, I'm from California. Could someone please translate? And please, none of that silly "dude" stuff that you all see on T.V.

[Belinda Barfield]

I'm sorry, I'm from California. Could someone please translate? And please, none of that silly "dude" stuff that you all see on T.V.

Boiled down . . . You have no right to reprimand me, and you cannot fire me, because I do my job. (but she didn't)

I'm sorry you're from California, too.

[Charlie Reals]

I'm sorry, I'm from California. Could someone please translate? And please, none of that silly "dude" stuff that you all see on T.V.

Oh why not Glenn, that dude stuff started down south where you are and us northern folks have had to live with it . That is one of my biggest pet peeves, dude means something different to us old farts. It was hard to make a lot of folks back east understand that ca. is not all beaches and surfers.
Being from Oakland I understood Belinda's clerk just fine.

[Jim Carson]

I'm sorry, I'm from California. Could someone please translate? And please, none of that silly "dude" stuff that you all see on T.V.

Usted no tiene derecho a mi reprimenda, y no se puede despedirme, porque hago mi trabajo

[Mike Cutler]

I'm sorry you're from California, too.

Hey now, easy there girl. I'm a native Cali type dude. I can even say "wow" backwards, Like "wow"
I'm anglin' for a trip to Savannah for St. Patricks day. Any tips.

It sounds like you had a day at the DMV.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Usted no tiene derecho a mi reprimenda, y no se puede despedirme, porque hago mi trabajo

Hahaha! Wow - that has to be the funniest thing I have ever read on SMC!

[Norberto Coutinho]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(film)

[Mike Henderson]

When I went to vote, everything was very well organized, the people at the poll knew their business and things moved along quickly. I've voted at that same place for the last 16 years and it always works well.

I've also gone to government offices here, particularly the DMV, and that works pretty good, also. You can get an appointment and they adhere to the times pretty well. And if you don't have an appointment, they have a pretty good process for letting you know how long you're going to wait.

Same experience at the Social Security office. Well organized, got an appointment - they kept the appointment time, and they were polite and knowledgeable. Things were handled quickly and accurately.

There's a reason for job protection for government workers. In the older days, every time there was a change of administration, everyone was fired and they were replaced with people who had supported the new administration. Problem was that those new people didn't know anything - it was just political payback. Still happens but only at the higher levels. The worker bees get to keep their jobs across administrations.

You may argue that there's too much protection and I won't argue against you. The problem is to find the right balance of protection and the ability to get rid of unproductive workers.

Mike