5 ms·

Having worked in government (although not in US), top fixes for me would be: * Make it easier to fire incompetent people. A job that's in the service of the pe

Having worked in government (although not in US), top fixes for me would be: * Make it easier to fire incompetent people. A job that's in the service of the people should not be a cozy "I'm now set for life" type of gig. * Pay semi-market rates. * Stop going for the lowest bidder for contractors.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Why semi market rates? The whole problem is politicians win elections by promising low taxes and less spending, so the government pays less, and to offset the lower pay, they compensate by not firing people. Inevitably, this will attract an undesirable amount of people who want to coast, with no ability to get rid of them.
- Oddskar 5y ago
  > Inevitably, this will attract an undesirable amount of people who want to coast, with no ability to get rid of them. Yes, my point exactly. I think it's cheaper to pay people a reasonable salary and less job security. Otherwise it just ends up being a lot of dead weight throughout the organization. This dead weight leads to low productivity, which in turn e.g. leads the management to bring on expensive consultants to try and fix it.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    My point was that you need to pay market rates, not semi market rates for that. The trade off of compensation for job security should not be occurring.
    - Oddskar 5y ago
      Aha, sure. My intention with "semi" was to indicate that it would still not be anywhere near FAANG-levels; but rather closer to a median "good" salary.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        If it needs to be FAANG level to attract the workers you need, then it needs to be FAANG level. I do not see why there would be any arbitrary limit. I remember when healthcare.gov was launched and the clusterfuck it was, and then a much of FAANG level employees had to quickly go and clean it up as charity.
- bluedino 5y ago
  Low wages make for more bribeable employees Same reasons judges are paid a lot
bluedino 5y ago
US municipal is plagued by: Private sector unions (making them impossible to fire) Nepotism Layers and layers of bureaucracy
- Oddskar 5y ago
  That's not something unique to the US, I saw the exact same thing across the pond.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

Why semi market rates? The whole problem is politicians win elections by promising low taxes and less spending, so the government pays less, and to offset the lower pay, they compensate by not firing people. Inevitably, this will attract an undesirable amount of people who want to coast, with no ability to get rid of them.

Oddskar 5y ago
> Inevitably, this will attract an undesirable amount of people who want to coast, with no ability to get rid of them. Yes, my point exactly. I think it's cheaper to pay people a reasonable salary and less job security. Otherwise it just ends up being a lot of dead weight throughout the organization. This dead weight leads to low productivity, which in turn e.g. leads the management to bring on expensive consultants to try and fix it.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  My point was that you need to pay market rates, not semi market rates for that. The trade off of compensation for job security should not be occurring.
  - Oddskar 5y ago
    Aha, sure. My intention with "semi" was to indicate that it would still not be anywhere near FAANG-levels; but rather closer to a median "good" salary.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      If it needs to be FAANG level to attract the workers you need, then it needs to be FAANG level. I do not see why there would be any arbitrary limit. I remember when healthcare.gov was launched and the clusterfuck it was, and then a much of FAANG level employees had to quickly go and clean it up as charity.
bluedino 5y ago
Low wages make for more bribeable employees Same reasons judges are paid a lot

bluedino 5y ago

US municipal is plagued by: Private sector unions (making them impossible to fire) Nepotism Layers and layers of bureaucracy

Oddskar 5y ago
That's not something unique to the US, I saw the exact same thing across the pond.