Civil service Games

[DearSummer]

Civil service Games
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/05/02/civil-service-games/
Written by: Philip Cross is the former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada.


I am describing what unions claim is the strategy in parts of the federal government of having employees “compete” for their own jobs (think “reaping” in Games parlance). Claude Poirier, the head of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), which represents economists, said, “It’s awful for employees to have to compete for their own jobs.” Imagine, economists of all people competing. Just thinking about it makes me teary-eyed, if only it were true.


Effectively, employees are in a pool with their colleagues, with a smaller number of positions available. Employees do not submit a CV or are even interviewed, so it is not a competitive process. Instead, management evaluates employees based on their career track record, which for some of the chronically mediocre, or those who have been on sick leave for years at a time, must be a truly frightening prospect.


Unions also claim that employees are doing work vital to the public interest. The mindset is hardly different from the claims of the minority of Quebec students who are on strike. Never mind your mortgage payments, the cost of raising young children or caring for elderly parents: We are self-evidently righteous and therefore have an endless entitlement to the public purse, irrespective of your values or priorities for what is fundamentally your money.

This makes me laugh. People are COMPETING for their jobs? Oh, the horror! It's no wonder the public service is so chronically inefficient. It's a shame that the many quality employees of the public service are burdened by the leeches and the union thugs.

[D-Roc]

First.

Another Dearsummer Union bashing thread.

[NorthYorker]

Written by: Philip Cross is the former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada.Mr. Cross likely spent his whole career working a cushy government job protected by union rules. Now he likely retired on fatty pension negotiated for him by those unions and spends his time biting the very hand that fed him at public trough for a very long time. Am I the only one who sees it as ironic.

[gomyone]

Mr. Cross likely spent his whole career working a cushy government job protected by union rules. Now he likely retired on fatty pension negotiated for him by those unions and spends his time biting the very hand that fed him at public trough for a very long time. Am I the only one who sees it as ironic.

...I think Philip Cross deserves some respect - he actually spent 36 years at Stats Can and quit partly over concerns that internal debate at this agency was being stifled, especially regarding the 2011 census and the new voluntary national household survey, which replaced the mandatory long-form census. I'm not sure if him quitting actually allowed him to receive his full pension, but I may be wrong. Either way, hats off to him for having some hutzpah and not being your typical entitled and complacent civil servant. By the way, he now works as senior member of the CD Howe Institute (a public policy think tank)....

[NorthYorker]

...I think Philip Cross deserves some respectHe does. I was just having a little fun using typical Conservative vocabulary on the guy.
he actually spent 36 years at Stats Can... I'm not sure if him quitting actually allowed him to receive his full pensionI believe that most (rules vary a bit from organization to organization) public servants are entitled to a full pension after 30 years of service.
By the way, he now works as senior member of the CD Howe Institute (a public policy think tank)....I do understand that it is tough to work for CD Howe and not be engaged in anti-union rhetoric, but... He could have been at least a bit less wordly in his attack on the system he benefited from :)

[olssy]

I wonder how much these layoffs will really cost us. I imagine some employees will be getting severance pay or some sort of compensation. Then the majority will need to be on social welfare for a while. The money they were getting paid won't be going into the economy anymore and won't be taxed. Add to this that services will keep on going down and if they cut back too much then private contractors will be needed to do the work at usually a higher cost than civil servants. I wonder if this doesn't actually cost us more in the long run...

[rb]

I wonder how much these layoffs will really cost us. I imagine some employees will be getting severance pay or some sort of compensation. Then the majority will need to be on social welfare for a while. The money they were getting paid won't be going into the economy anymore and won't be taxed. Add to this that services will keep on going down and if they cut back too much then private contractors will be needed to do the work at usually a higher cost than civil servants. I wonder if this doesn't actually cost us more in the long run...

so you should never lay off public employees ? the solution to all our problems is to hire all people on EI , pay them good wages and benefits so they contribute to the economy ?? - I think Greece tried that and see how it worked for them

[olssy]

so you should never lay off public employees ? the solution to all our problems is to hire all people on EI , pay them good wages and benefits so they contribute to the economy ?? - I think Greece tried that and see how it worked for them

No, that's not what I said though I do tend to think massive layoffs are not the way to weed out inefficient employees. I'm just wondering if the overall cost of all these layoffs will be more than if we hadn't laid them off. Is it just for the principle of cutting down on the size of government or is it really to balance the books? I see the conservatives being more and more philosophical in how they govern and less and less pragmatic...

Greece is a particular situation of dishonest accounting and does not prove that welfare states are doomed to fail, it proves lying on accounting will eventually catch up with a nation. This is not Greece's first bankruptcy, pretty much all countries have defaulted on debt payments in history.

[LostInTruth]

DEARSUMMER THREAD!

:cheesygri:cheesygri:cheesygri

[LostInTruth]

Civil service Games

This makes me laugh. People are COMPETING for their jobs? Oh, the horror! It's no wonder the public service is so chronically inefficient. It's a shame that the many quality employees of the public service are burdened by the leeches and the union thugs.

I get it now! You can't stand unions because you've been trying desperately to be in one but no one will hire you. ;)

[Syne]

No, DearSummer runs a pyramid scam where he imports Chinese trinkets, and resells them on e-Bay for an inflated shipping charge. He has a bunch of people for whom he writes paychecks based on how many trinkets they sell.

He's happy seeing the middle class fail because that means more cheap labour for his business.

[longitude]

Twelfth!

[TheRequiem]

..Instead, management evaluates employees based on their career track record, which for some of the chronically mediocre, or those who have been on sick leave for years at a time, must be a truly frightening prospect...

Um, as it should be. Nobody is entitled to their job just because they've been doing it for a long time. If you're merely mediocre, you should be afraid of being let go or replaced.

[Syne]

Um, as it should be. Nobody is entitled to their job just because they've been doing it for a long time. If you're merely mediocre, you should be afraid of being let go or replaced.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST WINNER!!!!

TheRequiem, refer to my signature for prize details!