fuck this job.com

I don't know, MrPlankton.

I, too, used to believe that once you get a job with government, you're set. Perhaps that stands true for the federal government.

At the county and municipal levels, however, I've found that project managers end up having to provide leadership to contractors who are making twice or even three-times what they make, yet these PM's are the ones doing most of the work. I have a friend who is a PM for a local municipality's capital improvement department, and he talks about this constantly. Also, he tells me how grant-writing responsibilities are pushed-off on him yet he doesn't get the 10% cut that the Grant Office gets.

What's more? An increasing number of government agencies are outsourcing services and everyday functions because they do not want to deal with HR issues, such as, benefits and insurance.

I currently work in government, and the atmosphere has become just as cut-throat and anxious as any private entity's.

Finally, all my friends and family who work with some government/public entity got that job by virtue of knowing someone. With the exception of my brother, who is a school teacher, everyone government-worker I know personally had to be recommended for the job they are currently in. This means, essentially, that applying off the street with no connections puts you at a disadvantage. These days, to procure government positions, it is IMPERATIVE that you know someone from the inside. Otherwise, you do not stand a chance.

JMK:
That might be true in some cases, but even then, that minority applicant -- in many cases -- has to be recommended by someone from the inside. If the salary is upwards of $80,000/yr, you had better believe that they are NOT going to hire some Tom or Tammy off the street, whether he/she be Black, White or whatever.

I am Black, and I work in a Cuban-American-dominated segment of our society, and a trend that I see spreading like wild fire throughout the crazy world of municipal and county governments is "internal position creation". This used to be wide-spread in the private sector, but it's all the rage in the public sector, as well.

Here is how it works: Say you are a manager of a department, and you have a worker under you, who is cool and whom you are friends with, but you believe that she should be in a better-paying position. All you have to do is pay a visit to the H.R. department and do a proposal and create some ridiculous position for your subordinate (this works, particularly if you know the H.R. manager on a personal level and you have a pretty decent budget). By law (for most municipalities anyway), the position has to be posted publically, but what the unsuspecting "man-from-the-street" applicant doesn't know is that your subordinate WILL get the position and all the interviewing and crap that the other applicants are put through are just formalities. This is done, knowing full well that they never stood a chance.

When I heard about this, I was so demoralized that I almost called-in sick the next day. It really saddened me that entities were taking part in such horrible H.R. practices.

Finally, you know what's killing this country, if not the world? It's dishonesty and greed. Everything that has gone wrong with this nation stems from those two traits.