If you had it all to do over again would you work for a company — let’s call it the Acme Corporation — that had a great pension plan, which is a plus, but drawbacks galore including:

• A  CEO who openly distrusts many workers and believes, maybe correctly, that some or many of them were working against him or out to get him.
• Where 50 percent of the board of directors hates the other 50 percent and would rather do anything than cooperate even if it was good for the firm, and its huge customer base.
• Where the company was seriously considering both a small pay raise for workers while at the same time thinking about shutting down big chunks of the operation, furloughing as many as 800,000 of its 2.1 million workers.
• Where the supposed-to-be-hands-on board of directors takes more time off each year, failing, year-after-year, to do its basic job: approve budgets and appropriations for the majority of the outfit’s operating units. In fact, they’ll put in a four-day week this week because they are planning to be out next week, then back for a two-day week at the end of the month.
• Where the operation that brings in the most revenue for the company is frequently told to turn over files and data so that outsiders, working on commission, can bring a little more muscle into collecting unpaid bills.

The good news is that with a proven track record like that you wouldn’t consider applying to Acme.  Nobody in their right mind would sign up for an outfit with a track record like that.  And that’s the good news.  But every silver lining has a cloud, and the bad news is … You did it, dummy.

Back in the day, for whatever reason, you signed on the dotted line and joined Uncle Sam as a career civil servant.  Maybe it seemed like the best job around? Maybe it was for job security? Maybe the mission of the agency appealed to you.? Maybe it offered the most diverse choice of occupations, ranging from astronaut,  to physicist, to park ranger and on and on? Maybe you are one of those people who truly wanted to serve? That’s great, noble even.

So how’s that working out?

But given the way things are going, would you do it all over again, if you could? You tell us and include a byline of your choice. We’ll tell them: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, movie critic Leonard Maltin is credited with writing the shortest movie review. His one-word review of the 1948 movie “Isn’t It Romantic?” was “No.”

Source: IMDB

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