‘Les Misérables’ starring: You

As you read this, hundreds of thousands of American workers are toiling under 19th century sweatshop conditions — with government approval. In fact, they work for the government.

Even the big boss of the biggest unit of the government says the treatment of his employees is “appalling,” which is pretty strong stuff.  He doesn’t know how they can stand to come to work!

The pay of these benighted white collar souls is miserable, averaging somewhere between $70,000 to $80,000 per year. Again, with government approval.

The work environment of these poor wretches is awful. That they even make it in, day after day, decade after decade is surely a tribute to the American can-do spirit. They have almost no chance to pull themselves out of the muck where they spend most of the waking hours of their wretched adult lives.  Where is Charles Dickens when you need him?

The fact that many of them spend 20, 30, even 40 or more years in the 21st century salt mines is mind-numbing.

We are talking, of course, of federal government workers.  Specifically civilians who break their backs daily working for the Army, Navy or Air Force. They are scattered all across the United States of America at Army posts, Air Force bases and Navy installations.  If you doubt their misery, drive through one of the Pentagon parking lots where their wretched, ancient, rusty cars — those that made it in — rest dripping oil, wheezing from the trip in and dreading the evening commute.

Oh, the humanity!

Why didn’t we know this before?  It apparently has been going on since the War Department (now the more politically correct Department of Defense) was set up.  Despite its noble and strategic mission, it must be the worst place ever.

How do we know the Defense Department as an employer is worse than Ebenezer Scrooge on a bad day? Ashton Carter — the boss, the Secretary of Defense — told us.

In a speech last week, Carter said his department is so broken, so lame, so behind-the-times and out of it that he said he sometimes asks himself “why do they stick with us?”  Carter’s speech was made at the Air Force Association’s Air and Space Conference.  But it was — some suspect — aimed at Congress, which will soon be asked to approve yet another “reform” of the civil service system.  In this case, the way people at the Defense Department are recruited, hired, trained, promoted, paid, and of course, fired.  To read his full speech, click here.

The latest DoD reform plan is similar to previous reforms in many ways.  Some of those in the past were okayed, some not.   Others, like the National Security Personnel System initiated during the Bush administration, were launched but eventually crashed and burned.  Unions opposed the NSPS “streamlining” from the start and so it was limited to people outside of union-bargaining units.  It only lasted a few years before it was retired.

In Washington the formula for “reform” is first discredit the status quo.  Whatever you want “fixed” must first be proven to be broken. Defense is a favorite for “reformers” who both love and hate its mission.  The Postal Service is another frequent target for reformers.

There are some universal work truths :

• Most people would like to be paid more, including me.
• Most people think they deserve more — again, count me in.

But even the unhappiest, least appreciated federal worker probably doesn’t feel he or she is working under an “appalling” system.  If so, one hopes they don’t deal with nuclear weapons.

It’s unlikely that most Defense Department civilians, especially those who work alongside the military and private contractors, dread coming to work every day or weep during their lunch hour.

The introduction of the latest Defense “reform” proposal in the seventh year of the administration is almost a guarantee nothing will happen. Republicans will oppose it, just as Democrats opposed the NSPS program.  Unions will oppose it, as they did the NSPS.

And the next president is likely to have other first-term priorities than to change the pay, promotion, and disciplinary system of the Pentagon.

Nearly Useless Factoid

Victor Hugo’s epic “Les Misérables” was popular among  Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

Source: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

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