Gubmint Worker Motivation

[Superman]

This one's for you, Len. Been thinking about your notions. I know you have the perception that gubmint cannot be efficient, because the incentive system is not there. You are more confident of private industry, because the reward/punishment mechanism is in place there, or can be. Your faith in those motivators is sufficiently great that you believe private business' inherent inefficiency, the need to siphon off profits to owners who produce nothing besides capital, is more than overcome by this motivation system. I've always respected your thinking. Misguided though it is at times.

As a compensation analyst, or at least a fellow who has focused on that sort of stuff since before my teenager was born.....I'd point out that fear is generally considered a bad motivator at best, and very possibly a demotivator. I'd point out that the industry ("management," human resource management, organizational behavior, psychology, etc) believes pay to be a thin motivator as well. When pay is above subsistence level, several other "working conditions" variables become more important to workers.

So, I'm just trying to help you, Len. You see, if an organization hopes to provide poor working conditions (oppressive policies and supervision, for example) and make it up with attractive pay packages, it will lose that gamble. Conversely, another organization with exciting and validating atmosphere, but lagging pay, will often be a sought-after employer.

So you see, this is why I have pointed out that gibmint workers often have the EXTREME advantage of pursuing some sort of regulation they can treat almost like a religion. Protecting working men and women has been my jones, and probably always will be. I routinely work 12+ hours per day, and get paid for no more than eight. You can't get me away from my job, it is so satisfying.

So, I still think gubmint workers can kick ass. And for some very good, verifiable, motivation-related reasons.

[wludavid]

As an employee of Uncle Sam himself, I'll offer an opinion on this. I see people working hard every day. I myself probably worked 55 hours last week and maybe 50 the week before. Those were for a particular problem so I got comp time for them, but just as often a big thing comes up on short notice and I'll work late to get it done. No biggie - it happens. I see the same thing from my co-workers and the contractors in the office work right along side us.

The misconception, I think, is that we often see unmotivated or unresponsive people at places like the DMV or (in my case) at the Army Frequency Allocation office. We assume that they're lazy because they're not afraid of being fired since they're civil servants, when in fact they'd probably just be just as lazy working in private industry. They might move jobs more often when they're upset about not getting raises, but it doesn't seem like many people are dismissed in private industry unless they're doing a really bad job, or if the company is in trouble. In gov't work, instead of being fired, often people are pigeonholed into some lonely menial job. They might get paid well, but they'll HATE it. Some of them quit. It's not quite being fired, but the upshot is the same.

[Moneyguy1]

Well, if government is so inefficient, and the military is subject to the government, perhaps we should privatize the military as well.

and why, oh why, over the past years, has government grown so drastically? We have more departments, bureaus, divisions, etc etc etc at the federal level than we ever had in the past. The federal government can do that because it is the ONLY level of government that can legally operate at a deficit.

I have worked for both and found that people in both vary from slackers to truly motivated.

[Superman]

Well, I've often reported my observation that there are some very hard working government workers. In this thread I hoped to deal directly with Len's issue, or what appears to be a central theme in Len's assumptions, that since gubmint workers cannot be fired, and since private industry has a wider (certainly taller) pay structure, then the motivators in play at private work places is more effective than the motivators (or lack thereof) in the public sector.

My response is that the motivators considered weak in the compensation analysis industry are the ones in play in private businesses, and the ones considered the strongest are the ones in play in public employment. Heck, some causes are so easy to pursue that the staff is virtually entirely volunteer. Government work can be very exciting if you believe in the mission and goal of the law you're administering. That, in my view, essentially cannot be matched by private industry. How excited can you get about raising the price of a share of common stock so that the invisible owners can make more money? Yeah, I thought so. Well, how motivated could you get if your job were to track sex offenders and notify local citizens of their presence in their communities? Yeah, I thought so. Now, become a cell phone customer service call center worker, and try to out-perform the sex offender tracking guy. You can't do it.

That's the key to your curiosity, Len. I think. Money is a weak motivator, and fear is even weaker. A sense of right and wrong is about the strongest, and that's the issue that many gubmint workers deal with all day every day. It's a powerful addiction.