Public Enemy #1

My career as your faithful civil servant friend began over five years ago. It was a position that I obtained through very little effort of my own, it just sort of happened out of a series of random events. During the past five years, there have been times when I have looked at my situation and thought about how if I were doing similar tasks in the private sector, I could be making a whole lot more money, and my customers might be more appreciative towards my efforts. And although I'm not making a claim to be the most noble government worker you might run across, I do think I have continued working for the State of Minnesota because part of me really does want to improve my small corner of the world, and by serving the public to the best of my abilities, at least some of the time I can feel a sense of accomplishment that I am making a little bit of difference.

But there are days where I look at the work being accomplished around me, and the attitudes of some of my co-workers and I can see why the tenuous relationship between government and its constituents has become more and more difficult. I think that in any line of work you can find plenty of people who just do enough to get by, and really don't care one way or the other about their work. But the reputation that particular attitude is festering in government work is a hard obstacle to overcome. There are days that I look around me, at the red tape, and the lackadaisical efforts, at the waste and bureaucracy, and I just want to be anywhere but where I am. And the voice telling me that to make a difference you have to try and change things from within, step by tiny step, gets more and more faint as it feels more and more isolated. The urge to walk away is becoming more and more urgent especially when I look at what is being done here at Cheapo.

It really does impress me what the management together with you employees of our little music company are trying to accomplish. Having read some of the material used in the PFK program, I must say that a lot of what is going on, the effort to create a company that helps the employee excel and thus creates an exciting environment for its customers, is something that if you're at least not a little bit proud to be a part of, you certainly should be. It is rare to find a system that asks its employees to take responsibility for their own errors, find ways to improve, and celebrate their successes. Retail companies come and go, stores open and close, and even in our neck of the woods the changes our company has undergone in the short time I've been affiliated have been staggering. But the changes now being made are ones that all successful companies are going to have to employ. Success starts with the employees, and we now seem to have a good process to hire quality people, and give them standard training to help them achieve what the rest of the company has already envisioned and learned. And there are opportunities for all employees. More and more how far you go in the Cheapo Empire is inherently related to how far you want to go. That creates situations where you can help decide and impact the future of the company itself. That's admirable and sadly all too rare stuff.

At the State, I have tried in my own small way, to implement some of the ideas I have learned from Al, and through these pages. I've tried slightly different methods than the State norm, to try to be innovative in the way I supervise, and the way I want my employees to take ownership in improving the work that we accomplish. There is nothing wrong in making a mistake. There is something wrong with denial, and looking for someone else to blame. With the government I'm dealing with a rigid system that too often rewards its employees based on mere competence and longevity rather than actual success through hard work. The rewards given to someone who puts in extra effort, who cares about their work enough to do things that aren't written in their job description, is almost exclusively based only on self satisfaction for doing a good job. Due in part to the union structure, and the system itself, the compensation available comes in the form of a thank you, a positive performance review, recognition from peers, or maybe slightly more significant work assignments, rather than what many private sector employees almost expect: monetary compensation, promotion or some kind of tangible benefit.

It is often difficult to appreciate what you have until you compare it to what someone else has. There are many different ways to run a business. I'm really not trying to be a company shill here. Traditionally, things flow from the top down. Management knows how they want things done, and what needs to be done. It is all too easy to bark commands, raise expectations and get frustrated when things don't get done the way you want things done. To break from that is a difficult process. Your experiences at Cheapo may sometimes get frustrating, but the beauty is you do have a voice in the company. The end result of that is better customer service, more satisfied customers, better satisfied employees, and ultimately, an extremely successful company.