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Top 5 Most-Hated Types of Gov’t Workers
So you are working at your job as a govie and you get a call from X and all of a sudden you are upset. There are certain jobs that dread fear from other Govies. Here’s my top 5:
1) Auditor – Hi, I’m calling from GAO or Inspector General and I’m auditing your program. For most folks, this sounds like a nightmare. Please, please, can you go away?
2) EEO – Hi, I’m calling from Equal Employment Office and we’ve had a complaint about you (or someone in your division) Please, please, can you go away?
3) Lawyer – Yeah….on your project, I’m hear to tell you 10 reasons why you can’t do that. I think you may have forgotten about these 10 statutes that are in lawyerese that prevent you from doing that. Here’s 10,000 pages to go
read.
4) IT Security – Hi, I’m calling from IT Security as I see some suspicious web traffic on your machine. You read a blog? How does that relate to work? Sir…it’s the White House blog. I think it’s ok.
5) Staff Member of an Elected Official: Hey, can you do X,Y and Z and oh yeah can you do them by tomorrow. Not to mention a lot of times these things are out of jurisdiction and or not applicable to your agency.
What do you think? What Govies do you dread hearing from?
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Also here are some other top 5’s of mine:
Top 5: Ways to Get Your Next Gov’t Job
Top 5: Best Places to Have a Government Job
Top 5: Worst Places to Have a Government Job
Top 5: Places to Network at Work
Top 5: Gov’t Shows That Should Exist
Top 5: Things I Wish the Boss Did
Top 5: Ways to Tell a Contractor Apart From a Govie
Top 5: Signs You Need A New Job
Surprised (happily) to see HR isn’t on the list. I can think of plenty of people who would think otherwise! People forget we are here to help – management AND employees…
White House Chief of Staff: Why did you make that comment to that reporter. Yes, he was a reporter. How soon can you be here? We’ll send an escort.
Short fuse requests from a high-ranking, visibility official, as in No. 5. I wouldn’t use the word “hate” because it is such a strong verb. I would tend to use “you need to be more considerate and plan ahead before you drop your bombs…” as an alternate choice of words.
Number 3 is the worst I think. Cooking up a go idea to get shut down! Once I deem something awesome in my head it’s hard to shake out of there whether it’s legal or not.
We kept HR off the list 🙂
Expanding a bit on number 5
“regular” short fuse requests from “management” with no or minimal effort provided to explain the reason for the deadline of “yesterday“
Great list! Thanks for keeping HR off the list. I also agree that number 3 is the worst. All of these watchdogs have good intentions, but end up destroying innovation and creativity, which is so critical to excellence!
Oh shut up lol.
Hey the Lawyer’s are just doing their jobs. Unless you all like going in front of congress and saying “on the advice of my counsel, I am taking the fifth.” Lawyers are trained to be risk managers and to interpret laws. If you have a problem with what they tell you, change the law! (Yes, I am a lawyer and I hate narrow minded lawyers and over strict interpretation of the law). Lawyer can also be your best friend.