When news broke that the incoming Spitzer administration has set up a website for the submission of resumes and ideas, I briefly considered submitting the former. Very briefly. A moment’s reflection made it clear that, even if state wanted to hire me, a return to public service would be bad for my family, my career, my mental health, and even my ability to make a contribution to my community. That is what a 20 year history in government, generally as a policy analyst/city planner, tells me. Based on more positive experiences outside public service, however, I would like to offer my assistance to the incoming Spitzer administration in another way. Any information I have compiled and analyzed, any information I will compile and analyze, and any suggestions I have or will come up with in my spare time are yours, gratis. Absolutely free. That is a suggestion I made to the “ideas” inbox. If someone reading this wants my resume, just fish my e-mail address out of there and ask me for it. If anyone else is interested in a warning about the nature of a public sector career, read on.
During the entire time I worked for the government, my bosses thought I was doing a really good job, since I delivered what little was asked for very quickly and with good quality. My view, however, was that I was accomplishing nothing, because almost nothing I was involved with ever went anywhere. There were some things I wanted to do that my boss squashed. There were some things my boss and I wanted to do that his boss squashed. Sometimes we got to the next level, and had something squashed by the head of the Department. And a few things got through the Department, only to be squashed by the elected officials. How about what you would expect – orders to do something coming down from the top, rather than requests to do something coming up from the bottom? In my experience, if you work for a policy agency, that almost never happens.
Certainly if a series of Mayors has no interest in doing anything in one’s field, that is their prerogative. But the place where I worked didn’t even dare to publish data. For example, I painstakingly researched and coded into the city’s geographic information system the boundaries of the city’s various “business areas,” from industrial areas to each local commercial street, getting the benefit of the assistance (ie. wasting the time) of other staff. The goal was to be able to use data files to produce annual information on the micro-economy of every local area of the city. Everyone was in favor of this, but for some reason it just never happened. I believe I have the only copy of the information produced using this capability, and thus know that in 1995, among 36 businesses with one or more employees, 115 people worked on my local main street. What is the harm in people knowing that and similar information?
After a long interlude I returned to work in an operating agency, but found additional frustration. A simple linear extrapolation showed that every project in one division was going to over-run its engineering budget. But I was simply not believed. And, 18 months later every project did over-run its engineering budget. There was accountability – a whole other division that had caused much of the problem was wiped out – but they didn’t need me to identify a problem after the fact. So what was my contribution? I had contributed to the over-run.
Not that all my public sector experiences were bad. The people were nice in the places I worked. I learned a great deal – if you look at it as 20 years of paid graduate school, it was productive in that sense. For some of those years I was able to work part time while my children were young, a great benefit to both my and their lives as a whole.
Still, for those of you reading this and considering employment options, bear in mind that public employment is a career killer, even for those with public service goals. I doubt, for example, that the Spitzer administration will be hiring very many people from within the bureaucracy for different jobs – these folks will be presumed to be lazy or stupid, and will probably be unable to demonstrate anything to the contrary. The evidence suggests that only those coming in from outside public employment ever get a chance to accomplish anything in public employment.
So it is definitely in my interest to stick to the private sector (which, if you plan on working anyway, is a piece of cake in comparison) to re-establish my reputation as a productive member of society. And for the rest of you, if you must work for the government, get into an operating agency rather than a policy agency, and into a job where you work independently of the rest of the government (teacher in a classroom, cop on the beat) where no one can prevent you from doing your job. Otherwise, you face frustration or eventual resignation to a lifetime of sliding along, waiting for the pension that those of you hired today may not even get. Take it from me and my fellow parolees.
Meanwhile, beginning with a comprehensive tabulation of comparative tax, public spending, public employment and payroll data that Mitchell Moss and the Taub Urban Research Center were nice enough to publish on the internet, continuing with similar information I have tabulated, written up, and circulated privately, including my protest campaign for state legislature and, more recently, my writing on Room 8, I have been able to make a contribution outside the office. Or so people, who have found the information useful, have told me. And, over time various voluntary organizations have found an increasing need for my services, to the point of overload. There seems no end to the demand, provided I am not to be paid. The evidence suggests that it is possible to do far more good in a few hours per week outside public employment than in a full time job in public employment. So for the foreseeable future, I’ll stick with what works.
So, if someone in the Spitzer Administration is interested in my services, the price is right – less even than that Mayor Bloomberg charges the City of New York for his. True, time limitations would restrict my ability to provide those services, but other limitations would restrict them in any event. So drop me a line, or just take what you need off Room8 and use it. No need to give me credit. I just want things to change. For the state, not for me.