[Vision2020] A Sad Night for Moscow

[heirdoug at netscape.net]

Wayne,

First off let me say that your solution is a solid one for all city 
employees or any other government employees. You are sounding more and 
more like a good libertarian.

Now could you re-work your model and in the place of street painters 
could you put in public school teachers, administrators and college 
professors? Let me know the outcome of your research.

Thanks Doug

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Tom,

A really informative answer to your question would take more time than 
I have at this point.

But there are several ways to increase the pace and quality of work for 
almost any city position, among them:

Use a method similar to that of Charles Schwab: Challenge the crew (or 
single person) to work faster and better. Reward them in various ways, 
suited to individuals, where practicable. Also: re-engineer the job or 
allow the workers to help re-engineer the job.

OR

Solicit an outsource bid and allow the city workers a chance to match 
or beat the bid with one reward being that their position is not 
eliminated.


Applying the above to marking the turning arrows on city streets, for 
example:

1. Stop marking the turn arrow outlines and then coming back later to 
fill them in. Lay down the stencil; paint the damn arrow; move to the 
next location. Move faster than centenarian pallbearers at a 
particularly mournful funeral while doing so. Set a standard for the 
number of turn arrows to be painted per day. Build enjoyable, comradely 
teamwork and peer reinforcement. Reward when goals accomplished or 
exceeded; do not tolerate sloth.

OR

2. Solicit bids from private businesses to paint the turn arrows. After 
calculating the cost of paint, overhead, etc, tell the workers to 
submit a bid to match or exceed the labor portion of the best outsource 
bid. Note to the employees that if the outsource bid is accepted, then 
of them will not have jobs.


One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to see when workers are not 
moving at an optimum rate of speed consistent with a given expected 
quality of work. That's also an important part of the job of a 
supervisor/manager. If the supervisor/manager is unable to do this 
and/or resists learning, then it's time for a change. Maybe in their 
next job somewhere, they will be motivated to do better.

Positions should have both position descriptions and standards of 
performance. Most of the positions in city government are not 
dissimilar in basic tasks to those in the private sector. A well 
managed private sector enterprise optimizes its worker output and 
worker satisfaction. There is no reason, except existent pigheadedness 
and egoism, that the City of Moscow can not do the same. In my career I 
have worked with both private and public entities. In my experience 
both well-managed public and private entities foster high employee 
output and employee satisfaction well.

As for benefits: They are not only a part of fairness and maintaining 
good employee relations, they are necessary to retain qualified, 
productive employees. It is like squeezing a balloon: One can reduce 
expenses by skimping on benefits; resources saved that way will be 
expended (most likely with additions) in dealing with less-than-optimum 
work attitudes, turnover, and less qualified employees. The labor 
marketplace is no different from the product/service marketplace: If 
you buy junk or fail to maintain carefully what you buy, take the 
consequences. That doesn't mean that one shouldn't be a careful, 
prudent shopper looking for the best quality/price compromise -- both 
the cost and quality of services matter to the taxpayer.

W.


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