Who do you Want to Work For?

I just received a call from a man at the Virginia Employment Commission regarding a past due filing. For the record it was not the local Farmville office. Now, the filing is probably past due and if so that is my fault. Like every Government office if I don’t comply with their demands I will face legal difficulty.

He was pretty indignant that I hadn’t responded. When I asked for information he responded, “You received a letter on that.”  I told him I’d had a crazy month and that I hadn’t worried about anything that wasn’t critical to the business. His response was if you think this isn’t critical you will when the Sheriff comes to your door.

Now I don’t respond well to threats. I was not rude or ugly; I simply stated the fact that the piles of Government correspondence I receive aren’t on the top of my list. That’s a fact.

I am also certain that it is a fact that at some point if I do not comply I may have a sheriff at my door. My problem is that “we the people” are the ones paying the salaries of the flunkies who represent the state and that we deserve and should demand common civility from so-called public servants.

When you consider that small business creates the majority of the jobs in Virginia and that without those jobs the state would be in trouble and that without private employers there would be no reason for the VEC, I do not expect to be threatened by a VEC agent.

When I requested the name and phone number of his supervisor he gave me a phone number that is no longer in service according to the recording I received.

After I looked up the correct number and called that number I was transferred to another customer who was also on hold waiting for another VEC agent. Now I realize this may have been an actual phone malfunction but when someone is demanding perfection from the citizens they represent they should also provide perfection.

I finally reached a lady who was helpful and attempted to transfer me to the correct individual. The first call reached a directory that did not include the name or office of the person I needed. The second call was dropped and the third call reached his voice mail. I am now waiting for a return call.

Along a similar line, the Governor’s office announced they “found” some additional funds and that they were considering raises for State employees.  The propaganda they used is that Virginia is 47th on the list of states considering the rate of pay for state employees versus private industry.

Now all of us probably know someone who works for the state and works hard and does a good job and probably deserves a raise. At the same time we all know an incompetent, surly state employee who does not.

There is also the fact that most private employees have not had a raise in years and that includes the owners of the private businesses who, according to state research, are the “drivers of the economy.”

Regarding the 47th ranking for Virginia, as Mark Twain once wrote, “Figures may not lie but liars figure.”

Without including the difference in the pay of Public vs. Private, that number is nothing.  Suppose Virginia State employees are making twice what their private sector counterparts make but in every other state it is more than twice the private sector rate. Then Virginia would be at the bottom of the list instead of 3rd from the bottom.

The key question is this: How many people do you know who leave State employment for work in the private sector?