Tag: Government

  • Is Government Overhaul Possible? Lessons and Suggestions

    Is Government Overhaul Possible? Lessons and Suggestions

    For as long as I can remember I have voiced concerns about the bloat in our Federal Government. The unnecessary red tape. Duplication of efforts between departments. The inability for the right hand to make a decision without the left hand’s permission.

    The bloat does not exist at just the Federal Government levels. I am going to use the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles as an example.

    I moved to Florida directly after the height of Covid. Florida, a well-known non-believer state, still made changes to the way they did business.

    I needed obtain a Florida driver’s license and car registration. First, I went on line find the documents I needed and the process to follow .I found all the information I needed. Guessing it took someone all of three minutes to write the instructions.:
    1) Schedule an appointment.
    2)Arrive 5 minutes early.

    3) Sign in.
    4) Wait to be called upon.
    5) Bring proof of address and current driver’s license.
    6) Bring a method of payment.

    I made my appointment. Morning of, I gathered my paperwork and went to the DMA. I got there early. I signed in. I waited exactly five minutes before I was called. A young woman brought me into her office, following a specific path. We sat at her desk. She collected my information. Had me pick out a license plate style. Within 10 minutes I had my car registered. plates in hand.

    As memory serves, she then gave me an eye screening at her desk. We processed more paperwork. I wrote her a check and she escorted me out. I was out of the DMV in less than 20 minutes.

    Come to learn that they slimmed down the process to avoid unnecessary contact with other people. A Covid concession.

    I filled out the same paperwork. I paid the same amount of money. I saw 3 fewer people. Spent less time. I walked out with my car registration and a new drivers license.

    If the DMV can figure out how to streamline their processes, any government entity can. The DMV had no choice but to make a system. It had to accomplish their goals. It also needed to meet the requirements of their customers without negatively impacting the outcomes.

    Now let us look at what has happened thus far with the Elon Musk led effort to trim the government.

    He did not know the role each department plays. He did not know who works in each division of each department. He did not know the roles and responsibilities of the workers. He just cut. He knew department names, knew which departments he or Trump did not like. He cut.

    In his willy-nilly manner, he has terminated people that were needed, and they had to rehire. He terminated people in critical positions that, when vacated, problems started to occur. Live has been lost.

    Am I okay with a thinning of the Government payroll? Yes. Is there redundancies that are not needed. 100%.

    You do not let a blindman with a machete perform open heart
    surgery.

    The approach Musk is using to dismantle the government bloat is blindman with a machete. He isn’t removing bloat. He is removing what he wants to. The goal of his actions should be a leaner, more effective, more efficient government.

    What needs to happen for DOGE to be effective is clear. First off DOGE needs to become an official department. As it is now, everything being done is illegal.

    Once an official department, Musk must be properly vetted, as required by law.

    If DOGE is just a government contacting job, Musk or one of his businesses can bid to get the job. Just like any other company wanting a government contact.


    Trump has given Musk carte blanche to do what he wants, awarding him with new contracts. Trump is basing many of these cutback decisions and information provided by Musk. Information that is consistently being proven as overreaches and blatant lies. A clearer case of conflict of interest has never been seen in any government process.

    What should happen?
    1) DOGE becomes a department
    2) Musk is vetted and approved
    3) Each Department given 3 months two create a reduction plan. These plans include the following:
    a) A detailed description of every single function they carry out.
    b) A detailed list of all job descriptions, down to the specific roles and responsibilities of the workers.
    c) A list of all employees, with their job GS level, job descriptions and latest performance review. (Instead of using names, each employee file is coded with only a department name, job title and code).

    Each department is given 3 months to create detailed instructions on how each of their tasks are performed. If someone does something, that something gets documented in a detailed process document.

    We now have detailed departmental information. We have detailed job descriptions. We have a list of everyone doing each job. We have a list of all the processes being followed. The next 3 months are used to identify redundant work efforts, tagging those jobs (NOT PEOPLE JOBS) that overlap.

    Each job is rated on a critical scale of 1 to 10. 10 being he pushes the button on the nukes to 1 being the person that cleans the Congressional snuff room.

    Job are then ranked. Aassessments done to determine how many people are needed to maintain a proper service and safety standard.

    Within the next month, knowing how many positions for each job are needed, a review of the employees is done. Based on job performance only, the top performers are maintained.

    The last month, everyone not on the maintained employee status list, is terminated. The termination date will be based on:
    1) How long it will take to reposition the role.
    2) The value of the position .
    3) The quality of the detailed process documents.

    ONE YEAR to properly prepare, organize and execute a fully functioning plan. A plan that identifies government work force reduction by anywhere from 10 to 40%.

    Also, during this year, put in a hiring freeze. No replacement employees at ANY LEVEL. Someone is are fired, quits, retires, or otherwise no longer remains on government payroll, no replacement.

    There should be no savings goal. There should be no workforce reduction goal. The only goal should be:

    “Create a government work force structure that effectively, efficiently serves the needs of the United States of America.”

    When making cuts and changes, prioritize jobs that serve people, not paperwork.


    Accuracy can not surfer. Accountability must increase. Standards must be improved.

    Cutting government spending should not start at the citizen’s needed program level. Cuts should begin at the highest levels and trickle top down. How many undersecretaries are really needed for any one Department? How many Congressional aides are really needed?

    Once government redundancies are eliminated, costs are contained. As things are right sized, there will be sufficient funds. This will avert the extensive program reductions being discussed.

    Think about a government serving its people. It should aim to give each person the MOST. This needs to be done while spending the least.

    There exists a need to make cuts. But there is a way to go about it.

    Where there is vision there is success.

    Where there is a blind man with a machete, there is only blood.

    We are awash in the blood being drawn by a blind man.

  • The Impact of Remote Work on Company Productivity

    The Impact of Remote Work on Company Productivity

    When working for yourself, remote working is great.
    When working with others, remote work has its place.
    When an employer does not offer remote work opportunities that is their choice.
    When an employee demands remote work opportunities, they can find another job.

    Full disclosure. When I worked for corporate America I was opposed to remote work. I was even tasked with the responsibility of creating a remote work policy. I wrote a great policy. The policy was fair to the employees, it was fair to the company. No one liked it and it was not used.

    Why?

    I had the vision to put in checks and balances. Remote workers were going to have the same accountabilities as those workers that remained in the office. The technical ability to monitor both remote and on-site staff in the exact same way existed.

    The remote workers felt like they would be micro-managed. The managers thought they would have to do more work.

    What was discovered was not surprising. No one was being held accountable for a majority of their workday. Managers were not managing. Worker productivity was not what people claimed it to be.

    With remote work becoming a thing, my proposal for accountability made everyone aware. All the dirty office secrets were going to come out.

    The company pushed forward with remote workers. There was no productivity accountability policy. Productivity suffered. Customer satisfaction suffered. Employee satisfaction suffered. The companies’ bottom line suffered.

    I was not surprised.

    Many companies and the federal government are recalling their remote workers to the office. This is easy to understand.

    Because companies did not and are not going to manage remote workers well.

    Recently, the CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon demanded that all 317,233 employees return to work. He said that JP Morgan has had to hire 50,000 people the last 4 or 5 years.

    “We just do not need all of these people. We were putting people in jobs because people were not doing the jobs they were hired to do.” Said Dimon.

    He blamed remote workers for a decline in productivity. He said he had to bring on 50,000 new people to meet productivity levels.

    Let me be clear. Mr. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan is an unfit CEO. He had to increase his staffing by almost 20%. This occurred because he did not ensure his management teams added accountabilities for remote staff. This vital management failure cost JP Morgan well over $10,000,000.
     
    Mr. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan added over $5,258,150,000 in just the last year alone. This was done to offset productivity losses due to their remote work policy.

    Over the full 5 years, that total number well exceeds $10,000,000,000. These funds are added to payroll as wages and benefits. They are removed from company profits and shareholder value.

    * I am using the average salary for JP Morgan analysts.
    * I am also taking into account that the 50,000 new hires were not all hired in one. He allowed the problem to grow. Instead of fixing the problem, he just kept throwing gas on the fire instead of putting the fire out.

    Bringing in new hires only continued the problem. Those same failed policies were applied to the new hires. This means the new hires were unlikely to be as productive as needed.

    In short, JP Morgan was hiring people to replace the lost productivity of the people he hired to replace the lost productivity of those already hired. It was a Russian Nesting Doll of lost productivity replacement.

    The simple fact is that before Mr. Dimon approved of remote work he needed to have his management team develop a remote workers policy. By his own admission, he failed. His failure cost his company over $10,000,000.

    Why does he still have a job? As soon as he wasted 50,000 employees he should have been given a vote of no confidence and been terminated.

    Anyone that mismanages an organization to the tune of $10,000,000 should not be working for that organization anymore. Especially when the cause of such loss was something as easily manageable as a remote work policy.

    In recent years, my former company, JP Morgan, and the Federal Government have failed the remote worker test. I would surmise that except for a few that had visionaries (like me) in place, most did.

    I do not blame companies for wanting their workforce back in the office. Especially if it is going to cost a company $10,000,00.

    I will blame the companies that continue to employ those at the top that own such epic failures.