Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

In government, prestige is proportional to the number of people working for you and the size of your budget. Efficiency is doing the same or more work with fewer people and less budget. Hence, government managers stay away from efficiency.

Here is a little-known fact about being a manager in a government agency:

Your prestige is proportional to the number of people working for you and the size of your budget.

Okay, so maybe this isn’t so little known, especially if you have worked in government or in government circles.

Now let’s move to one of the really bad consequences of this prestige equals people and budget:

Government managers do not want efficiency

A move to efficiency means that you can do more work with fewer people. Efficiency means you can do more work with less budget. Please refer back to the first note above. Notice that “more work” is not in that note about prestige.

If you are more efficient, the number of people you manage and the size of your budget will decrease. Decreases in these numbers means less prestige. I never saw any government manager rise because of efficiency. People who rise in government management are not generally stupid. They are clever enough to recognize that people and budget help them rise. They are clever enough to see efficient peers fall by the wayside.

This leads taxpayers to frown and cringe and all sorts of other bad reactions. The answer is sweeping reform in government organizations. Again, please refer back to the note about prestige in government. I cannot find the words “sweeping reform” in that note. Hence, …