You Are More Likely To Die Than Be Fired By The Federal Government

Talk about adding insult to injury. About fourteen million Americans are unemployed today with many more millions underemployed, either working part time, working in jobs they do not want, or they have become too discouraged to even search for a job. American businesses are scared about all of the uncertainty that this Presidential administration and Congress have created in the market that they are afraid to hire, making existing employees work much harder just to keep their jobs. Times are tough all over.

Well, maybe not all over. According to a July 18, 2011 USA Today report, "Federal employees' job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired." In other words, once you get a Federal job, regardless of how poorly you perform and your government entity performs, your death is more likely to be the cause of you leaving your job than any other reason. Details from the article include the following:

• Death is the primary threat to job security in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget, and a dozen other Federal operations.
• The Federal government fired .55% of its workers in fiscal year 2010, 11,668 out of 2.1 million.
• The private sector of the economy fires almost six times as many workers on a percentage basis than the Federal government.
• The Federal Communications Commission with 1,800 employees and the Federal Trade Commission with 1,200 employees did not fire a single employee last year.
• Once you are into your Federal career for more than a few years the job security rate becomes nearly 100% since 60% of government firings occur in the first two years of employment.
• Last year the government fired none of its 3,000 meteorologists, 2,500 health insurance administrators, 1,000 optometrists, 800 historians, or 500 industrial property managers.
• Almost one fourth of the government's employees, about half a million people, make over $100,000 a year and enjoy an astronomically high job security rate of 99.82%.
• Only 27 out of 35,000 of the Federal government's attorneys were fired in 2010, a minuscule .08%, while 33 died.
• Geographically speaking, Washington D.C. employees had the safest jobs, 99.74% job security.

These are truly ridiculous numbers. Made more ridiculous by a quote in the article from HUD spokesman, Jerry Brown, whose department has a 99.85% job security rate. Following his assertion that this high job security rate shows a  skilled and committed workforce, "We've never focused on firing people, and we don't intend to start now. We're more focused on hiring the right people."  This statement strains the limits of credibility to think that anyone hiring process or department almost never, ever hires a bad performer.

His inane quote is countered by a quote from San Francisco management professor John Sullivan, an expert on employee turnover: "Rather than indicating something positive, rates below 1% in the firing and layoff components would indicate a serious management problem." The professor also asserts that a low departure rate such as what the Federal government incurs shows a failure to release poor performers and those with obsolete skills.

Which quote do you believe? Frankly, I would go with the professor's, given some of the facts and incidents we have reported on in this blog:

• When the economic and financial structure of the world was crashing several years ago, internal audits found that dozens of SEC employees were spending most, if not all, of their time in the office searching the web for pornography and downloading it onto their government computers.
• When the Gulf oil spill fiasco happened, it was widely reported that many Interior Department employees were also spending significant amounts of time looking for and downloading pornography.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) auditors found that two NSF employees were in the midst of a torrid love affair and had used thousands and thousands of NSF budget dollars to support the affair.
• The St. Petersburg Times reported in October, 2007 that in a one year period, Federal employees had wasted over $140,000,000 of taxpayer money on first class travel tickets., breaking government rules on travel restrictions. (Note: this finding of waste and other examples are described in detail in "Love my Country, Loathe My Government")
• The Associated Press reported in December, 2007 that the IRS had spent $2,000,000 on a computer security system that the IRS had no intention of using.
• A news report in April, 2008 reported that a Department of Agriculture employee had written government checks worth over $642,000 over a six year period to a live in boy friend. This same report found Postal Employees had spent over $14,000 on their government issued credit cards for Internet dating services.
• Various sources estimate that upwards of $200 billion a year is lost to fraud in the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs, indicating that someone in those operations are not doing their job when it comes to running a tight, fraud-free operation.
• Last week we talked about a story on a story from The Week magazine that estimated about $17 billion a year or about 12% of the budget for unemployment benefits is lost to fraud every year, indicating another organization that is doing a very subpar job at minimizing waste and fraudulent spending of taxpayer money.
• Earlier this year we reported on a news article that investigated the Federal Aviation Administration and found that it had lost track of the locations and the ownership of thousands and thousands of small private airplanes, airplanes that could easily be used for terrorist operations.

We probably could go on endlessly with other examples like this but you get the point. If the Federal government was solving all of the major issues facing Americans today and wasting very little taxpayer wealth in the process, then I could live with the low firing rate since I and the rest of America was getting value in return.

However, the exact opposite is happening. None of the major issues of our time are getting resolved, or for that matter, getting any better, and those responsible for delivering efficient, effective and value quality government services face no consequences, accountability, or responsibility for this non-performance.

In light of these examples, and the nonperformance of the Federal government bureaucracy to serve the American public, Mr. Brown's statement above falls quite flat. It is not that the Federal government has such a highly skilled workforce that enables it to have a employee firing rate one sixth the size of the rest of the world, the fact is the Federal government does not let anyone go for poor performance or obsolete skills, an absolute requirement of private businesses and companies.

My question back to Mr. Brown would be the following: how many of the people from the SEC and Interior Department who abused their jobs in search of pornography have been fired, how many employees who fraudulently flew on first class tickets have been fired, how many employees who do not do their jobs and allow hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to be wasted via fraud have been fired, how employees who abused their government issued credit cards have been fired, how many employees at the FAA who have created a whole in our national security have been fired for losing track of thousands of private aircraft have been fired? I would bet very few, if any, of these perpetrators and their supervisors have been fired as a result of this shoddy performance.

The ultimate responsibility for this disgrace and inefficiency comes back to the political class sitting in the White House and in Congress. They have to step up and be the leaders when it comes to setting standards on performance and accountability.

However, given their own poor track record of delivering results and being accountable, I am afraid that this leadership trait will not emerge soon in our government.

Until then, the Federal government will be the epitome of inefficiency and nonperformance and the poster child for the old saying: " Nice work if you can get it."  A slogan that will continue to divide the country along the lines of those that have it good (politicians and Federal government employees, both of whom depend on the hard work of the rest of the country for their well being) and the rest of the country which is struggling mightily day to day for their own survival and to support the inefficiencies, ineffectiveness, and waste of our Federal bureaucracy and the seemingly lifetime job security that comes with it.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/