I haven't noticed this phenomenon directly, but my mother once got a job
working for our city's utilities company (the city generated its own power),
and the other employees told her, "You don't have to be nice to people; they
have to come here." She was horrified by this attitude and by many other
serious problems with the government workers who didn't really care about
anyone and acted very rude and childish, so she quit the job after a few
weeks.
It just goes to show that the government really DOESN'T CARE about people.
Why should they? The workers pretty much keep their jobs no matter how poorly
they perform or how rude they are to customers. Their supervisors don't have
anything to lose if the people they are in charge of perform badly. Their pay
won't be cut; they won't lose their job, it's just more work for them to try
to change the behavior of those they are in charge of, work that they won't be
rewarded for. Some people have the discipline to do good work anyway, so
there are exceptions, but there is no monetary motivation to excell, like
there is in commerce.
- David Musick
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