Re: The Worker / Employer Relationship

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Sun, 10 Nov 1996 21:59:10 -0500

Ira Brodsky wrote:
>
> "Lyle Burkhead" wrote:
>
> >Wow. You must have a chip on your shoulder, Mike. I have spent
> >quite a bit of my life in public schools and public libraries, and I was
> >always treated like a human being. I haven't had much occasion to use
> >other government facilities, except post offices. I hate going to the
> >post office, it's a zoo, but if I am friendly to the clerks, they are usually
> >friendly to me. I have also been treated in a friendly manner by the
> >staff in public parks, swimming pools, etc.
>
> I suggest the following scale:
>
> FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...... rude and deceitful
> STATE GOVERNMENT........ lazy and slow to respond
> LOCAL GOVERNMENT........ bureaucratic, polite, and mildly responsive if you
> don't ask too much

This is rather accurate, though the slime has seemed to ooze downhill a
lot since I was a kid. When I was little, the postman who walked the
route was a freindly guy, so there is one exception.

I think that the reason Lyle said what he did, is that he either lives
in one of those fairy land type countries, or he lives in an area where
everyone is equally rude, so the rudeness of gov't employees seems
rather normal. (BTW Lyle, do you live in New York?)

I read an article in the paper recently on how northerners here in the
US, typically from MA, NY, NJ, Chicago, and such, have an extremely hard
time adjusting to the politeness and freindliness that many southerners
naturally effuse. They think that if they are not being treated like
shit that someone is trying to get something from them, or that they are
wierd somehow.

Mike