Don't Talk About It; Be About It

You're driving down the road when you come across a construction zone. A construction worker is shoveling or doing some kind of labor while half a dozen others stand around either watching or talking. If you're like me, the first thing you think of is, "This must be a state job." Why is that? It's because government labor isn't exactly known for its efficiency. It's also not known for its quality, which is why my dad (a lifelong government employee) used to joke, "It's good enough for government work." 

Just this week I jokingly told an officer that another officer, who was (surprisingly) shoveling snow outside, needed his help. This officer's response? "Oh, no. I don't work anymore. That's why I took this job." Sadly, this is a common sentiment, not just among prison's state workers, but in government work in general. The seemingly deep pockets of the government somehow justify putting in a half-hearted effort and an inattention to producing quality. 

After I had been in prison for a few years, I was working a kitchen job as a lead lineman. My responsibility was to ensure that while food was being served that my line was properly supplied with food, and that prisoners were served efficiently and appropriately. I took pride in working with my team to get the job done and to do it well. We even had a communication system set up so we didn't run out of food at any point during service. If someone didn't want to work the line as our team had designed, he was moved to another job. 

One day as our line was serving at least three prisoners to the other line's one, an MDOC captain approached the food steward overseeing our production. "What's going on with this line?" he asked, gesturing to our line. "Why are they moving so fast? They're serving three people to the other line's one." The food steward bragged that we were an efficient team who worked well together, but the captain's response? "Tell them to slow down. They're making the other line look bad." 

Honestly, I was shocked to hear such stupidity. For someone in charge of custody to want to drag out food service longer than necessary made no sense. It would have made more sense if he had urged the food steward to hurry the other line up. But no, the longer the chow lines took to serve, the longer custody could delay having to open the yard, or so I justfied his crazy instructions. 

To be fair, this sort of lazy mentality is problematic among prisoners, too. There are exceptions, like two prisoners in my unit who, despite the fact that they are unpaid volunteers, work hard to keep the bathrooms clean. There are exceptions among staff, too. Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder how much money the government could save, both from the over $2 billion corrections budget and from other state agencies, if "state work" meant high efficiency and good quality rather than the bureaucratic wastefulness it's known for now. 

I know...hoping we can eliminate government waste is like wishfully thinking that we can eradicate crime. It's not going to happen. But, we can still work to improve...if we can stop standing around talking about it and actually start working to get things done. As the saying goes in prison, "Don't talk about it; be about it."