Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
When I worked at Panera Bread the managers hired from outside of the company instead of promoted from within looked down upon working the line actually making the food and would always have an excuse for why they couldnāt help out.
Both district managers and the director of operations would walk in the door and straight to the line to help make food, but oh not the random 40 year old guys we hired because they knew someone in the company. They were above that (while making only 35k a year).
I miss those days. Someone would call the bar telling us someone had to go back if there was something to do. Glorious days. And I was young.
Itās both of these things though. When you create a system that rewards sociopathic behavior, you both enable natural sociopaths and train people that otherwise wouldnāt behave that way that is what you have to do to get a promotion, or even keep your job.
25 years working in government and I have literally never seen this. Iāve seen plenty of the opposite, where managers and directors will work through lunch because thereās too much to do.
And thatās fair as well, Iāve never been in a customer service setting, so I have no idea what the normal climate is in places like that.
Iāve worked with a bunch of federal agencies and honestly think the distribution of talent is very similar to private sector. Youāve got some duds but youāve also got some people that truly give a shit and work their asses off. We try to help solve problems as best we can, with some success, but I think the biggest problem leading to government agency disfunction is lack of funding. Soooo many issues are only issues because they canāt afford to fix it.
Thereās also something to be said for working in a role where success = some benefit for the public rather than success = stock price goes up. Even mediocre government employees are a higher net positive for society than all stars in the private sector.
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Slightly off topic but today for some reason I looked up the salary of my cousinās ex-husband, who is a police officer in San Diego. Earnings are listed as public record.
TIL that San Diego police officers can earn upwards of 200k per year and this just blew my mind.
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Cops are really good at milking overtime.
There are lots of young cops that donāt make much money but the ones that stick to it make a lot of money. Salaries and overtime and pensions can really add up.
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Heās about 15 years into his career, but even before overtime heās still pulling in well over 150k per year.
The real money starts coming in when theyāre eligible for a pension and āretireā to collect it, but then keep working in some job like āsecurity consultingā.
To his credit, he went to night school and got a college degree, then got a graduate degree in criminal justice or something like that, so itās possible heās been promoted, but yeah heās certainly not hurting for money.
Have an uncle retired from the military and he did the same. Career military, got a degree, got promoted as far as an enlisted man could, and retired with more than enough monthly income to never work again, yet went back to work anyway and now basically has two full incomes.
I look at people like them and wonder if I havenāt completely lived my life the wrong way.
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@suzzer99 and I have been trying to educate the world on this topic for going on 20 years now, the pension is the real kick in the nuts. These assholes get to retire at like 45 with their overtime juiced pay guaranteed for life. Oh plus health care for life. Present value for $250k for life plus health care for life for a 45 year old is like $8 million.
Itās a huge MAGA red button meme in reverse. Pay public servants / cops suck.
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Cop salaries and pensions is one of those things you tell people and they donāt believe it.
And the same cops still want to end āsocialismā for everyone but them.
Yep, they are among the loudest shouting and complaining about Big Government, when theyāve lived their entire lives on its back.
For people who donāt know what āovertime juiced pay for lifeā is, the pension is often based on (for example) the final yearās salary. The cop in their final year will work unbelievable amounts of overtime on paper. In actuality other cops are doing those shifts, itās all on paper. The result can be 3x their base pay. Then they get (for example) 50% of that final year, every year, for life.
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I think it was in NJ that some state hospital pharmacist did an impossible number of hours. Like 20/day every day for a whole year. Same deal. Getting setup for retirement. I donāt think anything ever happened.
Apparently itās also super common to retire from the police force and go right into the fire department. Stop working at 55 with 1.5 massive pensions.
My dad had a state government job and I believe his pension was based on his three highest years.
The Jonathon Little of Pharmacists!