Efficiency in Government

[ivinsfan]

No good deed goes unpunished.

These days I can't even distinguish a good deed from a bad deed. As they say, hold on to your hat...

 

[Flieger]

Yes. Having worked at one time for a government contractor, i can tell you the impetus was "spend everything in the budget, however you can, or they will decrease it next year".

This is a symbol of what is wrong.

Flieger

 

[OldShooter]

There’s no one for waste, fraud or abuse in government or anywhere else. But our Federal government does a lot of great things, many very efficiently.

https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis/dp/1324002646

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Government-Untold-Public-Service/dp/B0DHZ2ZXPM

IMO inefficiency is baked into the system. There is always turnover of the most capable employees in any organization, public or private. In private organizations, though, the loss at the top is offset by firings, layoffs, etc. of the poorest performers. Hence the quality distribution of employees stays somewhat balanced. In government (and to some extent in most union employee populations) there is no such culling of poor performers. It is too hard. So the overall employee population quality is lower than in organizations where the necessary culling takes place.

I have worked with many great, even idealistic, people in government and specifically in DoD, but the "employment physics" of the situation still grinds on.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes. Having worked at one time for a government contractor, i can tell you the impetus was "spend everything in the budget, however you can, or they will decrease it next year".

This is a symbol of what is wrong.

Flieger

I’ve seen that in private organizations too.

 

[Koolau]

Yes. Having worked at one time for a government contractor, i can tell you the impetus was "spend everything in the budget, however you can, or they will decrease it next year".

This is a symbol of what is wrong.

Flieger

I saw that when I w*rked part time for a University. They ended up with piles of equipment, still in boxes, stored in a janitor's closet because, had they not spent the money, their budget would have been curtailed the next year.

I understood why they had to operate that way, but as a tax payer, it didn't give me a good feeling.

In my tiny acre of the University world, I could never get what I needed for my students and had to borrow it from my magnanimous Megacorp.

 

[marko]

Funny (sad?) story: DW and I walked into our City Hall to buy a parking permit to the park. Two women sitting at two desks side by side. "Oh, I'm sorry we only sell the permits on Tuesdays and Thursdays...today is Wednesday. I do have them here in my drawer (shows them to me) but you'll have to come back tomorrow."

Me: "OK, I read that there is someplace else that I can buy one today, is that so?"

"Yes" .... long pause

"OK, where?"

She doesn't say a word but instead just points to the woman sitting next to her. "You'll have to ask her".

Woman #2: "Yes, you can go to the Rec center. They sell them every day".

 

[OldShooter]

I’ve seen that in private organizations too.

Oh, yeah. Use it or lose it. Definitely not limited to the government. One early December I got a call from a good customer at 7-Eleven. "Oldshooter, send me an invoice for $15,000. I'll tell you later what it's for."

 

[Koolau]

Funny (sad?) story: DW and I walked into our City Hall to buy a parking permit to the park. Two women sitting at two desks side by side. "Oh, I'm sorry we only sell the permits on Tuesdays and Thursdays...today is Wednesday. I do have them here in my drawer (shows them to me) but you'll have to come back tomorrow."

Me: "OK, I read that there is someplace else that I can buy one today, is that so?"

"Yes" .... long pause

"OK, where?"

She doesn't say a word but instead just points to the woman sitting next to her. "You'll have to ask her".

Woman #2: "Yes, you can go to the Rec center. They sell them every day".

Yep. Bureaucracy я Us.

 

[Walt34]

Yes. Having worked at one time for a government contractor, i can tell you the impetus was "spend everything in the budget, however you can, or they will decrease it next year".

I understood the reasoning but it was strange at work when we were struggling to find the money to set up a computer forensics lab and dealing with the "bits 'n pieces" way of doing that. This was mid to late 1990's so this was all brand new territory to management. One day a very nice lady from Management and Budget stopped by and said "We're having a problem finding something to spend $40,000 on. Is there a chance you can help us out?"

I remember me and my partner looking at each other in astonishment, and trying very hard not to laugh with glee. I hasten to add that the money wasn't wasted, and we were picky about where it was spent. But for the first time we had a high quality lab that saved us a lot of time.

 

[Koolau]

Here in Paradise, we have a requirement that anytime w*rk is performed on the road, a police officer must be on site. Of course, no officer can be "spared" for such duty, so off-duty officers are called upon to perform the service (Standard OT pay rates apply)! What does the officer do at the w*rk site? Direct traffic around the bottle neck? Manually operate lights to speed traffic? Report on long back ups?

None of the above. Typically, they sit in their police cruiser with the AC on and never leave it unless, maybe if there is an accident, they might call in an on-duty officer to take the report.

Of course, because it's always summer here and our infrastructure is falling apart, most trips include at least one cone-zone and at least one officer in a car. Conceptually it makes sense. The reality is disappointing IMO.

 

[Koolau]

I understood the reasoning but it was strange at work when we were struggling to find the money to set up a computer forensics lab and dealing with the "bits 'n pieces" way of doing that. This was mid to late 1990's so this was all brand new territory to management. One day a very nice lady from Management and Budget stopped by and said "We're having a problem finding something to spend $40,000 on. Is there a chance you can help us out?"

I remember me and my partner looking at each other in astonishment, and trying very hard not to laugh with glee. I hasten to add that the money wasn't wasted, and we were picky about where it was spent. But for the first time we had a high quality lab that saved us a lot of time.

Heh, heh, sometimes the good guys still win! Thanks for the story.

 

[REWahoo]

Funny (sad?) story: DW and I walked into our City Hall to buy a parking permit to the park. Two women sitting at two desks side by side. "Oh, I'm sorry we only sell the permits on Tuesdays and Thursdays...today is Wednesday. I do have them here in my drawer (shows them to me) but you'll have to come back tomorrow."

Me: "OK, I read that there is someplace else that I can buy one today, is that so?"

"Yes" .... long pause

"OK, where?"

She doesn't say a word but instead just points to the woman sitting next to her. "You'll have to ask her".

Woman #2: "Yes, you can go to the Rec center. They sell them every day".

Here's my (state) government efficiency story from a post back in 2012 about renewing my drivers license.

I could not renew online and the closest DL offices were 20+ miles away in San Antonio. This was in the era before online reservations and the wait times in SA were hours long. So I looked online for other DL office locations nearby.

The online site gives me several other locations in the area. The closest to me is 25 miles up the road in a small town (pop. 800) and the office is open only on Wednesdays from 9 to 4 (and closed for lunch!).

The address shows it to be a mile or so outside of town, and once I get there I find a county park of some sort and a handful of small buildings - no indication of any DL office. I had the office number and called to get directions. The lady who answered ("Driver's License Office, this is Beth") said sure, she'd be happy to give me directions but it would do me no good - she couldn't renew my license. I asked if the office was closed, and she said no, the computer she used to do the renewals was broken.

She offered to give me the location of the San Antonio DL office as well as a couple of others in surrounding counties. I said thanks, but maybe I'll just wait and come back when I can get it done here. Do you think your computer will be up and running again next week? She laughed and said she doubted it - since it had been broken for 11 months...

She told me she had been required to keep the office open every Wednesday for almost a year even though with her computer broken she could do nothing for anyone who showed up - other than tell them where other DL offices were located.

 

[Montecfo]

Gotta give a shout out to our Federal Government this morning. Staggered in to the computer with coffee in hand and opened up the email - this was before 6:00AM. Two Fidelity alerts, both in this format:

For account ending in 0000: Money was withdrawn from your account through a direct debit in the amount of $xxxxx.00 by IRS. If you authorized this transaction, no action is needed. I had authorized the payments for taxes due and quarterly payment this date, but that money sure did get snatched muy pronto. Thumbs up?​

Thumbs up for me for others paying tax quickly.

Meanwhile the check I sent in with my tax return has not cleared.

That's 2 thumbs up!

 

[calmloki]

Thumbs up for me for others paying tax quickly.

Meanwhile the check I sent in with my tax return has not cleared.

That's 2 thumbs up!

I had just received paper checks for our Fidelity cash management account on the 10th. Had called in and got the routing and account numbers, but was feeling insecure about using them until I was sure no bad actor had snagged our checks. Got the checks and did online payment as the US mail is not really feeling that good or secure nowadays. Glad I did that too, as when I mailed some items later on the 14th at a driveup box at the local PO I discovered the ramp on the mail chute was coated in a tacky substance, so some letters were sticking - mail thieves taking opportunity of higher odds of enclosed check envelopes?

Used to wait till ultimo moment to mail our returns - it was a celebratory time, after filling out our forms and figuring out how soon money scraped together would post - kind of a "done my best, thrown the pass, it's in the air..."

 

[Gumby]

What I have always done, and recommend to anyone else who still files tax returns on paper, is to take them to the post office and send them via certified mail, so I can tell that they have been delivered and not stolen along the way.

 

[OldShooter]

What I have always done, and recommend to anyone else who still files tax returns on paper, is to take them to the post office and send them via certified mail, so I can tell that they have been delivered and not stolen along the way.

Always. I file on paper whenever I owe them money.

 

[pb4uski]

I’ve seen that in private organizations too.

I recall one time when I was with what is now Verizon and was with a group that traveled a lot and we were trying to be frugal in the hotels that we stayed at... ok, but not too nice... but it didn't matter too much to us because we didn't spend much time at the hotel but we're either at work or eating out. I get a call from my boss ordering me to move the team to nicer digs until further notice. I am perplexed and foolishly ask why. He tells me that we were doing so well in comparison to budget that he was being pressured to reduce that category for next year's budget and was pissed so his solution was to give us all better digs. No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Chuckanut]

Funny (sad?) story: DW and I walked into our City Hall to buy a parking permit to the park. Two women sitting at two desks side by side. "Oh, I'm sorry we only sell the permits on Tuesdays and Thursdays...today is Wednesday. I do have them here in my drawer (shows them to me) but you'll have to come back tomorrow."

Me: "OK, I read that there is someplace else that I can buy one today, is that so?"

"Yes" .... long pause

"OK, where?"

She doesn't say a word but instead just points to the woman sitting next to her. "You'll have to ask her".

Woman #2: "Yes, you can go to the Rec center. They sell them every day".

This reminds me of one of my most favorite signs:

There’s No Reason
It’s Just Our Policy

 

[Montecfo]

What I have always done, and recommend to anyone else who still files tax returns on paper, is to take them to the post office and send them via certified mail, so I can tell that they have been delivered and not stolen along the way.

It is great advice. I always go to post office and keep postage receipt so I know exactly when mailed. If I owed a lot would do certified mail.

During my corporate tax adventures we always did certified.

 

[MarieIG]

What I have always done, and recommend to anyone else who still files tax returns on paper, is to take them to the post office and send them via certified mail, so I can tell that they have been delivered and not stolen along the way.

We did that on Saturday. Our estimated tax check to the state is currently being processed.

 

[Route246]

I did an online payment to the IRS 4/14 for six figures. They took it on 4/14. Very efficient. This was a pull from the IRS, not a push from my bank. Very quick.

04/14/2025

ACH

IRS USATAXPYMT 041425

 

[timbervest]

Gotta give a shout out to our Federal Government this morning. Staggered in to the computer with coffee in hand and opened up the email - this was before 6:00AM.

​

I filed my FedTax on Friday, April 11 and was expecting a refund due to overpayments. Checked "Where's my Refund" this morning and they say it will be paid April 18. One week. Not bad.

 

[HFWR]

I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to criticizing our governments, though many of the problems stem from politicians, rather than the folks trying to deal with the ramifications. But human beings have all sorts of abilities or lack thereof, so except in the most grievous of screw-ups, I just go with the flow.

Mostly satisfied.

 

[Dash man]

I filed my tax returns on Friday, April 11, and had a large payment due. I also owed the state and set up quarterly estimated payments for the year.
My returns were accepted quickly and like the OP, funds were withdrawn early Monday morning.
I’ve also found the Social Security office to be very efficient and responsive.

 

[NomDeER]

I've been filing my taxes electronically for years and they always have processed them very quickly. They also process my estimated taxes pretty quickly.

Use it or lose it.

Heh. This reminds me of when I was a federal employee and had vacation time that I had to use or I would lose it. They were very efficient at taking away vacation time when I was too slammed at work to take it. They did allow me to donate some of my vacation time to employees who were undergoing cancer treatment and were out of sick leave, and that process wasn't too complicated and was pretty efficient even when one of the employees ended up using only some of the donated leave.