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I worked for years in Community Mental Health (I'm a therapist) as did my husband before he got a job in the local county government. You may find lazy people in both fields, but you also find very hard working people who care about their jobs for very little compensation.
When I used to work full time, I never made over 30,000 a year, even with a Master's Degree, a license under my belt and 10 years experience. But the work they piled on was overwhelming (I guess society feels that if you are willing to accept such a low salary, you are willing accept double the workload too).
There were some days I forgot to go to the bathroom I was so busy. My clients included drug addicts, criminals mandated to have counseling by judges as part of their sentence, abused children, and adults with a variety of disorders from depression to paranoid delusions. I was exhausted by the end of the day and I never felt the two day weekend was ever enough to help me recover by Monday. I am sure most of my colleagues felt the same way. There is a very high burnout rate in the social services field just due to the nature of the work.
As a government worker, my husband does complain that some of his employees are lazy. The local govenment here is run by the union, so it is very difficult to get rid of bad employees. Therefore you tend to get a large portion of people who feel that they can do anything in their jobs and get away with it. It irks my husband to no end since he spends most of his days (he is not union) running his rear end off. And he makes very little money compared to most people.
Of course, I can't speak for all social workers, but I can tell you my experience with them, which pretty much confirms everything you just said. Most of the DBS (deaf-blind services) people I work with have no idea what they're doing. Only two of a team of maybe 10 or so people really know their stuff.
Just to give an example, when I started losing my hearing, the Orientation and Mobility specialist said, "I don't think you can walk outside anymore if you're not just blind but deaf too." This is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. I know plenty of DB people that walk outside and get around a city independently.
That said, I've worked with other areas of DSS and those people there seem pretty competent. SSA, not so much. I guess in the end it's a mixed bag. I wouldn't be surprised if the laziest workers are within Social Services because from what I understand, they get paid the same no matter how many cases they take or not. But I'm not saying all SSW's are lazy, just of lazy workers, probably some of the laziest are in DSS. Maybe they just allot the incompetent people to disability services, lol.
I realized the example I gave might have been a bad one. To give an example of the slowness, it took blind services 6 months just to give me a cane. It took them 3 years to give my deaf-blind friend a braille display. Now where I live, there just aren't that many blind people, so these don't seem like the kind of people that sit through lunch hour getting work done. I've gone into the office at least 5 times and been told the person I was looking for had gone home for the day. It was like 1 in the afternoon. I thought the average workday was 9 to 5? Seems like a lazy bunch to me, at least from what I can tell.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,029,434 times
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Originally Posted by Be Happy 2
I worked for a government agency and I think it depends on their responsibilities in the department. Some of the lower level employees had time to be lazy because they didn't have enough to do so they would sssstretch the work out for the day. I didn't have time to be lazy. I had deadlines and if they weren't meet I was accountable.
I think government agencies are like any other company with lazy folks......They are everywhere.
The DMV is always busy so they don't have time to be lazy. They are rude because they have too much work to do with the least amount of employees to do it. Not saying they should be rude but stress and rushing gets to everyone eventually.
I agree ... I was one of the lowest on the totem pole at my government office back when I used to have a civil service job. Although I gave my best to my job, I was appalled at the lack of work ethic I observed among my colleagues. We got paid good money for the type of work we performed (I know as I compared wages prior to accepting the job) but they would seriously slack off without any remorse. One colleague would take an extended lunch to go to the bank on payday every other week. She also had excessive sick days as well. I recall the day that our supervisor called her her demanding that she come in, she came in and actually told me in private that she did the supervisor a favor by coming in as she really did not have to! What? I did not get it then and really don't get it now. I saw so much corruption in my brief time working in two government departments that I really feel bad for the tax payers. If they only knew how their money was being wasted ....
Granted, not all government workers are lazy but civil service seems to be more prone to this sort of nonsense due to unionized worker protections that makes disciplining employees a headache, lack of accountability and entitlement mentalities that seem to run rampant in governmental offices (particularly for the clerical employees).
A government employee told me that the clerks are incompetent. Then he said that virtually EVERYONE was incompetent. Then he begged me not to tell anyone what he said.
Strange ... this same guy worked with me at a call center part-time. So either his government job paid little, or he screwed up his budget (like some governments do) and needed extra $$$
Yesterday I went to the Board of Equalization (if you're asking "what is that?" I wondered the same) after being referred there from the DMV.
Both agencies are full of slow and lazy people who wouldn't care if you were on fire.
While I was waiting (and waiting and waiting some more) for the worker from the Board of Equalization to fill out a simple form, I went outside to smoke a cigarette, and the woman was outside talking to her daughter and grandson! I couldn't believe it! The taxpayers have to sit around waiting for you to chat with your family?!!!
All these good for nothing, utterly useless and lazy government workers need to be fired and put on litter cleanup at minimum wage!
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,029,434 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by JS1
Yesterday I went to the Board of Equalization (if you're asking "what is that?" I wondered the same) after being referred there from the DMV.
Both agencies are full of slow and lazy people who wouldn't care if you were on fire.
While I was waiting (and waiting and waiting some more) for the worker from the Board of Equalization to fill out a simple form, I went outside to smoke a cigarette, and the woman was outside talking to her daughter and grandson! I couldn't believe it! The taxpayers have to sit around waiting for you to chat with your family?!!!
All these good for nothing, utterly useless and lazy government workers need to be fired and put on litter cleanup at minimum wage!
Although I know that civil servants can be less than competent, I was wondering if the lady in question was actually on a break or lunch?
Any states' Department of Transportation engineers are usually a lot lazier than the private sector. I think it has to do with how most design is contracted out to private firms while public sector engineers do more review and administration.
There were some days I forgot to go to the bathroom I was so busy.
LOL... I totally had days like that at the public library! When I had a long commute, I had to remind myself to visit the restroom before leaving work - I usually hadn't gone in like 7-8 hours, and knew I wouldn't make it home otherwise.
Although I know that civil servants can be less than competent, I was wondering if the lady in question was actually on a break or lunch?
Yeah, who'dve thunk they get a BREAK during their 8-9 hour shifts? The nerve of some people, thinking they have the right to eat or pee during a shift...
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). 
Seems like a lazy bunch to me, at least from what I can tell.
