A year ago today, I posted a brief report on the late-night activities (or inactivities) of certain members of the Wisconsin State Assembly. The post was so devastating in its effectiveness that within 24 hours, Assembly Republicans had already held a closed caucus in my honor and the calls for my head had begun. Even then, we could already sense the arrogance and lack of accountability on ethical matters that would come to be the Republicans downfall this November. Why stop playing Party Poker on the floor when you can just buy a privacy shield for your laptop screen, right?
So I must admit that, exactly one year later, I find all the histrionics about a couple of janitors in Milwaukee County napping privately to be a bit humorous.
Milwaukee County employees sleep on the job and they're held to one standard. Assembly legislators sleep on the floor, and they're held to a different standard. If the media are going to write about and show television footage of janitors dozing, I damn well expect to see Pat Marley, Steve Walters, and all their Press Room colleagues sitting in the press gallery on that first all-nighter with empty cans of Red Bull and pizza boxes strewn everywhere, eagerly waiting for that first legislator to fall asleep so someone can grab a picture and tell the story. If public employees dozing on the job is newsworthy, I damn well expect some consistency out of the Fourth Estate.
If you're a Milwaukee County janitor, here's what you've got to look up to in government. You've got state legislators sleeping on the job. County board members like Lee Holloway and aldermen like Michael McGee finding new ways to embarrass you every other week. Milwaukee police officers deactivating their GPS units with aluminum foil - that is, when they're not off sledding or beating Frank Jude to near death (allegedly).
In other words, you've got some terrible role models.
And some people talk like janitors catching a little shut eye is the biggest problem the public sector has ever seen? What the hell do you expect the people at the bottom of the totem pole to do? Face it, voters. You're not exactly inspiring public servants with your consistently alarming choices for public office.
Carol Owens? Re-elected. Sam Kerkman? Re-elected. Both by comfortable margins. To those of you who are actively suggesting that legislators shouldn't get sick leave, I would expect you to be equally aggressive about the notion of legislators sleeping through their job duties as well. They weren't fired, so maybe the public thinks a little shut-eye is okay?
And at least the janitors had some sense of shame, no matter how small. They weren't out sleeping on the proverbial steps of the courthouse, like your elected officials do. Leggies have no shame about it.
This whole thing reminds me of that legendary PSA we were all treated to back in the 80's...
"Parents" who sleep on the job will inevitably have "kids" who sleep on the job, and if you really want to improve accountability and work ethic in any workplace, public OR private sector, that's gotta start at the top. If a CEO has a reputation for being a lazy slacker but cracks the whip on others for not working hard enough, how much credibility do you think he has?
You've got leggies sleeping on the job, leggies charged with extortion and using public office to pad their wallets, leggies poking their heads in for five minutes on a Wednesday morning and then reminding their staff to check them off so they can get their $88 per diem, leggies using their staff as babysitters for their snot-nosed kids, and leggies campaigning the last six months of an election year while never in session and still collecting a full paycheck from the state while their employees are legally prevented from engaging in the same activities while on the same dime. What kind of message does that send?
Here's hoping that among the rule changes that Speaker Huebsch and Majority Leader Robson put forward this January is a "no sleeping on the job" rule - even if it means the Sergeant at Arms blowing an airhorn in people's faces at two in the morning. If people don't want to pay janitors to nap, they sure as hell shouldn't pay for legislators to do it either.
So I must admit that, exactly one year later, I find all the histrionics about a couple of janitors in Milwaukee County napping privately to be a bit humorous.
Milwaukee County employees sleep on the job and they're held to one standard. Assembly legislators sleep on the floor, and they're held to a different standard. If the media are going to write about and show television footage of janitors dozing, I damn well expect to see Pat Marley, Steve Walters, and all their Press Room colleagues sitting in the press gallery on that first all-nighter with empty cans of Red Bull and pizza boxes strewn everywhere, eagerly waiting for that first legislator to fall asleep so someone can grab a picture and tell the story. If public employees dozing on the job is newsworthy, I damn well expect some consistency out of the Fourth Estate.
If you're a Milwaukee County janitor, here's what you've got to look up to in government. You've got state legislators sleeping on the job. County board members like Lee Holloway and aldermen like Michael McGee finding new ways to embarrass you every other week. Milwaukee police officers deactivating their GPS units with aluminum foil - that is, when they're not off sledding or beating Frank Jude to near death (allegedly).
In other words, you've got some terrible role models.
And some people talk like janitors catching a little shut eye is the biggest problem the public sector has ever seen? What the hell do you expect the people at the bottom of the totem pole to do? Face it, voters. You're not exactly inspiring public servants with your consistently alarming choices for public office.
Carol Owens? Re-elected. Sam Kerkman? Re-elected. Both by comfortable margins. To those of you who are actively suggesting that legislators shouldn't get sick leave, I would expect you to be equally aggressive about the notion of legislators sleeping through their job duties as well. They weren't fired, so maybe the public thinks a little shut-eye is okay?
And at least the janitors had some sense of shame, no matter how small. They weren't out sleeping on the proverbial steps of the courthouse, like your elected officials do. Leggies have no shame about it.
This whole thing reminds me of that legendary PSA we were all treated to back in the 80's...
"Parents" who sleep on the job will inevitably have "kids" who sleep on the job, and if you really want to improve accountability and work ethic in any workplace, public OR private sector, that's gotta start at the top. If a CEO has a reputation for being a lazy slacker but cracks the whip on others for not working hard enough, how much credibility do you think he has?
You've got leggies sleeping on the job, leggies charged with extortion and using public office to pad their wallets, leggies poking their heads in for five minutes on a Wednesday morning and then reminding their staff to check them off so they can get their $88 per diem, leggies using their staff as babysitters for their snot-nosed kids, and leggies campaigning the last six months of an election year while never in session and still collecting a full paycheck from the state while their employees are legally prevented from engaging in the same activities while on the same dime. What kind of message does that send?
Here's hoping that among the rule changes that Speaker Huebsch and Majority Leader Robson put forward this January is a "no sleeping on the job" rule - even if it means the Sergeant at Arms blowing an airhorn in people's faces at two in the morning. If people don't want to pay janitors to nap, they sure as hell shouldn't pay for legislators to do it either.
1 comment:
I don't think being a legislator makes one more of a role model than being a janitor. Janitors can be role models for others - even legislators.
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