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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (13675)	5/17/2001 4:10:52 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

as is done by many members of Congress Congressional employees aren't covered by the Merit Systems Principles. Neither were George Washington's troops. When you take a job as head of a new organization in a new sector, you find out what laws, regulations, policy, personnel practices, labor agreements, etc. apply to your new staff before playing the bull in the china shop. Assuming, of course that, as a former Member of Congress, you weren't supposed to already know since Congress legislates such things. Assuming that you take your oath of office, which includes honoring those Merit Principles, in good faith. Assuming you give a damn about running an effective and efficient ship and not just adding another notch to your political resume. It's just been a few years, maybe three or four, since guidelines were issued affirming that it was OK for employees to have religious symbols on display in their offices or cubicles. That was a big enough shock to the culture. Employees still complain about the symbols. It's even less time since employee groups were allowed to use office space to meet for non-business matters and they do that under strict guidance in order to avoid running afoul of labor law. There was a woman in my office who had hung a large gay flag over her cubicle. I don't know if there were any formal complaints or not but I heard a lot of grumbling. Our Assistant Administrator was a member of the local chapter of the GLOBE employee group. All of a sudden, the grapevine started noticing when a gay got promoted. Was there any favoritism going on? Who knows. Does that sort of thing cause problems in offices? Well, nobody had to stay there and work for the guy, you say. And GLOBE couldn't operate there if it weren't open to everyone, regardless of religion, er, sexual orientation so anyone could join and get the same face time with the Assistant Administrator as the gays. In that case, I though the boss walked the fine line pretty well. He listened to advice. At least the situation never made the papers. Anyone smart enough to head a Federal agency ought to be smart enough to approach cultural changes in an informed and thoughtful way. Karen