"Slick move," is what I thought. This restructuring is all about playing on the names of things. On one hand, he'll tell local Republicans he got rid of their most hated departments and people. On the other hand, he'll tell local Democrats he expanded and improved services. Meanwhile, the cynic in me says that what will happen is that important sections of the City government will fall into disrepair.
Starting new organizations requires leadership, vision and motivation. While a newly elected official might have those characteristics, career public service employees often do not. Instead of being fired up about new change, it's likely that someone who has been in City government for years has probably seen these types of swift re-vamps from every newly elected administration. They will hunker down to survive the chaos. This means that initiative will not get exercised. The immediate reaction is that employees will need to be policed and regulated. Internal friction will be created.
The too-sudden arrival of dramatic change is a novice leadership mistake. We'll see what the Mayor has done after the changes are in place and fully operational for about two years. Meanwhile, the perception of employees, inside the City government itself, will be a key indicator of the likelihood of success.
Having vision is not enough. The leader has to lead. If no one follows, then catastrophic failure will be the result.
These actions are not likely to inspire following. Fear is not enough. Fear of political firings is common among government employees near election time. Aggravating that fear will not inspire genuine initiative. Instead, it will provoke defensive and selfish reactions. Those will be corrosive to unit cohesion and performance.
Years ago, a Captain once told me that government officials will always be expected to do more with less: fewer people, fewer resources, less money, less time. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to recognize that somewhere along the way, organizations subject to those crushing pressures will come to a breaking point. We can't always do more and more with less and less.
It's the appearance of doing more with less that's the political charm. It's the effect of destroying departments that will crush loyalty among existing employees. It may be a bold step in the wrong direction.
If they can't weld, cast, cut, or coat, then they won't be able to build a sculpture. Any fool can complain about art. Qualified builders aren't the ones who are groaning.
If anyone should know better, it's UT-Ag. It's intellectually disappointing and emotionally upsetting to see the University do something so stupid for money. This will have permanent consequences for the land. There is no reasonable way for us to clean up this mess that fracking will create. Anyone with any foresight can see that the parts of this fracking system cannot be readily cleaned and maintained. The whole process requires pollution in the form of dumping to work.
This is a time when we would need a Governor to use his authority as President of the University to put a stop to stupidity. Instead, we see what we get from our politicians. Haslam himself owns gas stations.
The University of Tennessee needs to immediately stop this destructive behavior. It does not meet the standards we set for intellectuals who lead our state in education. @#$%^& totally stupid.
Our state's choice of tax revenue is supported by a Supreme Court decision from the 1920s. It is one of our greatest financial and legal advantages. Other states will end up with state income taxes for individuals. Those tax plans cause people to lose their assets in tough times. Our plan only taxes people when they advance economically. Wake up and get the facts.
While you're getting some facts, you might want to look at the article on Carey Brown. In it, we see a smoking pile of marketing phrases that imply severe consequences for Chattanooga's employees. For example, we see an attempt to get us to buy into the phrase "location based servers." As though "cloud computing" takes place on a computer that has no location.
Where are these cloud computers? Try Shanghai. If you are on a Microsoft Computer, run an instance of netstat and see if your computer is calling Microsoft's data center in Communist China. It's built into the operating system in Windows 7.
How does this affect you? Check-Into-Cash has a data center right here on Amnicola Highway. A Times-Free Press reporter's article directly states that they are "moving away" from "location based servers" at their Terenine facility.
When they pull the plug on those servers, where do you think local jobs are going to go?
Communist China. And, they'll go there all while cloaking themselves in good marketing phrases like "cloud computing." Know where your data goes. Your data is yours. You have a say in it. That's part of the reason why we pay taxes: we are the responsible owners of goods and services which include the information we use to get the transaction done.
Too bad about Check-Into-Cash's implication that they will engage in employee dumping. No programmer should have trusted those people anyway.
Mayor Andy Berke sets ambitious goals for government
"Slick move," is what I thought. This restructuring is all about playing on the names of things. On one hand, he'll tell local Republicans he got rid of their most hated departments and people. On the other hand, he'll tell local Democrats he expanded and improved services. Meanwhile, the cynic in me says that what will happen is that important sections of the City government will fall into disrepair.
Starting new organizations requires leadership, vision and motivation. While a newly elected official might have those characteristics, career public service employees often do not. Instead of being fired up about new change, it's likely that someone who has been in City government for years has probably seen these types of swift re-vamps from every newly elected administration. They will hunker down to survive the chaos. This means that initiative will not get exercised. The immediate reaction is that employees will need to be policed and regulated. Internal friction will be created.
The too-sudden arrival of dramatic change is a novice leadership mistake. We'll see what the Mayor has done after the changes are in place and fully operational for about two years. Meanwhile, the perception of employees, inside the City government itself, will be a key indicator of the likelihood of success.
Having vision is not enough. The leader has to lead. If no one follows, then catastrophic failure will be the result.
These actions are not likely to inspire following. Fear is not enough. Fear of political firings is common among government employees near election time. Aggravating that fear will not inspire genuine initiative. Instead, it will provoke defensive and selfish reactions. Those will be corrosive to unit cohesion and performance.
Years ago, a Captain once told me that government officials will always be expected to do more with less: fewer people, fewer resources, less money, less time. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to recognize that somewhere along the way, organizations subject to those crushing pressures will come to a breaking point. We can't always do more and more with less and less.
It's the appearance of doing more with less that's the political charm. It's the effect of destroying departments that will crush loyalty among existing employees. It may be a bold step in the wrong direction.
Demeaning the arts only hurts the city
If they can't weld, cast, cut, or coat, then they won't be able to build a sculpture. Any fool can complain about art. Qualified builders aren't the ones who are groaning.
Junk food not addictive, just tasty
We are all so glad you are in charge of nothing more than a few paragraphs of opinion.
Fracking public land has obvious downside: Cumberland forest plan is worrisome
If anyone should know better, it's UT-Ag. It's intellectually disappointing and emotionally upsetting to see the University do something so stupid for money. This will have permanent consequences for the land. There is no reasonable way for us to clean up this mess that fracking will create. Anyone with any foresight can see that the parts of this fracking system cannot be readily cleaned and maintained. The whole process requires pollution in the form of dumping to work.
This is a time when we would need a Governor to use his authority as President of the University to put a stop to stupidity. Instead, we see what we get from our politicians. Haslam himself owns gas stations.
The University of Tennessee needs to immediately stop this destructive behavior. It does not meet the standards we set for intellectuals who lead our state in education. @#$%^& totally stupid.
Health care costs spiral sets u.s. apart in the world
Failure to capitalize "U.S." in the headline of this editorial. Edit the paper.
Expansion
Headline error on the front web page: failure to capitalize "Hays." Edit the paper. Thanks.
Liberals hide truth about sequester: Actual cuts are relatively minimal
It takes 45 minutes to get --one-- pancake at Aretha Frankenstein's. Please do some basic research before writing. Thanks.
The Gun Debate
I don't like suicide jokes, and I wish you would stop making them.
Gene Roberts’ standard
The word "Lamar," for the Governor's name, is misspelled in the article.
Amazon's baby step tax aid
Our state's choice of tax revenue is supported by a Supreme Court decision from the 1920s. It is one of our greatest financial and legal advantages. Other states will end up with state income taxes for individuals. Those tax plans cause people to lose their assets in tough times. Our plan only taxes people when they advance economically. Wake up and get the facts.
While you're getting some facts, you might want to look at the article on Carey Brown. In it, we see a smoking pile of marketing phrases that imply severe consequences for Chattanooga's employees. For example, we see an attempt to get us to buy into the phrase "location based servers." As though "cloud computing" takes place on a computer that has no location.
Where are these cloud computers? Try Shanghai. If you are on a Microsoft Computer, run an instance of netstat and see if your computer is calling Microsoft's data center in Communist China. It's built into the operating system in Windows 7.
How does this affect you? Check-Into-Cash has a data center right here on Amnicola Highway. A Times-Free Press reporter's article directly states that they are "moving away" from "location based servers" at their Terenine facility.
When they pull the plug on those servers, where do you think local jobs are going to go?
Communist China. And, they'll go there all while cloaking themselves in good marketing phrases like "cloud computing." Know where your data goes. Your data is yours. You have a say in it. That's part of the reason why we pay taxes: we are the responsible owners of goods and services which include the information we use to get the transaction done.
Too bad about Check-Into-Cash's implication that they will engage in employee dumping. No programmer should have trusted those people anyway.