downsizing stinks and the weeks leading to the cuts can be tense but i think the survivor’s guilt that robert refers to is worse.

If everyone gets a 10% cut, morale will probably be somewhat better, but there will still be complaining. In the short run, I suspect there will not be a rapid loss of the better employees, because there just aren’t a lot of jobs out there right now. In the long run it could be a problem. But the only solution to that is a performance based pay system, which I don’t think we will ever see.

V, you might be the only person other me who has publicly said anything good about our former auditor’s official work. He had major problems but also some very good work.

How about a post on current auditor’s performance. After that one on the city attorney office?

just kidding.

-len

Between mayor’s office and city council, they have done a responsible and difficult job in a terrible situation. I think we can be grateful that the apparently final choices made were more or less reasonable, although of course I disagree with some of them.

I am no expert on animal rights, but as an urban parent of two, I remember being happy to find local attractions for kids, including the zoo, and also my relief when the facilities there were radically improved over a period of a few years and with much independent fundraising. Jane Goodall blessed the current chimpanzee habitat: you should have seen it before! It is certainly more accessible than the high Sierra or even Point Reyes, places that many Oakland children have never seen, and gives them some idea of ecology and the world of living things. To save the planet, one has to get an idea of what is out there!

I support keeping the auditor’s office strong, and staffing the key positions as fully as possible. The auditor is an important watchdog. As to the newly-consolidated receptionists–if they cut down on misdirected phone calls and send visitors to the correct offices, then they are saving us money on more expensive employees. A lot of business gets transacted in person or on the phone, still.

to find out about morale, ask a random group of city workers over the last several months what it was like waiting to find out at the very last minute about furloughs, and rumors about layoffs etc. for sure, with pay cuts and layoffs, and a council/mayor who delayed till the last second to face fiscal reality (no rainy day reserves etc), employee morale will sink.

yes i think a higher but fairly small percentage of employees will be more inclined to supply shrinkage, timecard tinkering, expense report jiggering and similar activities? (the first hand account i heard about 10 years ago was about the ousd janitors who ran a janitorial supply biz on the side stocked w ousd stuff).

10 percent pay reductions across the board instead of selectively, might be better for morale than selective pay reductions, but will result in the better younger employees leaving.

I think that there are some who are more inept than others but those people are either on council or serve in appointed positions. And no matter what work force you are referring to you will have a mix of A, B, and C employees. I’d like to think that at the end of the day we are dealing with people who will do their job regardless of the circumstances.

I am not sure I buy your argument for a receptionist. Every IA department I have come in contact with in the past few years has done quite well without a receptionist. There is an exec asst and that is it. With significant amounts of work online what is the point of the receptionist.