Federal Workforce Morale Is Tanking – But Why Would You Care?

A reliable survey (see here) says that morale in the Federal workforce has been nosediving since 2012. Which sucks for you if you work for the Fed, but other than that, who cares, right? Civil servants should just be glad they have a job, in this economy.

Wrong. Taxes buy civilization, even to this small-government, pro-industry blogger, and our civil servants are the people who bring civilization to our door. It’s literally where the word “civilization” comes from.

If you like your food safe to eat, your tax refund to come on time, your roads safe to drive on, your nation well defended military and diplomatically, your cancer cured because of funded research, your oceans safely mapped for that holiday cruise, your police properly trained, your medicines effective and reliable, our veterans taken care of, disaster aid supplied promptly, electricity at your house, your national parks open and about a thousand other things we take for granted, then low morale in government is your problem too.

It’s not that people with low morale don’t do their work – they do, and we see it every day – but low morale crushes enthusiasm and creativity. Peoples’ spirits sink so far that they stop caring, so far in some cases that they lack the energy to change even though they see the problem, and with that goes the enthusiasm and productivity benefit that makes government cheaper and better.

It’s time we demanded that our civil servants were treated better and no longer used as political footballs between opposing parties who won’t play nicely. The only reason politicians get away with taking out their own inefficiencies on the civil service – sequestration, show trials, blaming – is that we members of the public allow it.

It’s high time we all stood up for our fellow citizens who give us the services that buy civilization.

About John Kolm

Team Results USA's CEO John Kolm is an innovator of 21st century team productivity programs, a best-selling author, and a former intelligence officer. Originally from Australia, John formed Team Results in 1996 with retired business partner and decorated veteran Peter Ring as the end result of an experiment that began in 1993. Driven by frustration with the team development options then available to business and government, and with encouragement from early clients, they applied their academic training and practical leadership experience to build the unique approach to team productivity improvement that eventually became Team Results. The company grew rapidly, expanded to a wholly US-owned branch in the United States in 2005, and now operates as a very successful business in both hemispheres. In 2004 John and Peter wrote the global bestseller “Crocodile Charlie and the Holy Grail” (Penguin, available on Amazon.com), consolidating ten years of work with peak clients into a compelling story about team productivity, leadership in business and government, and happiness at work. The book has been re-published in seven languages and fourteen countries, and a sequel is in the works. John is also the author of numerous articles and papers on team dynamics in the modern workplace, some of which can be found in the News Room at www.teamresultsusa.com . John is qualified in Psychology from the University of Melbourne, and in mathematics and statistics from the U.S. National Cryptologic School, where he also taught on the faculty. Email him at John.kolm@teamresultsusa.com .

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