Name:   Lifer - Subject:   Dems finally turn on hillary Date:   12/12/2016 2:12:49 PM

Hound what you describe is how the taxpayers get screwed, not how real world private sector works. Yes, some line items in budgets get padded but I  many cases laws, rules and regs implications enter by government prevent them from being used elsewhere. I  private sector when revenues (budgets) go down REA L cuts get made.  When they stay flat raises are canceled and any planned increases are put on hold. Capital improvements are taken off the table.  Folks may even be asked/forced to take pay cuts. You can't just go out and hire a contractor to do a job that there is no money for employees to do. No/less money means real cuts,  not budget trickery.

More and more industry has gone to using temp agencies to fill positions but it is not because the payroll budget was cut so let's just hire it out. They do it because it is cheaper for someone else to pay the benefits, if any, and taxes and such associated with full time employee. But once again, when the bosses say cut, folks go away. If a position is eliminated there is no option to just hire it out to a contractor. That position  and money is gone. The duties are re-assigned to others, usually with ZERO increase in pay for those who must take on those responsibilities. For one example my significant other has been at Russell for 40 years. In the last round of attrition the one employee who was a direct report to her went out along with many others.  She was naturally given his duties. But along with that two others who were retired out and position s eliminated had their responsibilities transferred to her. One of them was a licenses professional and I was shocked that those duties primarily came to her. But she now does 90% of what that position did.

Bottom line is she now is doing what a couple of years ago 4 people did. She started going in 30-45 minutes earlier everyday to keep up. Obviously there was some dead weight on payroll, but that is true in any organization. The point is those duties were reassigned, not contracted out. The money was taken out of the budget, not reallocate to a contract agency. I believe that the DVD probably has a higher calaber employee than HUD, DOE, EPA, etc, but you also need to realize your government experience has virtually no correlation to private sector business. Especially in small and mid-size business where budgets run tighter.