It Could Be Worse

I know we all like to moan about various aspects of federal management: the hiring process is a mess! The modernization of the retirement system is a disaster! We still don't have viable, workable performance metrics! But this New York Times story about employees who are working through their furloughs, is a reminder that it could be much worse. The piece focuses mostly on several California state government employees who are supposed to take two unpaid furlough days each month, but have been unable to schedule the time off, or have been asked to keep working for free because there's so much work to do. California is a special case, of course. But it's a reminder that no matter how unevenly federal agencies can be run, there are states that are doing much, much worse.