I can totally believe that someone who’s never worked in the private sector has such a fanciful view of how layoffs work. My first job out of college was in the government. My views of what constituted “waste” were hilarious, like we got a flashlight (because we occasionally would go outside at night) and it was definitely a pricier flashlight, with some features we didn’t really need. I told my friends at home, “Gosh, the government is so wasteful, look at this overpriced flashlight I got”. Of course they made me turn it in when I left, but still.
Then when I got into the private sector I realized private sector waste is a whole different animal. Obviously there’s the insane CEO pay packages, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Definitely I’ve seen some multi-million-dollar projects that never should have happened and were just the result of our slick salespeople. When I left one job in a layoff I had no way of returning a $3000 laptop because the person I’d return it to was laid off too. It ended up being a nice gift for an amoral friend. Of course layoffs themselves are crazy wasteful, you have tons of hard-earned knowledge walking out the door. They’re almost always random and driven by a desire to temporarily boost the stock price as clueless shareholders are left holding the bag when the company collapses a few years later.
Point is government waste exists, but it’s like a leaky faucet that drips a little. In the private sector, it’s like a faucet that’s constantly running on full blast because everyone is incentivized to maximize the rate of flow.
I can totally believe that someone who’s never worked in the private sector has such a fanciful view of how layoffs work. My first job out of college was in the government. My views of what constituted “waste” were hilarious, like we got a flashlight (because we occasionally would go outside at night) and it was definitely a pricier flashlight, with some features we didn’t really need. I told my friends at home, “Gosh, the government is so wasteful, look at this overpriced flashlight I got”. Of course they made me turn it in when I left, but still.
Then when I got into the private sector I realized private sector waste is a whole different animal. Obviously there’s the insane CEO pay packages, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Definitely I’ve seen some multi-million-dollar projects that never should have happened and were just the result of our slick salespeople. When I left one job in a layoff I had no way of returning a $3000 laptop because the person I’d return it to was laid off too. It ended up being a nice gift for an amoral friend. Of course layoffs themselves are crazy wasteful, you have tons of hard-earned knowledge walking out the door. They’re almost always random and driven by a desire to temporarily boost the stock price as clueless shareholders are left holding the bag when the company collapses a few years later.
Point is government waste exists, but it’s like a leaky faucet that drips a little. In the private sector, it’s like a faucet that’s constantly running on full blast because everyone is incentivized to maximize the rate of flow.
It’s because they can’t risk it not working and being blamed when someone trips in the dark
government is also not allowed to negotiate for discounts to minimize risk of corruption and has to pay sticker price