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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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A little respect, please, for government employees

This isn’t a typical post. But it has been weighing on me and I need to get it off my chest.

Whether the murder of Bill Sparkman was truly perpetrated because he was a federal employee has yet to be proven, but the circumstances of his death should strike fear in the heart of any rationale person.

Sparkman was found in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest. He was hanged from a tree, his hands and feet bound, he was gagged, his clothing was stripped from him, his Census Bureau ID was taped to him, and the word “fed” was scrawled on his chest. Sparkman was a part-time Census Bureau employee. He had been warned by a friend to avoid this part of Kentucky, but it’s where his job took him. The evidence suggests that a violent anti-government sentiment led to the horrific circumstances of his killing.

I have nothing political to say in this post. People like Sparkman happen to work for the federal government for a living. Their jobs transcend any political affiliation and any particular party. These are not the appointees named to their jobs by the party in power. Yet they are routinely the targets of hate, whether it’s the extreme anti-government views that seem to have led to Sparkman’s tragic death or more routine objections to government agencies.

There seems to be an assumption that crosses political boundaries that “government agency” is synonmous with apathy and incompetence, and that they are populated by bureaucratic automotons intent on inaction and waste.

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to work with employees of several U.S. federal government agencies (including the Internal Revenue Service, the General Services Administration, the State Department, the Social Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Forest Service) as well as a couple Canadian agencies. My son’s new father-in-law is retired from the Environmental Protection Agency, where he was a passionate and committed advocate for the environment over the course of multiple administrations representing both parties. He’s also a nice guy, as are the folks I’ve worked with in state and county jobs. In fact, virtually every front-line government employee have met and worked with was as impassioned about his or her job and as dedicated to performing well as anybody I have met in the private sector. These are professionals who take pride in their work.

Unlike workers in the private sector, these employees—the flesh-and-blood people I have met—also see themselves as servants of the public. While their “customer” in reality is the U.S. Congress, they view the citizens of the country as their customers. I have yet to meet a single one who doesn’t want government—and especially their agency—to work better for the people to whom they believe they are accountable.

Based on the nature of my work, the government employees I tend to meet are communicators and IT people. I can’t imagine, though, that those working in other corners of government agencies are any less committed, any less dedicated.

That government employees are smart, hard-working, talented, and dedicated should not surprise anyone. After all, in the U.S. over 6.25 million people work for the federal government. These are not two-dimensional caricatures or political cartoon images. They are your next-door neighbors, your family, your friends. They go to your church. Their kids go to school with your kids.

How are they different from you and me? At some point, they chose a life of public service. It may have been a conscious choice; it could just as easily have been that the government made the best job offer at the time they were looking.

Sure, sometimes the nature of government makes it hard to accomplish things as easily as in the private sector. (If you work in a big corporation you know that getting things accomplished within a corporate bureaucracy is no walk in the park.) But, having gotten to know many government employees, I am increasingly incensed at the way they are demonized. They do not deserve our enmity. Regardless of your political affiliation, your view on big-vs-small government, or your hopes or worries for the direction of the country, the workers toiling day-in and day-out on the front lines of government agencies deserve our respect.

09/28/09 | 5 Comments | A little respect, please, for government employees

Comments

  • 1.I think it has to do with a complete lack of understanding and respect. People who would murder this man -- or attack, chastise or mock other government employees -- clearly do not get how the government operates. As you pointed out, this man -- and most government workers -- aren't political appointees. They're hard working people doing their job. No different than any other hard working person. A few years ago, I did a lot of public affairs work, which gave me the opportunity to interact with local government employees. They were incredibly helpful, kind and committed to their job. I know we've all run into the bad apples, the paper-pushers who are waiting for the 5 p.m. bell to ring, but those people exist in every profession, not just government. It's a sad commentary when a person is the victim of a hateful crime just because he happens to be a government employee.

    Heather (@prtini)

    Heather Whaling | September 2009 | Orlando, FL

  • 2."In fact, virtually every front-line government employee have met and worked with was as impassioned about his or her job and as dedicated to performing well as anybody I have met in the private sector. These are professionals who take pride in their work."

    A personal thank you for this post. My dad worked for the government for 30+ years. He's a West Point grad, and probably could have made a lot more money in private industry. Instead, he chose to work for his country.

    On the case you reference in the post: this is just tragic. I heard a full story on NPR a few days ago. This wonderful man was also a teacher's assistant in an elementary school in Kentucky. All of the kids just loved him. It was a heartbreaking story to hear details on first thing in the morning (it was on Morning Edition, which we wake up to). So sad, and so very unnecessary.

    What's ironic is that one of the people interviewed in the story pointed out that so many in this part of Kentucky depend on the government for assistance.

    Jen

    Jen Zingsheim | October 2009

  • 3.Hear, hear! Thanks for speaking your mind, Shel - and I couldn't agree more.

    Of course the blowhards of the media (all forms, whether radio, TV or the Web) who make their money fanning the flames of mistrust of the government and inciting such hatred of government employees will deny any responsibility for this crime, or that their words might have in any way contributed to it. But while such cowardice might be expected, there is a larger message here for all of us in communications/marketing:

    We have a responsibility to choose our messages carefully and to take into account how those messages may be received. That doesn't mean letting fear of an audience's reaction dictate what we say, but it does mean that we have a responsibility not to deliberately incite passions just to get attention. It means that we have a responsibility to engage even our harshest and most vitriolic critics with respect, even when we're cussing out our computer screens or venting at the person in private. It makes the responsibility we have for respectful dialogue even more paramount.

    Christopher Barger | October 2009 | Detroit

  • 4.I saw the following AP article and remembered that you had written this post. I thought it appropriate to pass on a comment with some further information now that more is known about the circumstances of the situation. The police have ruled the man's death a suicide. So perhaps the anti-government sentiments that exist are not as dangerous as the media makes it out to be. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-24-census-worker-suicide_N.htm

    Robert Safuto | November 2009 | Albany, NY

  • 5.@Rob: Of course, the story as reported didn't hint at suicide; this was a revelation that was only just recently reported. It is, indeed, unfortunate that so much commentary was offered based on Sparkman's alleged effort to defraud his insurance companies.

    But if you read the other comments to this post -- and others -- you find a chorus of sentiment from government workers and people who know or are related to government workers that reinforce the kind of grief they take from some public quarters. The Sparkman story -- even as it turns out to be false -- brought this kind of behavior to light.

    Over on my Facebook profile, where this post was cross-posted, Dave Fleet commented, "there are a lot of hard-working people there, transcending political lines, who work for the good of people around them and don't get enough respect for that."

    Bloggers, of course, could only comment on the facts as reported by the media (and as fed to them by authorities). But the problem of disrespect for hard-working government employees isn't diminished by investigators' conclusion that Sparkman's death was a suicide.

    Shel Holtz | November 2009 | West Hills, CA

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