How the public service gets away with gross negligence and incompetence

If ever you wanted to learn a few lessons to avoid failure in your business, I would strongly recommend you study the public service - they're a great example of what NOT to do! (Although my views are largely formed from my experiences with Victorian and Federal Government bodies, I suspect that there's a certain degree of this in the State and Federal Governments throughout Australia, and overseas as well.)

What distinctive traits do these Government instrumentalities exhibit? And how are they the polar opposite to common sense, diligent endeavour, creativity, and performance?

If you take a look at the whole gamut of departments that are supposed to be 'serving' their 'clients' - DHS (Department of Human Services), Centrelink, Child Support Agency, Department of Education, and so on - the following characteristics are common themes:

Public servants:-

• defy common-sense and logic to follow a frequently misinterpreted and inappropriate textbook guideline
• operate reactively rather than proactively, to cover their butt and avoid additional work once a problem rears its head, rather than to anticipate challenges and create the best possible chance of a fantastic outcome for all concerned
• completely disregard the client's time, costs, or level of knowledge about procedures and subject matter, to blindly pass all responsibility back to said client and thereby avoid any personal responsibility
• take the bureaucratic path whenever possible (and often when you didn't believe it was possible) in order to avoid personal responsibility for any decisions
• 'blame' everybody else (i.e. "I have no control over that, it's up to [somebody else]")

My most recent experience of this has been at Koonung Secondary College who, under the auspices of the Department of Education - Eastern Metropolitan Region, is in the death throes of another sorry tale of culpable negligence and gross mismanagement even as we speak.

Having accepted my son's enrolment at the start of this year to commence Year 7, any service-oriented, success-focussed business person would have evaluated his needs and taken proactive steps to ensure his integration into the school was positive and productive. Given my son's known behavioural difficulties, this would no doubt have entailed consulting behavioural specialists, developing a strategic plan, ensuring that aides were available as necessary, identifying shortfalls in resourcing, and opening up strong communication channels with all 'stakeholders' (that includes the parents).

Of course, I could possibly have pre-empted today's predicament late last year when Marilyn McKeown at Dept. of Ed - Eastern Metropolitan Region, and the school itself, insisted that, based on their protocols and procedures, my son would not be eligible for anywhere near the assistance he had received during Grade 6. At this time, I flagged with Marilyn McKeown that his needs had not suddenly evaporated and, in fact, moving school to commence secondary education would be disruptive and almost certainly lead to greater pressures and challenges on my son. It would be fair to say that the school and the Department of Education were unambiguously, emphatically, repeatedly warned that difficulties were virtually guaranteed and that proactive strategies and resourcing were not only desirable, but essential.

Given that all these issues had been identified last year, you would expect, would you not, that any responsible, capable, effective team would be on the ball and ready with options right from the very outset. Identifying risks, assessing their severity, coming up with suitable risk mitigation options. Or, if unable to provide the level of service required, politely acknowledge their lack of ability/resources, and decline to take an enrolment they could not service.

Well, today I heard from my son's mother that the school is approaching a situation of potentially expelling my son. So far, I've received ZERO communications from them. Not even one phone call or email. Never a request for a meeting. And they're already 'suggesting' (to my ex-wife) that we look at alternate schools.

Of course, this example is but one amongst millions experienced every day by Australians around the country. As anybody who has ever made application to Centrelink for any payment can tell you, dealing with the bureaucracy there will make living on the streets under a bridge seem exotic.

And while there are many lessons to be learned from these illustrations about what NOT to do in business, indeed in any arena of life, one question to which I still haven't found an answers is:

How do they get away with it???

Just for a bit of fun...

I was trying to find some software on eBay this morning and came across some rather unusual 'Terms & Conditions' which I thought were worth sharing - hope you enjoy!

I will resist the urge to put some strict, angry, meaningless terms and conditions in fine print here. Bleating endlessly on about nothing worthwhile except how you must read my thousand word terms, sign a legally binding agreement witnessed in triplicate agreeing that, if you don't pay within 8 seconds I will re-list the item, leave you negative feedback, launch legal action in 37 countries to have you executed (or deported to New Zealand). Would that it be over yet, but no - then requiring you pass an exam on the terms followed by a complicated series of life & death trials that will seem never ending, but may ultimately, if I am completely satisfied (and having a particularly nice afternoon) involve you getting this item at some stage in the
distant future. Just like all other eBay sellers.

I however will simply resort to an old gypsy curse. Buy this, pay me and leave me some groovy feedback OR... May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!

- Fred's Discount Crud