Seattle Press on Line - What If Government Worked Smarter, Not Harder?

Small Ideas for Seattle

What If Government Worked Smarter, Not Harder?

By Dick Falkenbury

Jan 24, 2001 -- I had a guy in my cab last Friday who had just been fired from Bazillion.com. He said it was the first time he'd ever been fired. I laughed, "You'll get used to it. I've been fired nearly as many times as I've been hired." Actually, he was handling it all pretty well.

But you've got to hand it to the high-tech industry: they reversed nearly 300 years of economic history in a few short years. The old method was to pay people for working long years on a project, with the workers earning more the longer they were involved. But in the last two decades a new way has emerged: High-tech companies are paying their workers more for accomplishing their tasks in less time.

IBM promised a good retirement at the end of a long career; Microsoft caught and surpassed them by promising their work force great wealth if they worked hard and smart for a few short years. High-tech industry was able to reward their people as the value of their companies dramatically increased.

Maybe government ought to start thinking of paying their employees better if they work smarter and finish the job faster--bringing savings to the taxpayer in the bargain. (Obviously, in many areas of government work there's no way to adopt this idea: teaching, police and fire departments come to mind.)

Could we offer the pothole-fixing crews a one-time lump sum if they manage to fix 80 percent of the potholes on Seattle's arterials within one year ... with some of the payment withheld to make sure that the repairs hold up for more than three years?

Maybe the ETC (the monorail people) could offer lottery-size bonuses to all the workers involved if they produce a transit system under a certain price within a certain amount of time. By "lottery-size" I mean well over one year's salary (on top of their normal wage and benefits package)--bonuses big enough to pay off the mortgage, put a child through a good college (or several children through bad colleges) or just plain retire early.

Could we offer the workers of Seattle a sizable bonus if they reduce the total number of Seattle City employees in a given year? Or is that asking too much?

Talk to Dick: falkenbury@aol.com.

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!

No comments yet!