The New York Times has the interesting report Confusion and Staff Troubles Rife at I.R.S. Office in Ohio. Here is one small snippet that might give you a feel for what is in the story.
Outside the Cincinnati office on Thursday, employees on smoking breaks voiced many complaints. Pay freezes, mandatory furloughs and the effects of sequestration were all testing their already low morale. But the scandal, some said, had made things worse.
“There’s a buzz in the office about this Tea Party situation,” said Neal Juarez, a case advocate in the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Like several other I.R.S. workers, Mr. Juarez was skeptical that employees in Cincinnati would have acted as they had without some direction from leadership in Washington.
“You know what they say when there’s trouble,” he added. “You know what rolls downhill.”
I don’t suppose any of you who have worked in private industry have ever worked in an understaffed, low morale, poorly managed, Dilbertian organization he sarcastically asks.
You don’t suppose that the continued cutting of the IRS budget by the Republicans in Congress would have anything to do with a setup to bring about just this kind of problem so that they could cut the IRS budget even more? Sort of like cutting the federal spending budget when the economy is down in the dumps due to insufficient consumer demand.
Here is an actual conversation I had with one of my bosses 10 or more years ago as best as I can remember it:
BOSS: Steve, how long will it take you to get out the next release?
STEVE: I should be able to get it done in 2 months.
BOSS: How sure are you that you can meet that deadline?
STEVE: Pretty sure.
BOSS: I don’t understand that answer. You should be 95% certain about every commitment you make, but of course you shouldn’t sandbag either.
[more conversation about the project ensued.]BOSS: Now how sure are you about meeting the deadline?
STEVE: I am 95% certain I can meet that deadline.
BOSS: How can you say that when you just told me that you weren’t so sure not 5 minutes ago?
STEVE: Well, I am trying to figure out what I can say that will make you happy, but I am having a devil of a time trying to do it.
BOSS: All I want is the truth.
[At the end of the meeting, the boss dismissed everyone and asked Steve to stay behind for further discussion. Steve still worked in that group for a while longer and received high praise for his professionalism while the project was being cancelled. The customer liked the product, but didn’t want to pay for it. After the cancellation, Steve went to work for another group in the same company. It was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There, he told hid boss’s boss that he wouldn’t know quality software if he fell over it. Only young people who are financially insecure should ever work for private industry these days. Those of us nearing retirement are just too sassy.]