This past week I visited our nation’s capital. Amidst the bad news on Nortel, a start-up community hanging on for its very life, and a softening aerospace/defense sector, were a series of upbeat headlines on the city’s true economic cluster, government. One headline announced, ‘Government buys 30 acres at St. Laurent and Hwy 417”; another trumpeted, “EDC land deal closes for $18mm” while the opening line of a third article read, “ Public Works re-launches procurement process for two build-to-lease Gatineau towers that will create 751,000 square feet of federal office space when completed by October 2012”. It should be noted that the latter announcement could only be found in the capital of that parallel universe that is our national French-English nuttiness. You see in Ottawa, exactly 25% of the federal government’s office space has to be on the Gatineau side of the river. As of last month, the office ratio between the two cities had alarmingly skewed in Ottawa’s favor (76.5% to 23.5%) setting off the search to secure the additional office space in Gatineau.
Sideshow balancing acts aside, why do you suppose the federal government needs all of that additional space? The official line has to do with replacing old deteriorating office space with more contemporary facilities. While this may well be the case, it is also likely that our ever-gorging government is once again adding a few more notches to its already ample belt, blithely oblivious to the belt-tightening all around it. This is born out by Statistics Canada numbers released last week that show overall employment numbers down in Ottawa except for the category called ‘public administration’ which grew by 1,900 jobs between January and February. On a year-over-year basis, the only sector to grow was the same public administration which saw employment rise by roughly 8,000 in the Capital region. The numbers suggest that despite less overall economic activity, and plummeting tax revenues, someone believes we need more not less public administration.
Upon returning to Toronto, I read a series of articles on the ‘bloated’ bureaucracy of the Toronto Transit Commission. Though the TTC will transport roughly the same number of people this year as it did 20 years ago, it now requires 25% more staff to transport them. Furthermore, spending is up 10.4% this year and the TTC is hiring 508 new staff.Among the people the TTC is hiring; seven people are required for ‘non-service training’ , twenty route supervisors, twenty-seven people for the ‘Work Safe/Home Safe safety culture program’, and eleven staff for the new ‘Geospacial Information System Initiative’. The transit authority is also hiring six additional staff because ‘tokens are heavier than the cancelled adult tickets’. Less you think Toronto’s City Hall is up in arms about such spending, it was also reported that they too are planning a ‘hiring binge’. Included in their recession-busting list of must-hire staff are a blackberry specialist, five grow-op inspectors, and my favorite, ‘an animal nutrition research assistant’ presumably to lend support to the chronically overworked animal nutrition researcher.
Governments are cursed with the organizational equivalent of a fat gene. They cannot help themselves. And even worse, though they may be repulsively obese to the public no one in public administration will ever admit to or willingly act upon a weight problem. In 2008, the TTC initiated a program to reduce absenteeism, a problem which cost the TTC more than $5-million in overtime than was budgeted. City council asked that a progress report be produced at year end. The TTC ignored the request and failed to produce such a report to budget committee as directed by council. They did however ask for more money for this program in 2009. Same with the report they failed to produce on their progress for reducing consultants…somehow it never happened. In fairness, can you blame the 400lb TTC ignoring weight loss advice from 500lb Toronto City Council?
Now the moment that TTC budgets get squeezed (which reports suggest will almost certainly be late this year or next) you can be assured that the transit authority and the Mayor’s office will argue that the TTC has the body mass index of a Kenyan marathon runner. No one will question the size of the token-carrying department, let alone why one is even needed. Nor will anyone raise questions about the $5mm long-weekend related absenteeism costs. They will instead immediately bemoan the need to start cutting bus routes as well as the diameter of brake linings on rush hour subway cars. No one ever said these self-preservationists were stupid.
The other notable actor in this farce is the unions. If you are a union leader these days the only place to be is the public sector, the last bastion of monopolistic service providers. Wielding the big stick of job action or service withdrawal, public sector unions ask for and get what they want, and what they understandably want is more jobs and the dues that go with them. Wanting more does not mean more efficiency, effectiveness or any nonsense related to return on public dollars spent. And despite the occasional beleaguered politician such as Larry O’Brien who will take them on, politicians over the past decade have known better than to say no. Government jobs added today must be negotiated away tomorrow and negotiations of this sort are always zero-sum games for unions.
We are in the midst of a global recession/depression with few safe places to hide. Governments are being asked to stimulate the economy and a multitude of initiatives are underway aimed at preventing a full economic free fall. Judging by recent articles on various levels of government this is likely to be one of the safest times ever for governments at all levels to gorge guilt-free. Rest assured it will be an extravagant feast and one that we will all pay for dearly.
Looking for a job with great hours, average pay, four day weekends, unbeatable benefits, union protection and heaven-on-earth pensions….head for the public sector. It is the only growth sector going.
Looking for a dynamic HR role? Stay away from the entrepreneurial tech sector.
January 1, 2012
In a recent survey of HR graduate students, the technology sector rated among the most coveted destinations to ply their trade. It is viewed as a world of innovative people, technologies and approaches where progressive talent management, OB/OD and related HR work awaits.
The Cry to Replace RIM's CEOs – A Truly Dumb Idea
October 13, 2011
Leaving aside the recent service outages, the shellacking of RIM in the press is a tad surreal to behold.
For the few Luddites not familiar with the firm, Research in Motion is the successful Canadian smart phone pioneer with revenues of $20bb per year, no debt and cash in the bank. They manufacture products that remain popular around the world and continue to boast technological innovations unmatched by any competitor. Their most recently launched smart phone devices have been well reviewed and appear to be selling well. And though the company's first version of its new tablet, the Playbook, has room for improvement, it is a promising piece of technology.
Context: When Companies Confuse Start-up Experience for Start-up Experience
October 7, 2011
I had the occasion this week to chat with an entrepreneur still licking his wounds from a stalled startup venture. His tale is a reminder of how easily companies misunderstand organizational context when hiring. For startups, such a misunderstanding can be fatal.
The CEO Hiring Practices at HP
October 3, 2011
The press tells us that Hewlett Packard is the largest technology company in the world with revenues of $126bb. Impressive as those numbers may appear, they do not seem to impress HP's Board of Directors. You see they do not believe that any of the firm's 324,600 employees are capable of leading it. Not one person. Not this year or last year when CEO changes were made. In fact they were apparently not capable six years ago or even eleven years ago when CEO changes were also made. But before summarily indicting the firm's succession planning/leadership development programs, it is useful to consider the track record of the external candidates who were considered better choices than the firm's internal candidates. This analysis decidedly shifts the spotlight to the competence of Hewlett Packard's Board of Directors.
The Folly of Believing What You Read
September 19, 2011
Some time ago we posted a blog titled ‘So you REALLY want to be a CEO?' which looked at the human costs of climbing the upper rungs of the management ladder. The blog was based on a series of articles immediately following the ‘resignation' of Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. All of these articles presented a cautionary tale of life in the fast lane, the long hours, the extensive global travel, and the shareholder pressures that accompany an uncooperative stock price. They also spoke poignantly of the physical and emotional toll that such unrelenting pressure took on the Pfizer CEO who eventually resigned in order to attend to his family and health. As it turns out however, much of this narrative may not have been true
Before sending us your resume (and then getting frustrated with us) ask who we work for
July 25, 2011
A friend of mine is a trustee in bankruptcy. As his title suggests, he and his firm serves those contemplating the ‘cleansing' process of personal bankruptcy. Potential customers compare service providers, select one, and then pay the chosen firm a fee to initiate and manage the ensuing process on their behalf. However, as soon as the relief-seeking customer signs on the dotted line, the trustee's allegiance shifts to the creditors for whom they then seek to maximize debt recovery. This shift in who works for whom must be a tad unsettling for people who already have a heap of problems and stress on their hands.
What Dating Services Can Teach Companies About Hiring
June 1, 2011
Executive-level hiring is a decidedly aspirational endeavor. Organizations idealize their workplace cultures, select for attributes that will fit into those romanticized environments, and then immerse unsuspecting hires into their ice-cold reality of their works-in-progress.
How to Survive a Startup - by Jill Ram
April 20, 2011
If you're an executive and you're thinking of joining a start-up, know what stage of a start-up to join. If the company is in its first year or so, don't expect to make significant changes. If you join after the company is somewhat established and mistakes have been made and learned from, you'll likely be more successful from the outset. If the founder has stepped aside, well, by then, the company is likely not considered a start-up anymore. It won't be functioning like a big company yet, and it won't have all the structure in place that it needs, but it will be run with more practicality and with less emotion. Timing is everything so choose it well.
Good News for the Old, Overqualified and Overlooked
March 18, 2011
It is expected that a significant percentage of the baby boomer generation will drive right past the Freedom 55 highway exit. For many the goal of early retirement will have proven to be unattainable hype, while for others the ups and downs of working will appear more attractive than the prospects of working up and down the local lawn bowling leadership board.
Pressed for time? Blame those Benedictine Monks.
February 24, 2011
It is among the principal reasons candidates tell us they are open to consider a change in employers. They are tethered to it, yet somehow it still flees. It is time, the most precious of resources, and for many harried executives they want some of it back.
Though their relationship with time may be strained, it is worth pointing out that it was not always this way. In his fascinating book Time Wars, Jeremy Rifkin chronicles the evolution of our modern relationship with time. He points out that in traditional agrarian and pastoral cultures, time was a very naturalistic notion maintained in cyclical, repetitive, biological and even sacred terms. The ‘passing of time' was cued via the changing seasons, biological lifecycles and lunar patterns and thus, the cadence and tempo of those societies were finely tuned to the cyclical rhythms of their physical environments. As he states, "Our early ancestors coveted the circle, perceiving time as eternal return, a ceaseless repetition of an endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth". Since these cyclical rhythms could neither be accelerated, nor altered, the cadence of these societies' was natural and harmonious.
Looking for an industry that’s growing, stable and secure?
March 8, 2009