Parking Gear

Dear Sri Thyagarajan:

Thank you for sharing your memories about your late mother. Sometimes, I think the difference between the previous generation and us is the time we take to analyze things while they take instant right decision and do it. Even the next generation also appear to be falling in line with just doing it.

I remember someone describing the meeting in Colgate about how to improve their sales substantially in the management meeting. Free samples, incremental television ads, full-page paper ads, direct to consumer marketing, flavor changes, etc. Finally, one new Junior most executive came up with a suggestion to increase the hole through which the paste comes out so that people will use more and more paste.

The boy gave that idea deserves a strategic job in the military. The westerners call it as thinking outside the box.

Viswa

 

Hi @kkrish,

I can give example from my own life but would prefer to share it privately through a message than sharing it here. Is that okay?

 

@kkrish

I am deeply pained by this unnecessary shutdown due to something that both political parties can easily sit down and solve. The legislation that was passed both by Senate earlier is now passed by Congress but the Senate Majority Leader is refusing to vote on it again as the President wasn't going to sign the Bill until the wall is funded to the extent of $5.7 billion.

Can 800,000 workers fight against the mighty Federal Government? "What can I do about it?" becomes irrelevant in this case. If they go to the court, it doesn't solve the problem immediately. They can demonstrate in the office of the Reps and Senators but they are also helpless as it needs at least 51 Senators to pass the bill passed by the House. Moreover, only the Senators who are due for election in 2020 and have more federal employees in their state affected by shut down are focused on the issue.

Historically, there were 21 shutdowns since 1976 and the history clearly states that most of the time either the President or Congress weaponized government shut down to negotiate without bothering about average government employees living pay check to pay check being affected by such shut downs. In our real life, we won't wait to fix something until it happens 21 times.

If you look at the question, "What part is bothering?", I am sure all federal employees would come to the conclusion that their daily lives being affected by the government shutdown is used as a weapon by both parties. They need to work on eliminating that risk leaving both Congress and the President not to use it as weapon.

One aspect the federal government employees can look at is to have an insurance plan similar to employee disability called, "Employer Disability". It could be due to lack of allocation of funds or deranged attitude to solve a non-existing problem. If they contribute premium every month along with their other deductions, they could get paid during the government shutdown. The employees can pull out "government shutdown as a weapon attitude" out of the hands of both Congress and the President.

All federal employees including both essential and non-essential employees can start a thrift fund by contributing money every month. When non-essential employees get affected by government shut down, this thrift fund can lend money to these employees for their survival. When they get paid, they can refund the fund to this thrift fund. This fund can be managed by a fund manager to appreciate every year. Every retiring employee can be paid his/her contributions to the thrift fund when new employees can begin contributing to the thrift fund immediately.

I have seen a doctor sending "0" bill to a patient who is an affected federal government employees. Many in Washington D.C. area are distributing food packets to the federal employees affected. Some restaurants are not charging the federal government employees for their lunch or dinner. These are more of services provided by others but real solution is what the employees find on their own not to get affected by any future government shutdowns, especially taking the power out of the Congress and the President.

Blaming the President or the Congress is not going to help but a concrete action to take that power away from them to use it as a tool to negotiate their political position will solve it once and for all.