In the mid-1970s I spent two years on loan from my university working for the Federal Government in the greater Washington, DC, area. My job: to help a major USDA agency mount an executive development program. This we did.
While there I took the opportunity to question my nominal supervisor, the head of the branch to which I was attached. I asked him why the fellow I shared an office with hadn't been fired, since he spent most of his workday on the phone conducting parish business for the small church for which he was pastor, supposedly during nights and weekends.
John, the supervisor, replied that he'd already fired his one employee and found the process so punishing he would never attempt to fire another. As you might imagine I wanted to know more about this experience.
He replied the process took three years during which the unwanted employee sat at his desk doing nothing useful and much that was harmful. During that same three years John said the firing process took up much of his own time, resulting in lowered performance for his group which was effectively operating one and a half employees short of full complement.
As a result, John's own evaluations suffered and he was given no compensating credit for dumping a loser. John's boss wondered why he was so ill-advised as to try to fire a non-performing employee. "I won't make that mistake a second time."was John's takeaway from the experience. He added that he's heard similar stories from many federal supervisors.
Given a poor performer or a disruptive employee, the temptation is to give the person a glowing reference in hopes of outplacing him or her. What it's called today I don't know, then it was "turkey outplacement."
Interestingly, my own agency was victimized by this process when they hired a director of public information from a smaller USDA agency. They learned later that agency had wanted him gone and gilded the lily of his recommendations. So he was promoted for being a loser ... really ugly stuff.
If I'm less-than-thrilled about having government take on additional responsibilities, the foregoing explains why.
