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Originally Posted by KMcK
Did all the employees and elected officials of the 12 municipalities in Cape Breton and Halifax counties survive their respective amalgamations forced by the province?
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More in my comment below, but in the case of both HRM and CBRM, the size of the bureaucracies of the amalgamated units quickly grew beyond the numbers combined from the original individual units. There was some early retirement, some largely ceremonial departures of director or higher-level people who did not succeed in competing for their old job (a despicable practice) and the like, but that was more than offset by creating more management doing essentially the same thing, responsible for some aspect of the duties and reporting to the successful candidates for the top level, as well as refilling union positions that were not allowed to remain empty/be deleted, and a general move to expand middle management and professional categories. Both municipalities provide an example of what not to do in such circumstances.
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Between early retirements at the top end and hiring freezes at the bottom end governments did contract. They also cut funding to outside organizations that employed lots of people. They claimed that by managing their way through the financial crisis with attrition policies no one was being hurt. The media bought that. No one seemed to care that Gen X was thrown under the bus so that 'no one was hurt'.
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Well, govt did not owe Gen X a job. At the provincial level in NS there were a few years of budget freezes and the like but even at that the numbers of those employed were stable despite proclamations of cuts. The position numbers back them were reported in the budget documents each year and until somebody took the time to do a comparison year to year, the myth of downsizing was allowed to spread. Finally someone made a spreadsheet comparing those figures over the time period and officials were astounded to see the the totals were the same. Some positions were moved to agencies not directly in the civil service, but funded by the province so there were no cuts to overall budgets. Other positions were moved from department to department in a variation of the old shell game, while others still were allowed to remain vacant after someone left but were not deleted, and were eventually refilled when there was an opportunity to sneak a hire past the layers of oversight. There is nothing a bureaucrat does better than to beat the system.
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Not so for Gen X. On the way out the door the baby boomers passed over us and promoted their children's generation to senior positions. Many a friend has had the indignity of now working under a much younger person he initially trained or even being fired.
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I hate to tell you this, but that is not unique to govt. Someone who is quite competent with many years of experience and who quietly goes about doing their job despite not being a sharp dresser, not seeking attention, being out of shape and not going to the gym every day, who is not particularly glib, who is wrinkled or balding, and who has seen it all over their years of working their way through the various levels of management, often gets a sharp, smooth-talking young exec parachuted in over top of everyone because they impress someone in HR or top management. Those new hires often crash and burn. But it is hardly unique to the "boomer" generation. In my experience you are lucky to work for merely competent top management, forget about great management. Most great managers do not last in govt because they can't manage given the obstacles put in their way. If they know what they're doing, they cannot stand it there. That's why most govt management is so bad and why govt fails to deliver so often. A lot of people in charge just don't have a clue.
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