European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Capitol workaholics Symik Feinsilber associated press a fire Drill emptied the interstate Commerce commission building a Tew weeks ago sending hundreds of Washington bureaucrats onto Constitution Avenue. What caught a passerby s attention was that they kept asking the guards when they could gel Back to their desks when the All Clear sounded they stormed the place. Government lawyer Krisl a Nygaard says she generally carries a Bri Cecase Home and spends a Lew hours alter supper with papers spread out on the dining room table working on hydroelectric Plant licenses Lor the Federal Energy regulatory commission. In thai company town Par excellence there s a lot of voluntary unpaid overtime. Exceptions can be found Rel course but Many Ottrie political appointees and High level careerists the people who really run the government Are a hard working Bunch. Often a package of crackers and a soil drink at the desk serves As lunch and the real work gets done at the Tail end of the Day that Mies in the lace of the stereotype of bureaucrats As surly Olli Cious paper Shullters just putting in their time. In act some research finds that most americans Are actually Salish cd with i hair face to lace contacts with government workers. Most government people like workers everywhere do a Day s work then leave at quilting time. Government personnel of Licals say they Are about As productive As other workers but closer to the lop among the 5.000 or so senior executives of government Are Many who Are on the Job Early and late Helmut Hollwig. Who is with the National Institute of standards and technology says he leaves Home Al 6 30 a leaves work a i 7 30 . And when he goes in on weekends to Pul in a Lew quiet hours he is rarely Iho Only one to show up another government worker is Harry a. Blackmun. 80. Associate Justice of the supreme court. Hear Hirn i Escobe his work habits the Job Lor me is really seven Days a week. You can say my average work week exceeds co hours it s a rare saturday that i miss coming to the court i try to avoid coming in on sundays but i will v.ort-. At Home " on saturdays the president May be at Camp David but Hundred of his minions Are Labouring away. Like Many agencies the irs requires employees to sign in it they enter the building during weekends sign in sheets show that on average 500 people Pul in some extra time at their desks on saturdays and about the same numb i on sundays. In All 6,300 people work Al irs Headquarters last Tail when 4 5 million copies o your Federal income taxes were printed irs people involved in its preparation travelled to the printing Plant in new Jersey worked weekends and even through thanksgiving work culture varies from one Agency to another but irs employees Are among hardest workers in government. Reports Hij Agency s Public affairs director Ellen Murphy. It s hard to generalize but i would certainly say government people Are very hard says business executive Alan Campbell who ran the office of personnel management in the Carter administration. Adds Donald Devine. Who held that Job under president Reagan at the lop of government by and Large people work harder than they do in the private he says the work culture varies from one Agency to another with the hardest working people in his View found at the Pentagon and other defense related agencies and at the irs Fri and customs service. One reason the Day is so Long Lor government executives meetings the Boss his deputies and his Agency Heads spend much of their time in meetings. That leaves the end of the Day for Reading the mail returning phone Calls thinking about tomorrow and if there s time about the big picture. Mark a. Abramson who runs the Center for excellence in government which is sort of an alumni association of 400 sex government executives is a student of the subject. In he says there Are More people you have to get agreement from. You can t do anything unilaterally. There Are so Many actors and so Many bases to get touched. The first Lime you forget to Call an interest group and Tell them what you re planning to do you get once a policy emerges from All those meetings it has to be sold within the Agency to the chief to other agencies that will be affected to the budget people to Congress and to the interested Public. More meetings moreover the person going to All those meetings must still manage his own Little bureaucracy. He has to get the staff s input before a meeting then Brief the staff afterwards so All March in the same direction. Political people often talk about their input i work 16 hours a Day i work 17 and weekends because there is no Bottom Lino no profit or loss in government so they can t talk about their output says Abramson. On Capitol Hill congressional aides often Young single and dedicated work Long hours and then walk Down the Block to the Hawk & Dove Bull leathers the tune inn or some such place to spend half the night socializing with the very same people they spent their Day with and talking about what else work. Ask officialdom about work habits and Joseph Califano s name is Likely to pop up. When to ran the department of health education and welfare under president Carter he was a legendary Workaholic despite Carter s admonition to aides that he did t want government to keep them irom being Good family men and women. Califano was famous Lor calling a staff meeting or 7 ., which might not gel started until 8 or 9 and not end before 11. He was a hard driving Guy who wanted to do a lot and do it quickly and who expected people to be available when he wanted recalls Dan Marcus Califano s Deputy general counsel. Calilan installed lights on assistants phones to summon them right away now. In those kinds of positions the responsibilities Are Heady the issues Are interesting and you usually would come into those jobs with a fairly High level of enthusiasm and says Marcus. I Call ii i us grecian formula syndrome every 15 or 20 designers of those trademark appear on food products Luin Back the clock Sci ii Timos it s just a simple Brush stroke removing a line Here and there but instead of gelling older the characters All regress. The designers think those obscure changes won t be noticed. In 198g. Belly Crocker had her sixth face lilt her cars pierced and hot hair moussed because As a spokesman Lor general Mills said she s been a Lillo too grand Motherly looking " belly and i snarl of out together. Today i buy Moisturizer by the Case and Betty s face has the elasticity of an Ace Bandage. I noticed. Remember when a Ben Franklin look alike smiled Back irom your Oatmeal Box Well that was before they took away his glasses and gave him Blue Contact i Lacna to Silleck Page 16 the stars and stripes lenses. I noticed. Aunt Jemima a 100-year-old trademark is appearing in july with a More contemporary the Bandanna goes the capped Teeth slay. The excess poundage she lost in 1968 has stayed Oil. She gets a new lace Collar and sports a pair of Pearl earrings designers still want her to look like she knows her Way around a if Box and can designers really want to set Back the clock they should go to work on the babies advertising diapers. It is my imagination or Are they getting older some Are shown with a Lull set of Teeth and should wednesday May 24,1989 have been toilet trained years ago. The Point is in they keep tampering with these people. 2010 will see a whole group of unlikely trademarks. I visualize the mrs. Butto Romh syrup bottle As a Barbie doll clone with a Waist so Small you la have to Force the syrup through with a lighted Candle under it. Or. Clean after a series of hair plugs will emerge with so much hair he can braid it. The Campbell soup twins will regress to a stroller. I fully expect the Pillsbury doughboy to drop 60 pounds and Wear jeans. Why Don t the creators of those mythical people Trust us to understand the aging process if the Little girl on the Morion Salt Box is widowed and lives in a Condo in Forl Myers fla., i can handle in. If Peter pan has bad dentures and no longer eats Peanut Bulter. I can l handle it. Cd 19b9 Erma bomb oct
