. . .if you just happen to have worked in an office where people were bullied, so what. Life is tough and then you die.

Having watched good managers fall by the wayside over the past few years has taught me much about federal sector life.  Adapt or be eaten.  If they tell you it’s black but it’s green, it’s black.  Period.  If you disagree, you’ll be persecuted and no one will come to your rescue.

For a while, there were a handful of us who were still had outside-of-the-institution sensibility.  Little by little, managers would eventually succumb to the pressure of the “just say uncle” game.  It was as practical and mature as binge hazing.  (In other agencies, one might also note such a mentality is dangerous, particularly for units charged with health and safety.)

As a new manager and minority too, I should never have been able to speak my mind or offer my employees protection other than for a strange confluence of events.  It’s a bit of a long story, one I’m saving for my memoir.  In short, after publicly outing the Stephenson debacle, Secretary Chao came to my rescue.  It was a little like having catapulted myself into an 800 credit score by virtue of a very public hearing transcript, then being offered a credit card by Bank of Chao.  In any case, for a few glorious years, I was an anomaly.  I only wish the credit card never expired.

There is a danger in trying to equate the intimidation that takes place in federal government with that in the private sector.  In the private sector, there are laws.  In the federal sector, is no law enforcement and no worker protection.  If you fancy your secretary in the private sector, be ready set aside a nice piece of your company’s revenues to pay her damages.  In the federal sector, help yourself.  Want to slug someone?  Ditto. 2+2= whatever you want it to be, boss.

There are no punitive damages in the federal sector — that would be like suing the taxpayer — and compensatory damages are capped at $200,000.*  No attorney in their right mind would take a federal employee case. (my apologies to Mary Dryovage, whom I consider an advocate, just one step below an angel)  Further, no one ever wins these cases, which are heard in special federal employee courts by administrative judges who endure the exact same culture because — guess what — they’re federal employees too!

In any case, I felt that I had to write this post, part of the pathos I continue to feel after having departed. If the public can imagine the scale of this chaos: hundreds of thousands of civil slaves willing to prevaricate to pay their bills, completely unaware of the impact their actions have on yet millions of others. 

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* Mary Dryovage emailed me an update and clarification, stating, “The cap on damages is $300,000 and does not include back and front pay, attorneys fees and costs.”