Federal Bureaucrats Lose Job Security In Rush To Reinvent Government Cutbacks Eliminate A Coveted Benefit Of Government Employment

Which workers do many people think have cushy jobs, easy hours, guaranteed job security and bosses who allow them to hide under drifts of useless paper only to resurface for a bountiful retirement?

Government bureaucrats, of course.

But not anymore. From department heads to storeroom clerks, federal government workers are beginning to brave the anguish of downsizing like their colleagues in private industry.

In the past two years, the Clinton administration’s “reinventing government” plan has cut 160,000 federal jobs, for a savings of $58 billion, Vice President Al Gore said last month. Currently, congressional budget cutters are debating proposals to eliminate whole agencies, which will certainly mean job losses. And unless Congress OKs a higher debt ceiling by Nov. 13, the federal government could shut down, temporarily throwing workers out of jobs.

Being a bureaucrat isn’t so easy anymore.

“I lost six workers from my office last year,” said Frederick Pintz, 51, director of the division of Health Services Delivery for the Department of Health and Human Services in Dallas. “We redistribute the work and we get by. (Employees) have more work to do and less resources, and they’re not particularly happy.”

Federal workers once secure and settled in their jobs are being forced to justify their existence, or face extinction. Following the lead of the continually restructuring private industry, middle managers have been the first to go.

“Civil servants are not protected from the (same) things that business goes through,” said Robert Gabour, 44, deputy director of the Dallas regional support office for the Department of Energy. The office is being closed in March as part of “reinventing government,” and 15 workers are looking for other jobs.

“We thought we’d be around for a good while,” Gabour said.

But if Congress approves plans to balance the federal budget over either seven or eight or 10 years, no one knows how deep the job cuts will be.

“I’m not sure how the changes would affect federal employees. There’s a great deal of difference between the House and Senate plans. Things are changing so quickly” in Washington, said Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for Texas Gov. George Bush.

Republicans want to eliminate the entire Department of Commerce and NASA is expected to drop 55,000 jobs over five years.

As part of the “reinventing government” program, Deputy Energy Secretary Bill White has said he will save more than $10.5 billion over five years by eliminating unnecessary middle managers and giving some functions to private contractors.

Transportation Secretary Federico Pena has said his department will save more than $6.7 billion over five years and cut its 106,000-member work force in half.

Government downsizing certainly saves money, but it could mean a loss of productivity if the workers are anxious or angry about their jobs.

The link between anxiety and productivity hasn’t been measured in the government sector.

Productivity may increase in the short term, as employees get fired up in attempts to save their jobs. And over the long term, a government study showed that for large corporations where downsizing resulted in layoffs and early retirement, lower labor costs helped profits soar 11.4 percent.

Despite all the job losses over the years, former federal workers seemingly have been absorbed into the economy in Texas. While federal job losses were increasing, total employment continued to rise.

Still, that’s no consolation to Ralph Parks, 52, a lead mail clerk for the Census Bureau in Dallas. He said he thinks about the possibility of losing his job every day while he stares into a computer screen. His job is ordering questionnaires, personnel forms and other documents from the agency’s office in Indiana.

“If I lost my job I could possibly go to work in a grocery store,” Parks said. He said he worked in a commissary at Columbus Air Force base in Mississippi years ago. “I know something about the business.”