You know things are tough when even government jobs aren't safe. Growing up in DC the conventional wisdom was that if you wanted to make real money you worked in the private sector, but if you wanted stability you went to work for the government. The joke was you'd have to die to lose your job.
Reading about the county commissioners' meeting in this morning's paper was just a tad depressing. The commissioners were told that they were facing a shortfall in next year's budget unless taxes were raised or expenses were cut. They said that if the cuts came from job cuts alone it would mean cutting 226 jobs, and commissioner Walter Marshall actually asked how those job cuts would affect citizens. Well, I know what the effect would be on at least a couple of hundred taxpayers.
Commissioner Dave Plyler also asked how much money the county would save if they forced county employees to take 14 days of unpaid leave during the year. I'm sure the county and school employees were just overjoyed to hear that question, but I'd think that they'd prefer that to the possibility of losing their jobs or of seeing their coworkers lose their jobs.
There's another old joke from my days in DC. During snowstorms the federal government would make announcements that they were closed except for "essential personnel" and we'd always ask "If someone isn't essential then why do they have the job in the first place?" Well, I guess we're about to find out exactly which jobs are essential.
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Befuddled 
I used to date Plyler’s Wife’s niece. What a buffoon. I’ve never known a man who enjoyed the sound of his own voice more. Retired TV anchor and all that.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are apparently getting into the act, too, as the system is looking at cutting 1,200 jobs.
My question about the cuts is how many of these would come from middle-management and up? How many would hurt the people that can least afford it?
Also, didn’t Forsyth County have a hiring freeze in place?