I guess not all government workers are bad people 👨‍🚒

Maybe it’s the field I work in — political communication — but the impression I get of most government workers is they are in for the money primarily, and that most government jobs are about patronage and unwarranted attention seeking. Maybe government workers fill a needed jobs, and some are competent at what they do, but they hardly are the noble public servants, helping those in need, that they use the mass media to portray themselves as. Maybe a necessary evil, but not as noble as they like to portray themselves.

But my views have softened a bit since the fire recovery efforts at John Wolcott’s house. With some careful  negotiations with the fire inspector, and some help from current and former local elected officials, we were able to recover a lot of his files. The fire department was very sympathetic and helpful with the recovery effort, working to haul heavy, stinky, soggy wet boxes of files out of the house and ultimately allowed us to secure even more things from inside. They seemed genuinely caring and helpful, willing to go above the bare minimum of their jobs to help out the community. They took time they could have spent doing other activities, they spent actively assisting in the recovery efforts.

So maybe government workers do care about the communities they serve. There are good people in government, even if the incentive structures of government workers sometimes mislead them — be it campaign contributions, promotions, or other benefits from serving the politicians over the people. It’s good to know people in government sometimes actually serve the people, are willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. Not all government workers are just political hacks out for themselves.