Public and Private Sector Jobs
As I mentioned before, I am working full time in the private sector during the council recess. I enjoy my private sector job and I believe it is healthy for anyone who runs for public office to keep their “day job.” I like working in the software industry and helping different companies solve problems. I believe that my experience in private industry keeps my brain sharp and ensures that I don’t lose touch with reality.
I am not the first to keep my non-governmental job; Ken Yeager continued to teach and Chuck Reed continued with his law practice. These are two people I admire and who (in my opinion) are leaders worthy of emulation.
I consult with companies that design physical objects like optical networking, medical devices, biotech, consumer electronics, etc. These up and coming companies must move fast to survive. If they do not move fast enough, then another company will make a better, faster and cheaper widget. Their competition may come from anywhere in the world, so being organized and ready to seize an opportunity or defeat competition is paramount.
Launching a sophisticated product takes time and energy. Launching the product before it is ready will lead to disaster and possibly put a company out of business. Timing is everything for inventive companies.
I realize the wheels of government do not move at the same speed as in the private sector, nor does government have the best track record of planning well or using money wisely. The survival skills in government do not exist like they do in the private sector since there is no risk of capital. I don’t want to lose focus of how important it is to plan ahead and use money as prudently as possible.
What government does do is provide for the needs of the community, and that is what the private sector lacks; although, to be fair, the majority of businesses that I work with are generous in funding specific causes and various non-profits. The reason I ran for office was to be part of keeping our neighborhoods healthy and vibrant. I take pleasure working in the community and with my council colleagues. As much as I enjoy the private sector, I am looking forward to returning to my council office in August.
PO—Three crucial points are missing in your comparison of public and private sector efforts: accountability, qualifications and a big one—motivation. As you point out, in business if you haven’t mastered your product or service and its marketing, you’re out. Politicos who neglect their constituents are returned to office again and again (immigration, healthcare, Iraq, local pools, public rose gardens,education, etc.)(All the while, they get richer, or while wasting taxpayer money on a stupid city hall, they get to move into it.) And qualifications—most politicos have never ever had a real job. Take a poli sci class, learn that you get ahead in “public service” by knowing the right people, get to know them, kiss ass, attend meetings, and voila! you get to run for office and win. And get reelected forever, thanks to an education system that turns out irrational voters. In the private sector, you better know ALL the detail of your product or service, or hire someone who does. Ignorance is NOT bliss, as in politics. And finally, motivation: In business, you get rich, IF you make people happy, or what they think is happy. Success is the measure: get rich, get power and influence, even change the world and the way it does things. Motivation in politics: ego. Look at me: prom king or prom king, finally. My mom was right, or with women politicos, my dad was right.
But—you’re right about keeping good at your day job. G.B.Shaw’s remark that “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”, applies just as well to politicians. The really worthless ones “look good”, until you look good at what they’ve done in the real world: nothing that they could actually EARN a living doing. George Green
So Ken Yeager, Chuck Reed and Pierluigi Oliverio are wonderful for working in both private and public sector jobs. But Dick Cheney is greedy, crooked and has a conflict of interest for his Halliburton/Vice Presidential roles?
2 – I’m sure you have an excellent point—you just neglected to tell us what it is. I’m sure you weren’t comparing Yeager, Reed, et al working at their private sector jobs to Cheney funneling billions in no-bid contracts to his Halliburton buddies, were you?
If that was your point, then your moniker fits perfectly—what you post is truly “unbelievable.”
Pierluigi writes that government provides for the needs of the community. We could write and argue about that statement for weeks…
Everyone uses the word “community,” but no one ever defines it. Where does the “San Jose Community” begin and end? Where are its boundaries? So much is done in the name of the community…so many policies and projects are approved for the “good” of the “community,” but often at the expense of basic city services and the rule of law.
How can we say that our government provides for the community when it can’t even pave the roads? Why don’t other cities do their fair share when it comes to providing affordable housing?
All I know is that there was a greater “sense of community” when I was a kid. Today, “community” has become a code word for other things.
Pete Campbell
#2, Cheney is a lobbyist; that’s not a job. And they don’t, and he doesn’t, EARN money. He takes it. He fits squarely in the definition of a “successful politico” i.e., egregious parasite, which is why he’s so nasty. There can’t be much enjoyment in spending your life doing nothing constructive, and worst of all he may have figured out he can’t take it with him. George Green
3 – Get real, how many Al Qaida operatives have been trained by Ken Yeager, defended by Chuck Reed and employed by Pierluigi Oliverio? As for Dick Cheney, the U.S. economy is booming and we haven’t had an attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
6 – My previous comments stand as does my question about what is your point?
I have no point, I apologize for my previous comments.
” for the good of the community ” in San Jose means ” for the good of the politically connected insiders, developers, politicians, senior city staff and their friends ”
not you, your neighbors, community or taxpayers as we can easily see by poor condition of San Jose’s streets, traffic congestion, city services, parks, pools etc
With the amount of bitching about our streets, you’d think all people in this town did was drive.
Dear sir: You have the most boring blog on this site it might be time to replace you.
I read this blog site to be informed & to laugh every once in a while, you have been able to bore me to death. I don’t have any idea why your still writing on here. Thank god for you that you have your city council job to go to at least there you can sit next to Nora and feel smart…
Dear #10:
Some of us walk too. Would you like me to comment on the sorry state of our city’s sidewalks too? Or, how about our city “parks,” where we’re lucky if they mow the weeds twice a month.
Pete Campbell
DT #11: So you’re bored by reading PO’s posts. Two cures—go to sleep, or stop reading it—and get back to your DTs.
PC #12: The Champs d’Elysses has more pedestrians walking it in one day than the “Downtown Transit Mall” (what a joke) has in a year. It is cleaned by Parisian workers, perhaps the laziest in the entire world. It is dotted with restaurants, so food gets spilled. And yet, it is still cleaner than our downtown transit mall streets have been since the second day they opened.
But take heart, we have an assistant deputy director of cultural affairs on payroll @ $152k/year (what’s the Director make?); an entire department devoted to really bad public art, @ who knows what cost (thanks for the park dog dung, people); a Team San Jose which runs several facilities at a heavy loss annually; a Mexican Heritage Plaze that wants its complete operating budget paid for by the taxpayers so the employees and the BOD need do nothing, I guess; empty swimming pools, but we paid a quarter mil for some bozo consultants to propose water parks where little kids can drown because their parents failed to supervise them properly; and not a single CSJ or RDA funded project that came in on budget on time.
#14, Anytime you refer to someone as a moron, I receive a royalty payment, thanks.
Some of you should at least acknowledge that some public servants care about making a difference in the community, want to help and spend most of their day listening to people complain about everything under the sun. GET INVOLVED. When was the last time you were at a Council meeting or tried to help the problems instead of complaining so much?
PO: I wonder what some of your co-workers think about you returning to “reality.” I’m sure some wish you would stay there!
#14; Well, that was certainly an intelligent response. Do you have any other pearls of wisdom that you’d care to share with me and other bloggers?
When you grow a pair and use your real name, I may have some respect for “opinion”.
13: How old are you you have to find something else to do with your time. As I said before I do read this site from time to time and your name is on here a lot. And I have never read a positve comment coming from you. I know it’s “HELL” to get old. (old man)
but we all will. so stop acting like an old fool and lighten up. don’t you have a wife to yell at?
And just so you know that DT is for (downtown) YOU MORON!!!!!
17: Yawn! You bore me like you must bore your wife and that’s why she makes you post here just to get you away from her ?
I really pray to god that I don’t turn out like you when I get to be 100 years old.
I’m glad that I made my point and that you can still understand and read at your age. this was not about you (old man) it was about PO’S post. Like I said mind your own business, and find something else to do you don’t have much time left do you?
Pierluigi,
With all due respect, it is your public job as a councilman that should keep you in touch with reality, not your private sector job. Your column comes off, in my opinion, as rather condescending. While mere government workers can’t hold a light to their private sector counterparts, not having the needed “survival skills”, one needs only to turn to the business section to see the latest company going under, screwing their employees, and cutting pensions to the retired. With a few exceptions, companies that give to good causes are not as benevolent as you make them seem; they do it because it is good for public relations and helps the bottom line. Please come down from the ivory tower.