The Virginian-Pilot
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Any time you compare the private sector with the public sector, you're asking for trouble.
Luckily, I like trouble.
Besides, we who work for private enterprises foot most of the bills for our bureaucratic brethren. We have a right to raise questions - and eyebrows - when generous government policies squander our tax dollars.
Like allowing workers to accumulate vacation and sick leave to be cashed out later. Yeah, yeah, I know the rationale behind this boneheaded policy: Government workers are paid less than the rest of us.
Problem is, it's not true. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, USA Today reported that federal, city and county workers now earn more than their private-sector counterparts. State workers earn slightly less.
So remind me: Why are we lavishing perks on bureaucrats that would be considered bad business practices in private enterprise?
According to a story in Sunday's Pilot, Hampton Roads cities shelled out $7.7 million in the past year and a half in payouts for unused vacation and sick time.
Sick time? Geez, let's start with that.
Most workers are entitled to a set number of paid sick days a year. That's good. It encourages people to stay home when they're covered in cooties or too weak to work - without worrying about lost income.
But should the blessing of good health result in a windfall of cash?
Heck, no. Feeling good is its own reward. In the private sector, anyway.
Yet government workers - even top-level executives - often stockpile sick days.
According to The Pilot, former Virginia Beach Sheriff Paul Lanteigne - who reportedly bragged about never taking a sick day during his tenure at the city jail - sashayed out of the big house with $11,760 in unused sick pay.
Sorry, that's not right. If Lanteigne really was trying to set a good example by not staying home when he wasn't sick, he ought to set an even better example now by giving the loot back to the taxpayers.
And please, spare us arguments about how healthy employees who show up every day are somehow being cheated because they work while their sick counterparts lie in bed. Frankly, that attitude is sick.
Beyond his robust-health bonus, Lanteigne also raked in $30,290 in accumulated vacation cash, fattening his final paycheck by about $42,000.
Look, American workers struggled to get the robber barons of the industrial age to agree to paid vacation time. A hundred years later, it's widely accepted that everyone ought to get time off to rest up.
Show me a workaholic who never takes vacay and I'll show you a strange human being. Frankly, I don't want to work with anyone who's afraid to take a day off. And I definitely don't want to have to deal with dolts like that when I need a permit to build a deck.
It's not fair to single out only the former sheriff of Virginia Beach. Especially when former Norfolk City Manager Regina V.K. Williams is like Lanteigne on steroids.
She accumulated about $80,388 in unused vacation, even after spending months working long distance from her husband's hospital bedside in Baltimore.
When Norfolk's city auditor raised questions about whether Williams and others might have abused the city's leave policy in 2008, the city manager huffed that his questions were "an insult to my integrity."
According to a Pilot story at the time, Norfolk's top bureaucrat was earning $206,063 a year and said "she never planned to take any accrued time in cash when she retires."
Oops. What a difference three years and 80 grand makes.
Williams' apparent willingness to cash in this January points out flaws in a system that allows employees - especially top executives who enjoy flexible working conditions - to squirrel away unused vacation.
Time for all levels of government to revamp leave policies. I might be asking for more trouble, but here are five catchy words from the private sector that can help:
Use it or lose it.
Kerry Dougherty,(757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net
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second job opportunity for you
Agree with comment of "trying to elicit emotional reactions based on generalizations, falsehoods, and half truths." Maybe you can earn a few extra bucks as side-kick for the Road Rebel!
Talk about some crybaby mess!
I don't think I've had two jobs over my 30+ years in the private sector that had the same sick/vacation benefits!
Some paid out sick time, some didn't. Some topped up sick time after six months without an absence, some didn't. Some put sick and vacation time in a single PTO bucket and you used it annually or lost it. Some paid it out annually if it wasn't used. Some allowed you to accrue it. Some even paid out the whole current year of vacation time...even if you resigned in JANUARY!!
The bottomline is, crying over someone else's employment benefits is petty, small-minded, and plain old-fashioned, seven-deadly-sins-style envy. If you feel bad about your lot, then change it. That's what mature, intelligent people do.
SLIGHTLY LESS MY A@@
"State workers make slightly less..."
I am state employee, 7 years of service and just got my comp study report. I make $40K per year; comp study says I should be at $54K compared to private sector. That is a 30% difference...when is 30% slightly??
And don't give me "state employees get more benefits argument." I pay 5% into my pension, I pay $250 out of pocket each month for health insurance with $40 copays and $15, $25, $45 precriptions. I don't get overtime yet I work overtime with less staff and less resources.
I put up being underpaid and overworked because it is for the people and I believe in the social contract, but I'm tired of the bashing of civil servants--especially state employees.
Kerry, Please be factual
Kerry,
Please be factual before bashing city employees. I have worked for the City of Norfolk for over 25 years and I can tell you that city employees DO NOT get paid for unused sick leave. Only accrued vacation leave is paid at the time of separation of employment. The windfall that City Manager Williams received should not be used as a barometer for the rest of the workforce.
Ignore that Man Behind the Curtain
So the problem is those "overpaid" bureaucrats with "cushy benefits" and not the crappy wages, benefits and working conditions of private business? Since when were you a shill for private owners?
The problem isn't reasonable benefits and working wages alloted to government employees (wages and benefits I might point out that enjoyed by many other workers globally) but the overwhelming prevalence of low wages, poor working conditions and non-existant or threadbare benefits offered by many private sector employers here in the USA.
Stop trying to pit fellow working class Americans against each other and stop ignoring the marked inequities of an increasingly divided America. Point the finger where it really belongs.
It's a shame
I recall the good old days when the newspaper reported news and did not stoop to the level of trying to dig up dirt on hard working civil servants who are by no means paid or appreciated to the level that you write or apparently fantasize about Miss Dougherty. There is enough bad news and poor conduct in this world without you trying to elicit emotional reactions based on generalizations, falsehoods, and half truths.
Payouts for Saved-up Sick Leave
I agree with Kerry on all of the issues she has presented in this article. I must point out that not all the blame can go to the city employees for enjoying a great benefit we allowed them to have. All of you must know that no city shall create any pay they please. Every item concerning vacation or sick leave must be raised as a motion, and voted on by city council. I am sure these issues came about in the 80's when times were good and we all kicked back and enjoyed it. The money flowed. Instead of going to council meetings to be sure our tax dollars were spent wisely, we were overspending. It is past time to keep an eye on the people we elected to work for us. Get out of the house. Spend one, yes I said ONE, hour a month at your civic league meeting
Paul Lanteigne is the biggest thief in the history
of VIRGINIA. He should give the money back and turn himself in. His family is employed by the Sheriff, Stolle actually created a position for his (Lanteignes) daughter. However, just wait until the current sheriff retires, BIG MONEY from the hard working tax payer.
Lets crucify public sector year
I've been a Medic/FF for 4 years now in the region, and I love it. Yes one day when I retire as of right now I will get paid half of my hourly rate for a certain amount of hours. I think you must have forgotten what skills someone in the Media should do and investigate some, and not always looking at the top end employee of local governments. Think of what those top end employees in the private sector get. Did you know if I call in sick then my spot is a must fill, as many jobs are. So lets say someone is going to get paid some overtime, plus I get my paid sick leave. So in all fairness if I don't call out sick and show up to work then the city saves money, would you not agree? Why not have some perk for coming to work and not burning time.
Investigate
Kerry, you really should turn your intrepid mind onto the upper-management of HRT. Still a lot of unanswered questions from the light rail overruns. Is there a criminal investigation going on? How about those given sweetheart jobs by the old regime? What kind of perks did cronyism produce?