Working for The Man

Hello Everyone, 

In the liberal parts of America, I was sometimes asked about Justin Trudeau, who was and still is very popular internationally. A few times, I got into discussions that also mentioned his father Pierre. In these, I came up with a formulation I thought was pretty good when discussing this pair. And that is: both the good and bad things said about PET are mostly accurate. He was supremely intelligent, a great visionary and stared down both terrorists and separatists. But he was also tin eared, morally hypocritical and massively egotistical. Whereas with Justin, most of the good and bad things said about him are inaccurate. He doesn't herald a new era of politics but he's also not dumb. But this post isn't about the Trudeaus. It's about working for the Federal Government. After a solid week in the job, I can say that the public service is like Pierre, not Justin. Both the good and bad are pretty spot on. 

(Also a note about the joke in the title. I might be working for the man, but it's 90% ladies in my department.) The negative view of the Feds is that it's a bloated, sclerotic hive of nit picking pencil pushers who don't lift a finger without filling out a form in triplicate. That's perhaps a little harsh, but it's not based on nothing. There are a lot of people on my team, a lot of forms to fill out, huge lag times between when we start discussing something and when it gets done (it can be days of discussion before they post a single tweet), and there are a lot of rules. A lot! Like, a lot a lot. But on the plus side, there's never been a serious nuclear accident in Canada, for instance, and not because we've just been lucky. And more generally, we have health care, and security, and I can buy food in the store and trust that it's safe. There are a thousand hidden examples of how the government makes life better that are invisible compared to the annoyance of something like getting a parking ticket. The fair comparison isn't the public service to a small nimble company or organization, it's to the governments of other countries. In that case, we do pretty well. That's not to say that working in a cubicle isn't boring. It is. Coffee is mana from heaven around here. But working for the man isn't all bad. Also, I just finished watching Chernobyl, so the fact that I now work for a nuclear safety regulator has me kind of amped up.

Wes

Photos

The first is of Arthur at the park in front of a tree that exploded in blooms. Was awesome in person, not quite as impressive in the picture, but still cool. 

The second is proof that I'm a trendsetter. Noticed that bad boy parked in front of my little hot tomale on my street. 

The last two are day and night shots of the beach from my recent trip to the Maine coast with Emilie last weekend.