Before Labor Day, a Sign of the Times

• All your base are belong to us!

• As a DISD teacher, I see lots of great, smart, hardworking kids destined to have lives filled with meaning and satisfaction. I also see kids who are surly, unmotivated, and spoiled. What's really weird is that the poorer the family, the more likely the child is to be spoiled. It's as if the parents indulge their child's emotions to compensate for the parents' perception that they're not giving their child the best of everything materially. These parents often get confrontational fast if they feel their child has been disrespected, no matter what the child's action may have been. The reasons may vary, but the result is the same: a lazy, smart-aleck kid with a sense of entitlement--the stereotypical rich kid, only these kids aren't financially rich. I would bet these kids are the ones who end up working cashier and city jobs across the country, which could explain why similar counterproductive attitudes show up in either setting. The hardworkers and the spoiled-but-rich kids end up in college and go on to different types of jobs. While there are certainly rude customers out there who may or may not listen to Limbaugh, there are also lots of employees who don't want to be there and couldn't care less about keeping their job.

• Scott: Agreed 100 percent. Just returned from doing my Sunday contrition at Lowe's. I never once have run into a City of Dallas employee who failed to omprehend the basic enterprise the way a whole lot of retail employees do. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "You are supposed to want to sell me stuff, so money will go in the cash drawer, so the boss will have money to give to you on payday." City employees at least know what the mission is supposed to be. And nowadays they also have to put up with people who feel empowered by Limbaughland radio to be incredibly rude to government employees. Every little two-bit Walter Mitty who's afraid not to laugh at his boss's jokes goes to City Hall and turns into drunk John Wayne. I see that a lot. I think it might cause me to go into implacable passive aggressive syndrome myself.

• borborygmus, I went to renew my license and was quite surprised how efficient they were. I did enter, got my number and then left for an hour. When I returned, I had to wait but 10 minutes and was fairly quickly and well served. These aren't businesses, and they wouldn't be any better run if they were privatized. Rather, it'd cost even more and the employees would likely be of a lower caliber. Those bureaucrats aren't as bad as trying to call your cell phone, electric or gas company or dealing with any other utility.

• So the city creates an unwieldy beaurocracy, and we are supposed to feel sorry for them when they get overwhelmed by the very paperwork they generate. A friend of mine, who happens to be a Dallas firefighter/paramedic, has been cited by code inspectors nearly every time he attempts to make a repair to the house built by his grandfather in the 1920's. Do you really need a permit to replace floorboards on a front porch? Thanks to his hard work, it's the nicest and most historically correct house on the street, but the hassles from the building inspectors are a waste of his time and money. This doesn't generate goodwill from "customers".

• For REALLY BAD customer service paid for by the taxpayer you need to go to the local DPS offices. I have never in my life seen so many people who hate their jobs and hate the people they were hired to serve. If it were a private business they would all be fired.

• It's a bureaucracy that got fat on growth. Now it struggles like the private sector to cut its biggest cost - employee costs - and match efficiency to reduced revenue. Unfortunately, it is a bit more difficult to streamline their process than it is on the private side hence, the over-worked. Gee. I wonder if you can still hire rif'd employees as consultants to expertly "expedite" applications at Jefferson?

• @Christopher Heard, The fact that lots of people got cut has nothing to do with the reality that people who didn't even master basic grammar or spelling treat "customers" like crap. And there wouldn't be long waits if they'd get to work. Every time I have to go downtown for some official business or other, I am appalled at the slowness and the attitude they dish out. 3 competent, smart people can do the work of 20 who are so lazy they never bothered to work in school.

• Thanks, Jim. Things are a mess. Our people are so swamped that its hard to even to know if down is up. What my fellow citizens fail to recognize is that the City has lost over 5000 positions in the last dozen years (out of 13,000). This, while only seeing their net pay diminished and benefits slashed. There is no wonder that my brothers missed proofing a freak'n temporary sign. Big wup. I�m just happy that they still had the conscience to help their customers have some kind of warning.

• ... and actually, to flip it around a bit, what the sign also demonstrates is how extremely harried they are, given the firings and furlough days and stacking up of work.

• I do suspect some kind of auto-complete in their word processor. They're lucky it didn't come out "Please be patent attorneys."

• Patience, like someone who has to wait in the hospital? The city courts have mass produced signs, one or two in every municipal court, that are likewise misspelled. They colored the white recessed letters with a red marker to fix, or not quite fix that error as well. They must make those signs with the same diligence with which I edit my posts. If it passes the spell check, we may never notice it.

• I had a great-aunt named Patience. And one named Chaste. I suppose I'd rather take after Patience.

• Maybe if we increased fees, we could hire some workers there who can speak English.... or at least make signs in English.

• Point taken. My comment was not necessarily meant towards the inspection of buildings, but the overall esteemed civil service corps that bungle everything it appears from selling cheeseburgers at an airport to letting metal playground equipment being used in DTD to posting flyers in their own buildings.

• Recall: Building inspection is not paid for out of general funds. http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/08/theresa_odonnelllet_me_give_yo.php#more

• And people want to INCREASE the tax rate to support this? Oh okay.

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