Hello, my name is Mitch Meade…

Posted by Mitch 11 years, 2 months ago to The Gulch: Introductions
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I’m not a business owner even though I wish I was. I work in the technical industry and feel that I strive to bring as much creativity and performance to my employer as I possibly can.

I have spent the vast majority of my working career supporting different government entities in implementing various computing environments. These government entities typically hire a consultant to implement a specific technology in which they do not have expertise in using; this has been perfectly acceptable from all perspectives as I provided a service for a salary and they received expert knowledge. I was working on a long term contract with the federal government and everything seemed normal, i.e. the contractors did the vast majority of the work and the full time employees came to work late, took walks to relax, long lunches, left early or were simply talking to fellow co-non-works (can I double hyphenate?). I accepted this on the pretense that these non-workers were not capable even though I know this to be a lie. The job still needed to get done and if it was easier for management to hire an outside consultant then to make their subordinates do the jobs they were hired to do, I was happy to help.

Fast forward to the housing bubble (bad name - should have been called the idiot bubble, stupid people doing stupid thing with money). When future employment seemed to be nil, I accepted, err applied for, a full time position and was hired as a full time federal employee. This is the Holy Grail of jobs for any moocher, they can’t be fired but I don’t conduct myself in that way. The other contractors simply rolled over and became co-non-workers. This is when things started to get really strange as the co-non-workers started to become hostile towards me with my unwillingness to conform to their work ethics. As I continued to perform as I did as a contractor, they continued to suppress creativity, efficiency and performance at every possible opportunity. Hell, if they put was much work into working as they did into not working, we’d need 1/8 the government workers we have today.

Eventually, I had to seek gainful employment elsewhere…

My point to this story and how it ties into the philosophy presented by Ayn Rand with the novel Atlas Shrugged is that everyone from all walks of life deal with inapt people stifling creativity and progress to serve their own needs. I’ve seen this type of behavior from almost every one of the contracts or jobs I have served, public and private. It’s completely rampant among our current society and is gaining ground. What happened to our country where hard work is rewarded not punished and inaptitude is rewarded instead of banished? Ayn Rand’s philosophy is spot on, my only wish is that more people saw her message as inspirational as I do.

Mitch


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  • Posted by $ kathywiso 11 years, 2 months ago
    Welcome to the Gulch Mitch. I think you will fit in well. Take some time to look around and enjoy the ride. You are with Like Minded people here. We are glad you joined us.
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  • Posted by eskslo 11 years, 1 month ago
    Welcome and great detail on the intro. Very appreciated. I am a real estate developer and I deal with city/county (gov) employees regularly. Needless to say I resent paying their salaries with my tax dollars, just so they can be on permanent coffee breaks and do their best to make sure no one ever breaks ground again
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