Jim Patrick, a Shenandoah County blogger who happens to serve on the board of supervisors, has weighed in with a lengthy analysis of l’affaire Vehrs. Patrick makes a number of valuable points, but one that deserves continued scrutiny is what he terms the “old economy meets the new economy.”
In the old assembly line and sweatshop models, the type of factories in [Martinsville/Henry County] previously flourished on, workers stay at their stations and keep moving ‘working’. MHC’s prosperity was founded on large corporations, typified in the 1956 classic The Organization Man, where corporate values engulfed personal beliefs.
The new economy’s growth has paralleled the growth of personal computers. Production is judged by outputs “…how well people are doing their jobs — rather than simply trying to make sure that employees look busy.” U.S. economic performance and individual productivity has boomed at the same time as computer and Internet usage has boomed.
Vehrs’ job is to answer calls and dispense information; absent from debate was what he should do during non-productive time. None of the commenters gave a clue as to what employees should do when the assembly line runs in fits and starts; the time between calls.
I’m not rehashing the merits of Vehrs’ punishment — Vehrs has atoned and found forgiveness, and everyone should move on — but I, like Patrick, worry what kind of precedent has been set for state employees. If strategies such as teleworking and hoteling are ever to be viable (See “Telecommuting May Be Coming to a State Agency Near You“), state government needs to evolve towards a “knowledge economy” organizational model that allows employees to work more autonomously. I fear that state government may have taken a big step backward.