[olug] Computer Room Fire Suppression

[Hurley, Rod]

Really.  So I went to public schools all my life.  If my school told me, we have no resources available for you. Go home and come back when we call you, I would have done just that.  How is that anything but a loss?  

If your cable (which I often hear about on here) were a public utility, would you be peeved if they said "sorry guys, not enough budget for a good system, won't have your services available for another week", how would you respond? Well electricity, water, sewer, etc are tough to live without.  In my mind, public education is twice as valuable as any of those, and has been around for much longer.  No loss of product, if it closes?

-----Original Message-----
From: olug-bounces at olug.org [mailto:olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf Of Bill Brush
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 1:02 PM
To: Omaha Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [olug] Computer Room Fire Suppression

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Sam Tetherow <tetherow at shwisp.net> wrote:
> If a public entity is closed due to a disaster and there is no loss of 
> 'product' then why not close the public entity permanently and save 
> everyone some money?
>

There is loss of product, but how do you measure that loss?  99% of public entities provide a service.  Doesn't matter how well or how poorly they provide that service because their revenue is not connected to their customer's satisfaction.  If you get poor service at the Athletics commission office, is that going to materially impact their revenue?  No.  You either deal with them or you don't, they get paid regardless.  Same with public school, use it or don't, they get your money regardless.

> Public sector jobs are just like any other job, they get paid to 
> produce a product or service, there is just less accountability in a 
> public sector job apparently.  But any manager/director that has this 
> type of attitude is guilty of negligence at best and theft from the tax payers at worst.
>

Public sector management is not like private sector managment.  In the private sector, a manager has the ability to provide the carrot or the stick for his employees (metaphorically).  In the public sector, they frequently don't have either.  So they have responsibility with little authority.  So their focus changes from "how can I run this place optimally" to "how can I run this place to avoid the greatest amount
of risk".    Less risk, less chance of an adverse outcome, which means
they are happy.  Their feedback mechanisms are also different from the private sector.  In the private sector a manager wants to maximize their productivity and profitablility.  In the public sector there is no profitability factor so increasing "what you do" usually leads to increasing staff, which means more budget, which means more prestige among peers.

I am not bashing the managers, they are operating in the environment they find themselves.  There's not a lot anyone can do to change that environment.  It is a product of the incentives and motivations created by the strictures creating it.

> This is not a rant against any one person (unless they actually 
> believe Bill's non-cynical answer).
>

:-)

> Every business should have a business continuity plan.  That doesn't 
> mean that every business can implement that continuity plan, but it 
> should be in writing, these are the risks, these are the steps that 
> need to be taken when this happens and these are the things we could 
> do better if we had the time and the money to implement them.  There 
> are always places where you make compromises in your disaster plans 
> because the cost outweighs the risk.  But they should still be documented and justified.
>

I don't think it would be surprising to find that most businesses don't have a BC plan any more than they have integral I.T. support.
The difference is that a public entity will survive such an event where a private entity won't.

Bill
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