Why we need to connect our jobs with purpose!
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James,
I agree wholeheartedly with the post but the main problem is there aren’t very many government or public service success stories being circulated right now. When the average individual hears about government they are hearing about what it’s not doing or it’s problems in the mainstream media. When you go online and read reviews of agencies or look polls that gage trust in the gov’t they are most often than not negative. So while I agree that showing the importance of the job and how it effects others is the key to motivation the bigger question is how can we circulate the success stories out there?
I’m concerned with how we even circulate the stories inside government. If you ask the two questions the end – the answer is typically ‘I work for john doe’ – and ‘ I was hired to write contracts’. I spoke at my son’s middle school for career day a couple years ago – and I started by asking the kids who they thought of when they thought of government. I got the typical cool jobs – FBI agent kind of stuff. They I asked who got the tools for those ‘cool government’ jobs to be able to do their work. Then I went in to what GSA does. Fun to see them make the connection to all the moving pieces of government. We need to do the same for our folks within the organization