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Deep Stasis: The Rubber Room
I assume that everyone here has heard about the Rubber Room policy in the New York City schools. This policy, is designed to deal with teachers who, frequently for reasons of criminal behavior, cannot be put in a classroom. Union regulations prevent the schools from doing the obviously sensible thing and firing them, so they warehouse them, having them come to a room every day and just sit there, in exchange for their salary and benefits, and if they stay around long enough, their pension. The last time I heard, there are 3,000 of them.
It occurred to me that the same type of strategy might be very effective in helping the Trump administration deal with the problem of politically motivated leaks, and other resistance to the implementation of his policies, the issue that is being called the Deep State. I propose that Trump set up a Rubber Room for each department and agency within the federal government.
There are thousands of federally owned office buildings that are sitting empty right now. Start transferring people and filling them up. This can be done on the cheap. No phones, no internet, just whatever furniture is already there in the building. Give them someplace to sit, with a desk or table surface. Let them read the racing form, or run a home business or play Angry Birds on their phone all day; the same kinds of things that the teachers do. Therefore, since this new department would have no mandate and no budget, the only costs incurred by this program would be the building maintenance and the human resources costs, both of which they are already paying,
As to who we send over to the new Division of Nothing, I would start by firing any political appointee that is still left over from the last administration. Trump can do that today, and those people are just gone. Next, I would look at all the people who started out as political appointees but then became career civil servants. Apparently, there are a lot of them, including people like Lois Lerner, who was originally appointed by Clinton. Any appointed by Clinton or Obama get a golden ticket to the rubber room.
Additionally, any truly useless people should be sent as well. The guy caught watching porn 6 hours a day, the admin who has been passed around more times than a joint at a Grateful Dead concert because she is just so completely useless. Anyone who interferes with the efficient operation of those departments.
Bring the lawyers in to make sure they don’t violate any union or civil service regulations. But I don’t see any reason the basic idea isn’t workable. They are simply being transferred from one group to another within the same department or agency. They will still have the same classification, the same salary and benefits, they will just report to a different office every morning. I don’t think they will have standing for any kind of lawsuit, because they haven’t suffered any harm, and I can’t believe union or civil service regulations prevent intra-departmental transfers.
And they do nothing. Which means they can’t leak sensitive information, because they don’t have any. And they can’t obstruct the implementation of policy, because they aren’t involved in the implementation of policy. As for the loss of manpower, people like this cost more manpower than they produce.
I would expect many of them to quit, which is an extra bonus since Trump wants to cut 10% of the federal work force. Looks win-win to me.
Published in General
Like a suspension chamber based off mathematical remainders. I think you should call it “Carry The Zero”.
“The guy caught watching porn 6 hours a day.”
Whachoo talkin’ bout Judge?
You haven’t heard about that? It’s happened in more than one agency. And you can’t fire them.
I’m still too angry about the 3000 teachers to speak.
Yeah, was just making a dumb joke like “Why you lookin’ at me while saying that.”
From 1999 to now I’ve either been in Academia or the Bureaucracy — so I’ve seen many, many a moment wanked away. Both metaphorically and, disturbingly enough, literally.
You know the worst part of that… a few years ago, facing budget shortfalls, the city had to lay off 4000 teachers. There was a push to eliminate those 3000 first, but the union blocked it, meaning that instead they laid off an extra 3000 of the youngest, freshest, most enthusiastic teachers they had, so that these losers could keep getting a paycheck.
JM, where does someone like holdover FBI Director James Comey fit into this? (Great idea, btw.) Ever consider handling HR for this White House? You’ve got the seven-league boots; we could supply the big-league broom… :-)
Trump can ask for his resignation and I think he should. He’s lost the confidence of the people on both sides, and having him there damages their credibility.
I am all about drain the swamp, but I think this is a terrible idea. It screams impotence and submission to the lowest common denominator, and wasting money to do that.
There has to be a way to make certain actions fireable offenses. I think THAT is the first step.
Maybe there is a regulation that needs repeal? Or an executive order to be rescinded?
As for the rubber room teachers, that disgusts me. And while the union may offer cover, if a teacher has proveable offenses, they can be fired and even lose their certification.
Maybe nobody wants to expend the effort to prove the egregious offense? Or maybe no egregious offense has occurred and paying the salary is the cheaper, but shoddy way of managing it?
Usually that is the task of the highly paid administrator….maybe the rubber room is a symptom of disease and rot throughout, with those in charge not wanting themselves opened to scrutiny?
Maybe it is not a problem with the 3000 teachers, (or federal bureaucrats) in the rubber room. Maybe those pawns are just the tip of the iceberg?
If this was politically possible, don’t you think one of the previous Republican presidents would have done it? We also haven’t seen the current behavior before, certainly not to this extent. It requires a new solution.
Solved by Trump cancelling JFK’s executive order authorizing public employee unions. Once that is done, and unions are officially decertified, no need for rubber rooms, just fire them all.
Not that simple. Some of that unionization was done legislatively, for example, parts of Homeland Security were unionized as part of the legislation that created that department. Overruling the executive order will have no effect in those situations.
And Trump going after unions, in any sector, is a bad look. What either side doesn’t seem to want to admit is he is more Rockefeller Republican than any other comparison I’ve seen levied.
One more point that I meant to make in the post. Having them isolated and doing nothing in this way might make it more likely that you can do things like that. It will be a very visible waste. You might even build public support; the people hate the teacher thing. Then a Republican Congress might actually be able to change some of those rules that currently make it virtually impossible to fire people.
Sounds like a great idea. If anyone can propose it and make it stick, it just might be Trump.
And, this should all be done on the QT with no big announcement in order to avoid a nervous breakdown by the press.
Nice touch.
I am a member of a teacher’s union. If I committed an egregious offense, they would provide me with legal connections.
We get memos about theft of time, personal use of school equipment during the work day, use of internet, abuse of sick time, and other behaviors that can result in losing your certification and thus your job. They are are always precluded with “your job carries responsibilities.” “Do your job. and follow the district guidelines.”
I shake my head and think, really? Am I twelve that I need this speech?
Then colleagues get busted toying with students in person or by phone. Or admin get caught sexting and trysting on school phones and time.
You can’t stop stupid, but you can fire their a$$. Or at least make them slink away.
I stand by my assessment that this has more to do with keeping overall scrutiny down, than to protect the porn watching fool.
Just have cameras in the room and show them sitting around all day playing Angry Birds and texting and remind people that WE are paying them.
Fair enough, but the way I see it, the Dems would fight any effort to reform work rules for bureaucrats tooth and nail. Why waste the political capital? This is a way to improve his chances of implementing his agenda. If that agenda produces noticeable benefits, he will have more capital down the road. Together with what I mentioned in the last comment, you might end up with the ability to do this right.
I’ll agree. I’m not much of a strategist. More like the queen of hearts: off with their head.
Los Angeles also has rubber rooms. The teachers unions may send out memos, but getting fired takes Madoff level infractions. Understanding there’s a spiderweb of legislative union protections, let me ask a simple question; why can’t Trump (or any POTUS) implement federal standards for accountability with immediate firings for those who don’t meet the criteria (a la’ PATCO under Reagan)?
Plus, I’m sure Civil Service rules, which have nothing to do with the unions, apply.
I think the civil service rules would get you there. They were originally created to prevent the new administration from firing everybody and giving patronage jobs. I expect you would need Congress, and then you’re back to the death match fight with the Dems.
I think maybe we need to clarify: rubber rooms are the purview of deeply dysfunctional and large urban school districts. And maybe the federal bureaucracy
In 30 years of teaching, I have not seen anyone “rubber roomed” or even heard of anyone.
I understand it takes political capital to change the federal bureaucracy, but supporting this bizarre concept of rubber rooms is bad for the heart, soul, and morale of this nation.
It saddens me.
The more I think about it, JM, the better I like it. They would cost us less sitting in a room twiddling their thumbs than they would performing their jobs.
Me too. I’m just trying to get around the current reality.
I’ll be back later. In the meantime, feel free to talk among yourselves.
A rubber room, just like a union, has a downside. http://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/news-headlines/the-rubber-room-paying-teachers-not-to-work/187844783
Abuse of a Federal rubber room could make Rochester and other places pale by comparison. The only real solution is change the current reality and taking elimination of unions off the table means that’s impossible. If Trump needs help, he could ask Scott Walker for assistance.
Bleh, I grew up under LAUSD mega-bloat. Scandal hit the fan when it came out that the Superintendent’s driver made 90k back in 1986 — 60k more than a 4yr veteran teacher. Thanks to the CTBS proficiency I was able to place out of my home school where there was 60+ kids in my 2nd grade class to a magnet school where there was only 15. On the day I was set to transfer, some little maniac kid got a hold of a Swiss army knife and almost popped the corkscrew into my eyeball. Barely missed — I still have the scar under my eyebrow.
The “rubber room” was created because the superintendent and principals found it to be too much real work to document the infractions of teachers. This was the lazy way to keep them out of classrooms.
If federal workers were put in a room with no work assignments, they would soon get busy with all sorts of papers, schemes, dossiers, etc., to undermine the efforts of Team Trump management. That sounds like a bad idea to me.
I would like to see all of Team Trump’s people below the level of cabinet secretaries get sent to one-day seminars every other month, teaching how to document infractions of Leftist bureaucrats, how to follow the rules, how to work the system and how to win against the deep state bureaucrats. They can encourage each other, share lessons learned, and celebrate victories both large and small. It should serve to keep up the morale of Team Trump in the face of the bureaucratic grind.
Learn the rules. Apply the rules. Live by the rules. Win by the rules.