"Peter's Principle" might come into play more often in the government sector.

Pretty well distributed over all sectors I have been involved with.

"I think it's competence that matters, not whether it is a public or private agency that runs the railroad."

Wrong. This isn't the DOI or the Federal Government; but similar and worse things have happened there.

Government rules often protects the indolent and insolent and in doing so, encourages such behavior.

While employed as a government manager, one of my former clerical employees refused her supervisor's direction to do some routine filing, which was a task listed in her job description.

I summoned both to a meeting, because my scheduled late arrival one Friday was greeted with a shouting match punctuated by "because I'm your supervisor, that's why".

After I calmed them down-and think about incendiary me calming something down- the clerk informed me that she didn't want to file the material (documents she would ordinarily produce as part of her daily duties)-which were completed while she was on vacation by the supervisor) because the supervisor "only left the filing undone, because she knows I don't like it".

Now while I suspected that was right, because the supervisor was both hostile and bat guano crazy (among other things, waived a banana like a pistol-complete with sound effects and when counseled about workplace violence, filed a nine-page handwritten fantasy laden sexual harassment complaint with such rage that she embossed the paper-and treated me to an hour long tirade about how John T Snow, formerly of CSX screwed up the country as Treasury Secretary, inter alia) did believe in management by antagonism.

However, I pointed out that filing was in the clerk's job description and the supervisor didn't have to do any of the clerk's duties when the clerk was absent, she flatly refused. I informed HR that I wanted to conduct a pre-disciplinary conference for insubordination, I was informed that since I didn't issue a direction in writing with a required completion date, her unconditional refusal wasn't "insubordination", despite existing management directives that define insubordination broadly.

Three weeks later we of course had a repeat. I followed the prior HR admonition to issue direction in writing, using the magic phrase "I direct you" and with a 72 HOUR time to complete the job. The following day, I received a daisy-chained e-mail with a request to "please call me". I was then told that issuing directions in writing was "harsh", despite prior instructions that it was a necessary pre-condition to engage in corrective discipline:

Now if you haven't figured it out, HR didn't give a rat's posterior about effective supervision and completion of the work, they merely wanted to avoid a union grievance, because they involve a lot of work for them and avoiding work for HR is more important than completing the value producing work of the entity, no matter where you go.

Steamtown once had an employee who worked as an interpretative ranger who was notorious for doing a "living history" exhibit as fictitious Irish immigrant "Seamus" complete with his version of a brogue. His final stint was as the special permits coordinator, where he worked from home (long before COVID)-he was the initial contact in the 113 debacle when its presence was being sought for Railfest. He would send out forms, without guidance for completion, and when asked for status in meetings-"I sent out the form, no response". This is how and when I got involved in assisting Mr. Kimmel with navigating the maze that should be a simple two way street without lights.

And then there was the shop manager who presided over the glacial pace of the Baldwin 26 restoration for a good period of its hibernation; she was referred as "RIP" (retired in place).


However, the major problem at South Washington Avenue is the fact that unlike all the historic battlefields or natural preserves; it is a one-off within the system that cannot recruit people with competencies encompassed in 49 CFR (Parts 200-499) from within the system-and like most government agencies; it's incredibly incestuous at the management level. That's a huge problem when the required competencies are maintaining an early 20th century industrial facility that restores, maintains and operates locomotives and rolling stock. Like most bureaucracies, the NPS values familiarity with its rules, procedures, habits and dispositions as indications of "competency", rather than actual subject matter expertise.

If you assume this isn't also the case in the private sector (although not in small family size
businesses but in large corporations) you are very much mistaken. I had to threaten to take my supervisor to HR for a particularly nasty situation and it was quietly resolved by his supervisor simply to avoid the time and energy waste caused by doing so only to have nothing change as a result, and the only product a ream of paperwork showing that HR had followed their own process completely.

So perhaps you missed this in your rush to respond:

"no matter where you go"

Folks, it ain't complicated. If you ever had any doubts about Scranton being a black hole where projects go to die, and the 1361 debacle and the never ending 3713 saga didn't convince you then the fact that it took them 15 plus years to restore a little 0-6-0 switcher ( a job that any competent shop would have accomplished in 15 months max.) to service certainly should have.

It's the classic gummit operation and compounded in this case by being a one off within the vast NPS universe and thus fraught with special needs etc.

It is what it is and sadly the chances of it ever changing are somewhere between slim and none and slim left town.

Ross Rowland

No rush, Supe. Just have had the experience of working for everything from individuals through international corporate entities and in public, private and nonprofit sectors and found that incompetence - be it institutionalized or personal - becomes more rampant as the size of the organization increases about exponentially. The Law of Unintended Consequences does about the same..... a sole proprieter has no place to hide and pretty well Darwins himself out if incompetent, but in anything like WalMart, Exxon or the NPS - lots of places to hide and generally rewarded for doing so successfully. Unless, of course, you are towards the bottom of the food chain and make a mistake that costs a couple thousand dollars, in which case you get fired by the guy who cost the business a couple hundred thousand dollars through his mistakes........

Maybe you've had similar experiences? My empathies.

Do ya think we might be able to lobby to get Steamtown deaccessioned from the NPS into a civilian non-profit 501(c)3? Couldn't be much worse.

If it were possible, the EBT Management Group would be a good choice. What other brain trust of similarly high quality might be available?

I don’t think the NPS does a poor job of running the museum - that is a role that I would like to see them continue in, as any excursion operators will not be as concerned with the history aspect.

However, they DO need an independent operator/contractor for restoration and excursion duty, and I’ve outlined such a plan earlier in this thread.

"I don’t think the NPS does a poor job of running the museum - that is a role that I would like to see them continue in, as any excursion operators will not be as concerned with the history aspect."

That depends on what you see as "running the museum". The operating HO scale diorama representing the DLW yards was a fantastic exhibit that really gave you a sense of the scope and scale of steam era operations-it was an automated thing that was a real gem and both popular and informative. Now it's an emblematic sore thumb without the dynamism that made it so effective.

It hasn't operated for years. Apparently, it was put together without sufficient documentation to allow for rehabilitation and repair when there was an inevitable malfunction.

There are parts of the place that are great, but some like the "culture museum" really "meh" -and it's actually three museums-with the tecnology museum being the best-in spite of the ghoulish "cut-a-way". I've always found the explanation that it was purposefully ruined by others to be like a mob boss saying he wasn't guilty of murder because he only paid the guy that pulled the trigger.

When the prior Superintendent was there, we pitched an idea of funding the inclusion of QR codes on exhibit signs, given the proliferation of internet enabled devices, that would link to a recording of an interpretive program. The answer was that would entail running it through the bureaucracy, so it wasn't even worth a pilot project.

"No rush, Supe. Just have had the experience of working for everything from individuals through international corporate entities and in public, private and nonprofit sectors and found that incompetence - be it institutionalized or personal - becomes more rampant as the size of the organization increases about exponentially."

Whatever you think of the facility at hand-whether you think it an irredeemable miserable failure or a place with a few problems-nobody is calling it a roaring success. You seem to have a reflexive need to defend government as merely one among many enterprises afflicted with diseconomies of scale.

And how about removing the profanity infused quote from your signature?

Ask those working on the Mt Rainier Scenic how that went?
Oh wait, you can't, as nobody is there anymore...