Nah Cowlitz, I don't take any of this personal. I made the choice for who I work for and this stuff just comes with the territory.

I'm not directing the rest of this at you Cowlitz, but the board in general. By the way, it sounds like you've figure out who I am, so you gonna drop me a hint about yourself confused

I think if push came to shove and we compared equivalent jobs between private and state sector I think we'd see similar good to bad employee ratios. If that were actually the case, would folks feel that's acceptable or would state workers be held to a higher standard?

I know last week I went to several parts houses looking for some car parts and one guy was too busy bs'ing on the phone to help me. Another store the guy had no clue what I was after and had no clue how to look anything up. The other two stores employees were very helpful, but just didn't have the part I needed. I've also been trying to find someone to draw some building plans for me because I don't have time right now. Some folks won't even call me back and the others were just too busy to help me out. I tried to get them to recommend someone else and for whatever reason they weren't willing to help me out. Now if I added these up over the last couple of weeks, it would give someone the idea that a lot of private sector employees are worthless overpaid bums. Another example would be trying to hire a plumbing or electrical contractor where I live. From personal experience, it's an excercise in futility and when they do show up they bring the $30 part and spend 15 minutes installing it then expect you to pay $150 to $200.

Now in that same time I've had to contact L&I and employement securities to pay my workers comp and unemployment insurance. In both cases the clerks were very courteous and helpful. In one office it probably took 10 minutes or so to take care of things and probably 15 minutes to take care of things in the other. No complaints at all and I thougth they treated me better than the employees at a couple of the parts houses.

I know there are plenty of the exact opposite stories, but my question is: are state employees really worse or paid more than private sector employees as a whole?