I spent the evening with friend of mine cooking meat on the grill, playing pool and talking. It's one of those things that I love, but don't make time for often enough. We had some catching up to do.

My friend, let's call him Bob, has a small business in the south part of Salt Lake County. He is on one of those main roads that is perpetually under construction. This past summer has been especially bad. And he has one of those businesses that depends on the customer coming to his office.

Recently he has been having some difficulty. His customers have complained about the road constructions and the lack of easy access to his office. So Bob called his local UDOT representative. He asked if there was something that could be done to make the road less congested during business hours. The UDOT reply?

Bob was told by this wonderful government employee that if he had his way the road would be closed during construction. It is a nuisance for UDOT to work while these pesky motorists are driving by.

This attitude makes sense to me, although I've never heard it articulated in just this way. Bob has decided to move his office and he will be in a new location by the end of next month. But no matter where he goes he can't avoid UDOT.

I hope he's wrong. I hope UDOT isn't filled with workers who have this attitude about the motorists they serve. But it is government employees like this one that give the rest of us a bad name and that make me wonder how long I want to be employed by the government..........
8:19:32 PM    comment []