Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I now admire Michelle Rhee

Let it be noted that I do not fully support unions.  I even mentioned that on this blog once before.  I think tenure is unethical.  If you work well for three years you can't get fired for doing a crappy job for the next ten?  And don't get me started on how dumb it was for Detroit to pay all union workers the same amount even if their company was loosing money.

But what is even more outrageous to me is the idea that instead of trying to fix the problems unions create, we just get rid of them all together?  We eliminate people's right to ever organize as a group and come up with proposals that might make their work place more effective?  It is as if Republican leaders in the Midwest want the government to fail.

I'm REALLY starting to like Michelle Rhee.  She was a union buster to the max.  But her solution wasn't to dissolve the whole process.  She simply implemented better evaluation systems, that allowed her to reward those who found themselves on the meets expectations or exceeds expectations scale.   Those found below expectations were given one year (and no pay increase) to shape up.  Those who couldn't even reach the below expectations minimum were let go.  We were evaluated by 5 different people, 2 of which we'd never met and would never work with afterward.  The system was emotionally draining, but her goal was well intended.

Scott Walker has actually made me admire Michelle Rhee's tactics.  That. Is. AMAZING. 

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