There's one comment from June I'd like to respond to via a post. The original post suggested cross-training NRCS and FSA employees (I should have included RD when collocated). The commenter responded that having soil scientists and engineers fill out paperwork is a really good idea (he/she was being sarcastic, I suspect).
I think I can probably expand my commenter's position. He/she would say: "Look, NRCS spends its money on technical expertise. The agency does its work in the field, not pushing paperwork. Cross train your FSA people in pushing paper all you want, but having trained engineers do paperwork is a waste of government money. Further, to the extent NRCS pushes paperwork, it's not really NRCS, it's the local soil and water conservation district (i.e., money provided from state funding) employees who do the pushing. "
Let me defend my suggestion, at length:
First, "cross training" does not necessarily mean cross operations. I don't know what sort of training either FSA or NRCS gives these days to new employees. At one time FSA had an extensive course for new county executive directors, plus courses for "clerks" as they used to be called. And new DC employees had a 1 or 2 week course covering what each office in the agency did. I think a couple weeks covering what the sister agencies do would be worthwhile. At the very least, it might cut the prejudice each agency has towards the other: FSA is just a bunch of paper pushers; NRCS is just a bunch of cowboys who ride around in their pickups, when they aren't cooping. (That's my exaggerated summary of how some employees in the one agency view the other. ) By giving each other an appreciation of the work the agencies do, maybe it might remind the bureaucrats their purpose is neither to push paper nor do soil science, but to help farmers efficiently. And it opens the way for new ideas.
Second, some numbers. Senate Appropriations Committee passed the ag appropriations bill for 2012 today. According to this summary of the contents, NRCS salary and expenses were cut by $43 million, FSA by $28 million, and the farm loan program by $57 million. Basic political realities say the service center agencies are going to continue to decline in the number of employees, not only FY 2012 but 2013 and beyond. That says to me the bureaucracies need to be open to new ways of operating. (I assume that states, which are equally under financial pressure, are also cutting support for S&CDistricts.) So considering cross operations should be on the table.
Third, somewhere today (Post, Times, online, I forget) there was an article about how a doctor heading a medical practice office (maybe 20 people or so) had reorganized to cut his overhead. The basis was cross training support personnel and rethinking the way they ran the office. Part of it, I strongly suspect, was personal. The doctor said he wanted to greet and work up his patient, rather than having a technician do it. Part of it was organization and sharing duties. For example, they mentioned having medical personnel who might not be busy making the reminder calls on appointments and having a job stack for support personnel. Implicitly they were implying that with specialist jobs, people sometimes sat around waiting for patients. That says to me they had good software which could track the work flow so people could see what needed to be done, but I didn't notice that stressed.
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