Mismanagement 

To the editor:

My government service spanned 30 years. The first 40 percent of that time was as a civil servant and the final 60 percent as a manager. Having experienced both, I saw firsthand what works in building an efficient, productive team as well as how to create a toxic, dysfunctional operation. 

Those managers who clearly communicate the team’s mission, support staff members, acknowledge their contributions and make workers feel valued, succeeded. On the flip side, managers who mistrust, isolate, intimidate and make workers feel unappreciated, are bound to fail. An axiom I employed as a manager was simple; pick people you trust and trust the people you pick. 

The prestigious schools Donald Trump attended either didn’t teach this or his lessons didn’t sink in. I suspect the latter.

In roughly 15 days, Trump has enacted a hiring freeze, ordered an end to telecommuting, locked out 10,000 USAID workers, threatened to fire thousands of FBI agents, announced plans to eliminate the 4,400 workers at the Department of Education and advised workers throughout the federal government to resign and receive buyouts now or face furloughs and firings later. Twenty-thousand federal employees have accepted the buyout offer, but Trump says he wants 10 times that number.

This all bodes very poorly for the country’s future. Time and again, we have witnessed nations fail when their institutions fail. Our fate will be no different. The only way to avoid this disaster is for Congressional Republicans to tell Trump to STOP. And that would only happen if GOP voters, en masse, express their displeasure by giving their elected representatives an earful.

Joseph Cannisi