City Government In Action

I worked in a large City Government bureaucracy but in a technical role. Our group had a student intern who was pretty cool. Hard worker, liked working for the city -- no, really! -- and she wanted to work full time for the city when she finished school. She worked only 2o hours a week for us, but she did so for almost 3 years. Finally, she finishes and applies to take the City Entrance Exam which they used to give to amoebas who walked in off the street. But the City denied her the chance to take the exam! My boss and his boss were stunned; no one had ever been denied the right to merely take the exam. They sniffed around the personnel people to find out why. In a phone call to us we were told that not only should she not be allowed to take the exam, but she should have been fired for being an absentee employee, one who's not even on the clock half the time! We tried to say that she was a student intern, one who's in class for the other 2o hours a week....and were told that "we don't care WHY she's not on the clock. She should have been fired."

She got a private sector job that paid her more than my boss, just coming out of school. My boss and his boss got reprimands.