County workers have been subjected to a steady stream of propaganda from CEO tom Mauk, Board Chair Pat Bates, and Department executive managers. These memos, while cleverly disguised as informative, are little more than Maukaganda forced down the throats of county workers.
The workers are getting so disgusted over this crap that they are resorting to setting their spam filters to block all messages from Mauk.
In his latest bird cage liner, Mauk writes;Â
In times of great duress, tumult and uncertainty, you have to have “moorings.” Successful companies have an incredible fabric of values, of underlying ideals and principles that explain why they survive and even flourish. For Orange County, that would be a belief in the following:
- That Orange County government serves a positive and productive purpose in the lives of our “customers” – our three million citizens and taxpayers.
- That we believe in our elected officials as policy makers and our executives, employees and managers in that process – each of you individually and all of you collectively.
- That great companies do not “cut corners” or cheapen their products in tough times – they work harder – and so will we.
- And for my part in Orange County, we have a strong value of fiscal soundness and responsible, long term stewardship of the taxpayer’s resources … so we will balance our budget … as strong private sector survivors do.
Mauk continues:
The second point made was that strong companies really understand it is the caliber of their people that get them through crisis. If there is a storm on the horizon, more important than the plan is the people you have with you. So…
- Our people (18,000 of them) – from the Board of Supervisors to the men and women in the field are the best.
- That we believe in our elected officials as policy makers and our executives, employees and managers in that process – each of you individually and all of your collectively.
- Attacks on that team effort are destructive and set an organization and its individuals back rather than contributing to success. Instead, we should commend team efforts that work to save jobs and balance a difficult budget – for example, the exemplary efforts by the managers of the Health Care Agency.
- Successful organizations set “cheap shots” and divisiveness aside and keep their eye on the end goal – survival and hard work in times of crisis.
And my personal favorite line:
We will not be distracted by attacks (unions, press, blogs or individuals) but will continue to pursue excellence.
You can read Mauk’s entire email here. Feel free to comment and let him know what you really think.