Motivation to serve community

To the editor:

Early in my business career, an industrial psychologist showed me a report explaining the motivations of employees to go to work during adverse circumstances.

It indicated that during a heavy snowstorm, the people who arrived for work on time were the top management and the lowest paid hourly workers. It was motivation that drove those people to get to work on time. In case of top management, it was responsibility. In case of the hourly workers, it was the need for money.

Middle management and higher-paid hourly workers stayed home — they didn’t have the motivation to go to work under adverse conditions.

The coronavirus issue affecting our society called that report to my memory. When the epidemic began, the clerks at Key Food, Garden Gourmet and Stop & Shop all showed up on time and served their customers. Top management arrived on the job as well.

Meanwhile, government workers such as the U.S. Postal Service had high rates of absenteeism. They had vacation days, sick days and personal days that they took. Consequently, service deteriorated. They had no monetary incentive to go to work, and there was no community sense of involvement to motivate them to do their jobs.

All governmental offices closed down as well. They had no motivation to stay open. Like the postal workers, their incomes did not change. The commissars stayed home while the peasants provided the services necessary for them to exist.

The offices of the state Assemblyman, city councilman and government representatives were all closed. I have not received my Social Security supplement check, and called Eliot Engel’s office a half-dozen times, and never received a response.

The local office is closed, and the Washington office apparently doesn’t return calls.

The government workers cannot be fired. We have to accept their services, or lack of them.

We are rapidly degenerating into a society of centralized control and personal impotence. Those in charge are becoming increasingly indifferent to our needs, and when they do care, have no sense of ethics to guide them. They only have the law, and the law is not compassionate or caring.

George Silos

Have an opinion? Share your thoughts as a letter to the editor. Make your submission to letters@riverdalepress.com. Please include your full name, phone number (for verification purposes only), and home address (which will not be published). The Riverdale Press maintains an open submission policy, and stated opinions do not necessarily represent the publication.