0:00
When I was in the government back in the
0:01
1980s and the government shutdown was
0:04
first invented under the Carter
0:06
administration, the one of the first
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terms that came out was essential
0:11
employees and non-essential employees.
0:15
These two terms were used to describe
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two categories or create two categories
0:20
of employees. At the time I saw this,
0:23
I've already worked in the government
0:24
for a number of years by then. I thought
0:26
this is going to be trouble and it has
0:28
been. If you're a non-essential
0:30
employee, which I was at the time, I
0:33
thought, I don't like this because I
0:35
think I'm doing a good job. I think I'm
0:37
essential. And I would guess that most
0:39
federal employees who are now labeled
0:41
non-essential think of themselves in the
0:44
same way. Politically, it's a problem.
0:47
If you're going to the public and
0:48
various documents and saying these
0:50
employees are non-essential,
0:53
what comes across is you don't need
0:56
them. You can cut these employees out.
0:58
you can make a smaller government and we
1:00
spend less, the government debt goes
1:02
down and it's everybody's better off
1:05
except of course the non-essential
1:07
employees who get furled or rifted or
1:09
laid off in one way or the other. So
1:11
it's unfortunate that happened but
1:14
that's politics. Uh I think there have
1:18
been some efforts to change the name.
1:20
When you say non-essential, that doesn't
