Executives in department overseeing Phoenix pay system took home $4.8M in bonuses

They have to offer those bonuses, otherwise they can't attract the kind of talent to really screw things up properly.

Well, as Ayn Rand always said, where would the rest of us klooges be without the best and the brightest at the very top?

A number of government agencies are moving to bonus pay systems in order to prevent the bloat of direct payroll expenses. Raises cannot be revoked when revenues decline but bonuses are easily ended in such circumstances.

It looks bad on first blush but think of it this way: You ask your boss for a 5% raise and he counters with a 7% bonus. You take it.

Then you quit the job and the next person hires on at your base pay instead of your pay plus the raise - as happens in much of government.

Also, shit like this always seems to get attention in the media just as they're about to push for some bullshit like a $1.5bn basketball arena or football stadium.

It's intended to distract the taxpayers by making them look at something that isn't really a problem all while the treasury is being pillaged by a bunch of fucking billionaires and real estate developers.

This is in the media, because there are a lot of government employees who aren't being paid. For 6, 7, 8 months at a time. It makes life kind of tough. And there are others who are getting double pay, and then have that pay clawed back (as it should be) but they still have to pay income tax on the clawed back money!

The Phoenix Pay system was another brilliant idea of the Harper government to try to cut costs. They ended up cutting the training costs to IBM, who were contracted to train government employees on how to use the system properly. Hilarity ensued.

No billionaires or football stadiums involved.

There are no winners in Austerity Hero. It's played strictly for the laughs.

There are no winners in Austerity Hero. It's played strictly for the laughs.

You must LOVE Zimbabwe! They spend billions of trillions of dollars evry single day!

Yet no one in your government has the common sense to address this problem.

Yet no one in your government has the common sense to address this problem.



My point exactly! But they still get their bonus pay.



There are no winners in Austerity Hero. It's played strictly for the laughs.

I'm not against getting better value for money, such as taking all the different pay systems in all the different departments and amalgamate them into a single system like this. It's when the fuckups cost more than the cost savings would have been that piss me off.

"Austerity Hero" would be a good name for a video game! You could go around and collect duct tape, old tires and bailing wire and try to build things with it.

The payroll system people have no control over your tax collectors. Your political leaders do.

There are no winners in Austerity Hero. It's played strictly for the laughs.

I'm not against getting better value for money, such as taking all the different pay systems in all the different departments and amalgamate them into a single system like this. It's when the fuckups cost more than the cost savings would have been that piss me off.

"Austerity Hero" would be a good name for a video game! You could go around and collect duct tape, old tires and bailing wire and try to build things with it.

The most dangerous and devastating character in the game is the one based on that New Zealand doctor who nearly talked Ralph Klein into fully privatizing the Alberta medical system until it was revealed that she wasn't actually a doctor but some kind of an insurance company sales agent instead. Only Dr. Enron has more hit points than she does!

You wouldn't be able to play him, because he's always eating his cookies!

The tax problem will eventually get worked out. But in the meantime, governments pathetic attempt to save a few bucks is causing people some real hardship.

I just irks me that this results in millions in bonuses!

He'd never lose.

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