Here’s Your (Early) Retirement, What’s Your Hurry?

Thirty five, count them, 35 employees of the General Assembly will be leaving at the end of the month after delaying their early retirements for a few months. There was a little party in the LOB on Thursday for the mass departure and the Blogster couldn’t help but wonder about the extent of institutional knowledge that’s decamping the Capitol. But it’s not as if the Legislature needs people on staff figuring out what to do with money, since for the next couple years, at least, the deficits are going to be ugly, ugly ugly. The Blogster figures that’s at least one of the reasons why House Majority Leader Denise Merrill wants to run for secretary of the state.

Anyway, departing legislative employees have been given an exit questionnaire. The two-page form asks things like what might be the most important reasons for leaving. Of course, leave it to the Joint Committee on Legislative Management, listing 18 different reasons (“dissatisfied with pay,” “conflict with co-workers,” “lack of recognition…”) and failing to include the Early Retirement Incentive. That could come under “other – please specify” line.

What the Blogster finds mirthful is page 2, where soon-to-be ex-employees are given a whopping three lines to respond to things like “I feel that the Legislature process could be improved by.” The Blogster suggests someone completing the “I feel that the working conditions could be improved by,” sentence by adding “voting the entire General Assembly out of office.”