It is that time of year where many workers receive annual performance reviews from their employers and managers. From now until end of first quarter in 2023, employees will be told how they performed in certain areas that the company feel is critical to the company’s mission and important to the local office/retail/call center, or department’s efficacy.
Even though company’s do all employee surveys, they don’t do them enough, they don’t act on the feedback, and they really don’t care enough to share the details of the negative feedback they receive.
And supervisors and managers rarely solicit feedback on their performance from their employees and direct reports.
It is much the same with the government — from your local, district, state, and on up to the feds. People will say “Voting is how we rate elected official’s performance” and they will be partially correct, of course. And there are town hall meeting — for democrats since republicans rarely hold them — , city council meetings, school board meetings, and even HOA meetings where regular people can provide feedback to those who govern us.
But we rarely get the opportunity, outside of Yelp or Google reviews, to do a performance review of companies, and there’s really no such provision for the government.
Until now.
I’m going to take a shot at an annual performance review of the US Government for 2022.
Rules — This is an overall review, not an individual review. So while individuals may be mentioned, President Biden and VP Harris, or specific government departments — Interior, Supreme Court, Military, it will be done so to highlight a broader point of overall performance.
And it will be written in the style common to corporate america and consider the country as a whole an individual -hey, if businesses can be people, so can US Gov!
Obviously, we cannot cover the entirety of the US government, and in the interest of not writing a United Nations-type 800-page analysis, we will heavily edit ourselves while focusing on the followng areas:
- SUMMARY
- MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
- SUMMARY
- FINAL SUMMARY
- OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
The United States performed well in many key areas achieving while improving areas that were pointed out the prior year, including climate action, filling open government positions and open judgeships, reestablishing international diplomacy, and distributing infrastructure funds. There were successes in job growth, unemployment, housing prices, health outcomes related to covid, border staffing and safety, progress on major areas that were pointed out during the mid-year review, including the ongoing January 6th investigation and the associated successful prosecution of hundreds of “ground troops.”
The increasing decency and stability of government and cabinet officials, and the consistency in policy, public accountability, quality and diversity of judges, and the overall effective communication by senior staff, are all notable.
The nation had early struggles with inflation, gas and food pricing, rent increases and homelessness, and there were major issues with domestic terrorism against utility and infrastructure, continuing social media destabilization, unabated price gouging, voter suppression, human rights violations, loss of integrity at the Supreme Court, and the continuing lack of protection for minority communities, racial, gender, and religious minorities, and lack of prosecutions of the leaders of the January 6th insurrection.
The nation has been repeatedly informed on the need to reduce the number of citizens killed by law enforcement but the trends are going in the wrong direction, with over 1,000 killed so far in 2022. Continuing planned confusion with voting, book banning, abortion restrictions, mass shootings, law enforcement inability to curtail violent racist, homophobic, and antisemitic attacks are all areas that stand out as needing immediate new and creative solutions.
While there were steps to build momentum for addressing many of the aforementioned areas of improvement with strong progressive midterm election performances, there remain intransigent officials in place who are determined to prevent progress and staff solutions that would improve the lives of most citizens.
There are many successes to recognize and reward, and opportunities to attend to with urgency and skill. I am confident that the nation can do what is necessary to improve the areas outlined herein, and I am certain that with the right focus, training, and teamwork, sufficient and newly implemented efforts will be made to direct proper focus on the areas of deficiency. Those efforts though will not solve the issues but instead provide necessary indications on whether the efforts are worthy of extending or discontinued in favor of assessment, re-analysis, and redirection as needed and with urgency.
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
While there are hundreds of national accomplishments, we will highlight a summary and link to others, here: https://joebiden.com/accomplishments/#
Some that stand out among the best include:
- 1.9T American Rescue Plan
- $1400 stimulus checks for adults, children, and adult dependents
- 1 year child tax credit expansion — $3600 0–5, $3000 6–17, removed income reqs and made fully refundable
- Delayed student debt payments
- Eliminate student debt (pending Supreme Court)
- $130 billion for schools for safe reopening
- $40 billion for higher ed, half of which must go to student aid
- $1B for Head Start
- $24B Childcare stabilization fund
“President Biden is working to shape a federal judicial system that fully represents America’s diversity. Of the judges confirmed in the President’s first year, 80% were women and 53% were people of color.
Overall, more than 50 of President Biden’s circuit and district court nominees have been confirmed by the Senate — far outpacing recent previous administrations.” — Government Website
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
A nation the size of this nation and with a diverse population of diverse ideas and opinions will undoubtedly have many areas of improvements, most of which, of course, cannot all be captured here. As with Major Accomplishments, we will instead focus on a few critical areas that, if improved, will have widespread positive impact.
- Codify Voting Rights
- Expand Supreme Court
- Reduce the number of citizens killed by law enforcement
- Implement national program to reduce homelessness
- Permanently extend rent assistance to minimum wage workers
- Raise Federal minimum wage
- Expand ACA — Obamacare
- Fully Fund K-12 Public schools and protect curriculum from religious oversite
- Tax churches
- Prosecute leaders of January 6th Insurrection
We know the goals show real and aspirational ideals that are difficult to resolve and have proven intractable due to different strategies and ideas on how to attack and implement. That is why it is called work. It will be hard and difficult, with fits and starts, setbacks and disagreements. None of the real and difficult challenges should distract from the importance of the task and the critical need to make the efforts that are required to produce the results.
FINAL SUMMARY
Overall the nation had a steady year of recovery, implementing key initiatives that proved to be successful for intended beneficiaries and which brought favorable reviews from most citizens, clients, and other nations and international partners. Progress was steady, widespread, and received with appreciation by the intended recipients and indirect beneficiaries.
The areas for improvement as outlined herein presents incredible opportunities for the nation to fix and improve long-standing issues that prevent it from realizing its greatest potential for itself and for its millions of citizens — especially but not exclusively -those who have waited longest for equality, equity, reparations, and a strengthened social safety net.
We are confident that the nation is aware of what it needs to do to improve and that it has the tools, training, resources, skill, and initiative to do what is needed. We are also aware that many of these issues remain issues precisely because the nation hasn’t applied the attributes it has to the issues it has in a consistent way for far too long.
We appreciate the nation’s efforts and results, and we appreciate the nation’s willingness to listen to constructive feedback. We will also appreciate seeing the feedback put into action with urgency and skill befitting a nation with the experience this one possess.
We have attached 2023 goals and targets to this Performance Review and will schedule time to meet in January to review in detail.
OVERALL RATING: NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
The nation began turning around and the results, many included herein, are worthy of recognition, and the nation should be proud of what is has accomplished over the past year and its ability to continue showing steady and needed progress after the Fails to Meet ratings of the years 2016–2020.
The major accomplishments should give the nation the confidence to do even more, to try harder, and to use the same skills, training, and cross-functional support to extend and grow its positive progress. The pending issues around debt relief, voting rights, climate programs, insurrection investigations of the leaders, and within the Supreme Court presents the nation with opportunities for transformative and progressive change.
And though there are areas of concern that must be addressed and planned for, we are confident that the nation will continue to apply itself, marshall domestic and international supporters, communicate effectively through all channels, and implement needed changes that will foster expanding and protecting human rights for all citizens, especially the most marginalized, Black, Jewish, LGBTQI, People of Color, and seniors and children.
Finally, I am happy with the progress has made and I am optimistic it will continue to make gains in many areas included and not included in this document. The nation is encouraged to continue to deliver positive results and to consistently and with urgency work to improve those areas that require attention.
I look forward to working with the nation next year and will provide guidance and feedback as required and needed throughout the coming year.
© 2022 by Myron J. Clifton and Dear Dean Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
NEW! Click here to subscribe to Dear Dean Magazine!
Shop Myron J. Clifton’s Books on Amazon! Click Here
Myron J. Clifton is slightly older than fifty, lives in Sacramento, California, and is an avid Bay Area sports fan. He likes comic books, telling stories about his late mom to his beloved daughter Leah, and talking to his friends.
Dear Dean 