Sorry to do this to you first thing in the morning, but it’s time for a reading and math comprehension test!
Take a look at this table, and see if any numbers jump out at you.
The abbreviations in the first column are for three departments in state government: Human Resources, Information & Innovation, and Finance & Management. And the answer, or at least the answer I’m looking for, is on the DHR line.
The Department of Human Resources has 25 supervisors and 82 classified employees. That’s a rather stunning ratio of one supervisor for every 3.28 supervisees.
There is no absolute ideal ratio; it depends on many factors. But rarely, if ever, is 1:3 a reasonable figure.
There may be perfectly good explanations for DHR’s ratio. But to the outside eye, it looks like featherbedding.
This table comes to us courtesy of State Auditor Doug Hoffer. It’s included in his latest performance audit, which exposes a dismaying case of administrative sloppiness in state government. In those three departments, administrators routinely failed to conduct annual performance reviews with their staff.
The Vermont Political Observer. 