Other Personal Services
was a way of hiring people
without paying them any benefits.
They could be let go for no reason.
They didn’t get health insurance, sick leave, vacation
paid holidays, or retirement. All you got was an hourly wage.
I think they had to pay you overtime for anything over 40 hours.
A good part of the state’s workforce was OPS, rather than
Career Service. To get on permanent, they had to like the cut of
your jib. You had to not object to being given room and board
in lieu of per diem, for example. I mean, you drew it, but they took it.
Another thing was you had to call salvage archeology scientific research.
You had to pretend you were doing science when what it was, was make-work.
If you wanted to get on permanent. You had to be a self-starter and a team-player.
Not a political activist. Not a person who asked questions.
It was like a 180-day appointment for the National Park Service.
The state didn’t even pay in unemployment on you,
so when your job ended, you hadn’t built up any benefits.
Why would anybody take a job like that?
Supply and demand. The iron law of wages.
The free market isn’t free for all the players.
You are as free to sleep under a bridge as they are
but they don’t have to and you do. That’s the beauty of it.