Found this post below on Reddit, NONE of it surprised me. I knew an associate who used to work for Governor Daugaard in HR and the stories they would tell me about state employees and the certain ‘clubs’ that existed in Pierre. They told the governor at one point that it was a serious problem and needed to be handled. Of course nothing happened. I think the thing that stuck with me the most, that several state reps have confirmed to me, ‘NOBODY IN STATE GOVERNMENT WORKS ON FRIDAYS. NOBODY.’;
I am posting this on my burner account to avoid being recognized, and I will not be saying which department I worked in to protect the people who actually do their jobs.
A little less than a year ago, I moved to South Dakota to take a government position. The pay was $61,000 a year, which is more than enough to live on in Pierre. During my time working for the state, I have been horrified by the level of abuse that takes place within our government.
To start, there was literally nothing for me to do. At first, I thought this was just because I was new, but after about a month I quickly realized that this is simply how it is—everyone just pretends to be busy. I maybe had eight hours of actual work to do in an entire week, and that was it. It’s a free-for-all. Nobody does anything, and everyone seems to be okay with that.
Something really needs to be done about this. We have three people doing a job that one part-time employee could handle. It is incredibly wasteful and frustrating to see people watching Netflix or doomscrolling at work instead of doing their jobs. You could cut my department’s workforce by 75% and no one would even notice a difference.
Additionally, the cliques that exist among government workers in Pierre are ridiculous. The gossip is out of control, and if you are not from here—especially if you didn’t grow up here—they will make you feel unwanted very quickly.
I strongly encourage you to reach out to your local representatives and demand action. We are quite literally burning taxpayer money while paying out ridiculous benefits to people who couldn’t care less about being public servants.
There are much better things we should be spending tax payer money on!
l3wis 
