Hey, Lavey… it’s (past) time to go.
Posted by Paul Cox on July 3rd, 2009
On Wednesday, we noted Laura Brown (FAA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs) got caught lying to the media (again). At the end of the post, I noted that it’s been the PR attitude like Brown’s that ruins the FAA’s credibility with the public, the media, and its own employees.
This creates bigger problems- stuff like that leads to the wacko 9/11 conspiracy theorists or the chemtrails people running around out there. I think they’re both wrong, but I can’t sit here and expect them to believe the FAA’s PR folks when I know that the PR folks are perfectly willing to lie and have in fact done it plenty of times. It not only leads to the whack jobs having some reason to believe in what they believe in, but it also trashes the agency’s credibility on more realistic issues of aviation safety.
At the end of the post I also mentioned a favorite target of the Follies, Jerry Lavey, the FAA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Corporate Commu. (That’s not a typo; Jerry’s job title is so long that it won’t all fit on his employee information page. I’m going to assume that it’s “Deputy Assistant Administrator for Corporate Communications”, though.)
ANYWAY… I mentioned how keeping Jerry in his job is part of what leads the FAA to be #214 out of 216 in places to work for the federal government. I called him a two-faced jerk, which is a pretty mean thing to say about someone. But here’s the deal… here’s Jerry Lavey in February of 2008, talking about people who send in angry emails to the Focus FAA “Your Two Cents” area…
So, I am sure we’ll hear from you. For those, however, who want to turn this into a mud pie and a personal attack, let me remind you of the distinction that Chris Matthews once made about the difference between the scorched-earth bloggers/email assassins on the one hand, and responsible adults on the other. Matthews said something along the lines of: “Adults have to turn off their computers, take off their pajamas, get dressed, go to work, and actually deal with their adversaries in a quasi civilized manner.”
Lavey’s thrust was that those folks who dared to send in angry emails that used (gasp) bad words, or us blogger types, are just a bunch of losers who should leave the work of the FAA to the growups. (Never mind that the vast majority of those non-managerial employees are, unlike Lavey, actually carrying out the work of the FAA- keeping the skies and flying public and folks on the ground safe.)
But now let’s turn to March of 2009, when Lavey ran a piece including this little insight:
Presumably we were made executives to lead — to make those who work for us successful, and thus make the organization successful. Leadership is not about control or power. In fact, it is not primarily about us at all. It’s about the employees. Until we have that Copernican epiphany, realizing that we are not at the center of this workplace universe, things will probably never change.
Or May of 2009, when we got this:
There’s a lesson for us there. That may sound ironic coming from someone who contributed to the heated rhetoric and the rancor. But, even hot-headed Irishmen can learn the futility of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If my people in Ireland could lay down the pitchforks and settle their differences after centuries of strife, there’s a chance it could happen here. But, it must start with each one of us. As Gandhi wisely observed, we each need “to be the change we want to see in the world.”
(That sound you hear is thousands of FAA employees gagging. Sorry, folks.)
So Lavey has shifted fast enough that the suckups that work for him probably all have broken noses right about now. Suddenly, he’s all about working with the employees, listening and settling differences. A year ago he was all about defending the agency’s actions and insisting that they were correct, and that those of us who were disillusioned were merely a small minority of wackos.
Back when people were angry and trying to express it, and more importantly when the FAA’s official line from above was “ignore these people, our cause is righteous and our leaders are doing the correct thing” Lavey didn’t give a tin shit about being “the change we want to see in the world.” He ignored people, belittled them and their thoughts and opinions and points in email, and blew them off publicly.
Then something changed between February of 2008 and now… oh yeah, we elected a new guy and he brought in a new attitude. Suddenly Lavey was spinning around so fast you could hardly follow him.
Look, Jerry… it’s time for you to retire. You’re supposed to be in charge of internal communications, but I’ve heard from multiple people that you have blown them off in email. If it had just been me, well, that’s not a big deal; I’m not easy to deal with sometimes and can rub people the wrong way.
But when it’s repeated, and when it’s a crucial part of your JOB- internal communications- then there’s plainly something wrong. The common factor in all of these separate sets of internal communications is you. You’ve been blowing off bloggers and critics, running quotes comparing them (me! us!) to “crazy people” and suggesting we are just full of “weird thoughts” for years.
By nearly any rational measure, your department is an utter failure. The FAA’s employees continually and repeatedly give the agency incredibly low scores in areas of honesty and openness. These scores and feelings have been displayed in the agency’s own (now-dead) employee attitude surveys, in OPM surveys, and on a growing number of blogs like this one, with hundreds of posts and thousands of comments.
Your editorials have obviously shifted from being pro-control and pro-strong-leadership towards collaboration and cooperation since Obama got elected. It’s about as transparent as the Beatles wrote (albeit in a song about love gone bad):
I’m looking through you, where did you go
I thought I knew you, what did I know
You don’t look different, but you have changed
I’m looking through you, you’re not the sameYour lips are moving, I cannot hear
Your voice is soothing, but the words aren’t clear
You don’t sound different, I’ve learned the game.
I’m looking through you, you’re not the same
You’re transparent, Jerry. You lecture us on how we need to be the change we want to see (which is a pretty Buddhist concept, actually) but you haven’t actually done anything that you profess to be needed. Your rhetoric changes with the breeze and with the perceptions of the people who are your bosses.
You tell us to lay down the pitchforks, but you don’t apologize for your own part in the mess. You tell us how we MUST change things, and say that you were part of the problem, but you don’t actually say what you did or step up to take responsibility.
It’s time for you to go. Leave us, and let us move onward. Let us build a new FAA that actually has open communications with honesty being sent both ways along the organizational chart. Let us accept the newer communication methods like blogging or tweeting or email or online forums or texting, and let us integrate them into the internal conversations that the agency needs.
Let us move on without the leaders who have failed so badly, so repeatedly over the past several years. Own up to it, Jerry. It’s time for you to go. And take Gibson and DuCharme and Day and Johnson with you, would you please? Thanks.
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 am
Jerry reminds me of a guy that always has a pitchfork in his hands.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
It really is time for the Lavey's and Laura Brown's of the FAA to go. They have to be held accountable for their actions or inactions. The Doucharmes,Days,Gibsons,Johnsons,Miniaces also need to be shown the door or politely "asked" to retire. They were willing participants in the harming of America's Air Traffic Control system and in the harming of America's Air Traffic Controllers.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
we each need “to be the change we want to see in the world.”
Isn't this more of the same thing. Yeah, we screwed you guys, but let's let bygones be bygones.
Hey, fix things first and get back to me.
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Why can't Jerry go to LockMart and make six figures lying for them?
July 4th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Here's a recent email exchange I had with the Gel-Man within the My 2 Cents piece:
Sent: 05/27/2009 08:11 PM AST
To: Jim Tise
Cc: Jane Goodman; Gerald Lavey
Story: Your Two Cents
Comments: With respect to G Lavey's remarks in "The Last Word" – I have two comments – First of all, don't put yourself in the same frame as the President (speaking at Notre Dame). You can't raise yourself anywhere near his levels by association. Second of all, isn't it quaint that all of a sudden you and your "higher skill set" and "movers and shakers" are interested in 'common ground'…… where was this interest about 3 years ago, when FAA 'negotiators' made a rush to impasse, to take advantage of an obscure but legal loophole allowing you to impose work rules on the FAA's controllers? It appears that the only culture change you're really interested in is when it helps you to retain your job.
His response to me? — "Oh, pleeeeese, like I am really worried about my job. You really don't get iit."
July 4th, 2009 at 2:38 am
My PERSONAL response to FAA Flack-Clown Jerry Lavey:
Jerry, I do my day job far better than you have EVER done yours. I put more of my life's passion and energy into my #1 hobby than you could ever fathom, you bureaucratic pin-pushing yes-man tool. It so happens that my #1 hobby is exposing frauds like you. You are but a PR sockpuppet stealing federal government money under guise of salary while you harm American people. Yet we the American people, will win. You and your cast of grotesque Tombstone Agency colleagues, will lose. I will keep my day job AND my hobby. You will be left with neither. You are, and will be, but a broken and pathetic man "me'et to be sent on errands", whose life's work in retrospect was only to lie on behalf of other slightly-more-highly-paid liars. What a waste of protoplasm you were, Jerry Lavey.
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Quiet Rockland
July 5th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Lavey is right, he doesn't have to worry about losing his federal employment. The question is, doing exactly what though ?
Blakey made him a star, probably let him make up that grandiose title, and is probably why he's still at FAA at age 70 with 40 years of service. A fact he just had to tell Ray Lahood about at that Q and A at FAA HQ back in February before admonishing him not to "give away the store" to NATCA.(sorry Gel, it's too late. a new contract is on the way).
What role does a rank propagandist who so clearly hates the rank and file and relished his role as chief rhetorical anatagonist, play with an Obama appointee now at FAA ?
July 6th, 2009 at 1:45 am
Gerald is a person I hope to never become. A bitter old man that offers very little "service" for the money he is raking in. He is the very same goof that just doesn't get it himself, yet slams someone else just because they disagree. One time right before the imposed work rules Gerry bragged at how its not so bad for controllers and that so many controllers are just plain old idiots with huge bills to pay and there is no way so many would actually retire just because of a few minor changes. I think he needs to take a long look in the mirror and speak for himself. I won't be the moron working until I am 70 in one of the highest cost of living areas in the country when I could have been retired 15 years ago and living better on retirement just about anywhere else. By the way I called Gerry personally and complained about the crap he posted on a government website that was obviously commentary and propaganda but posted as fact. I am sure many others did too. Just like so many other important FAA HQ "managers" he was away from his desk so I left him a long message of rage for him to enjoy. The article was removed within the hour. I did wish I had saved it, it was a prime example of how twisted and self righteous that person is.
Scorched earth blogging? How did that hurt anybody? It was a way for many of us to vent after being treated so poorly
July 6th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Lavey was a Blakey boot licker, beholden to her, just like too many of the "higher skill set", who whooped it up at the St Louis koolaid meetings three years ago. A mind set Babbitt is going to have a hard time combating in my view.
And my guess is Lahood probably thought the same thing Zab, when Lavey was gushing about his age and his 40 years of FAA service……why aren't you at home, enjoying retirement, your grand kids and lighting the charcoal on the BBQ.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Sadly, they seem to have just reshuffled some of the worst offenders of the Blakey era into lower profile jobs rather than out the door where they belong. They put them away like off-season clothing to be brought out of mothballs and used at a later date. I don't see them doing that with Lavey (after all, he's older than the rocks they'd be shoving him under), but I'd bet they'll just encourage him to retire soon.
If you want to see a classic example of Lavey's ability to spin bullshit into brie, look at the credentialing video they posted a few weeks back. I warn you though, bring a barfbag!