I am an employee of the Maine Bureau of Employment Security, which is federally funded, but the governor has ordered that all state employees take mandatory three-day “layoffs” without pay regardless of funding. He has also ordered paydays to be “staggered ahead” over the next several months, which will result in my receiving one less week’s pay in that period of time….

There are valid ways to save money without blindly hacking and slashing at all state employees, without assessing long-term negative effects.

Now here’s a wild suggestion: If the governor is serious about savings and enjoys harassing state workers, why doesn’t he take a closer look at how many upper-middle management positions have been created in the past few years? The Department of Labor alone has aquired a half dozen such previously non-existent positions which are, in my opinion, of questionable functional advantage. It just seems that this would result in substantial savings with a minimum of negative effect upon morale, essential services and productivity.

It is simply idiotic to think that an employee can genuinely concentrate on doing his best if he has to worry about lost time, lost pay, stolen paychecks, forced layoffs, 100-percent staff shortages and 125-percent increases in workloads. Under current conditions it takes two to three weeks to fully process a claim for benefits but if all 13 employees are forced to take three days apiece off from work, it may just take a bit longer. Robert Bryson Bangor