Locked In The Cabinet Analysis

The article “Locked in the Cabinet”, by Robert Reich is a very interesting memoir about the events of the author throughout the opening months of his time as the Secretary of Labor. Initially in the piece, the author is jumping through the hoops of being freshly appointed to the cabinet position after being a university professor. He starts by attempting to gather his team by June in order to get the department set up quickly. Furthermore, he states several pieces of criteria that a member of the cabinet should have in order to be appointed. In the second entry of the reading, the author goes over his developing schedule and how protected he is throughout his time in office, as well as at home. Continuing forward, Reich makes a daring trip to wander throughout the department where he manages to get lost and experience what other employees go through on a daily basis. About halfway through the piece, he continues to state the several ways how the government has been discourteous to civil-service employees, describing them as “easy targets”. Finally, the author discusses his interesting adventure of formulating a plan with a low-level bureaucrat named Steve Wandner, who has a genius idea with unemployment that will save the government billions. One major point stated throughout the reading is the fact that bureaucracies are very large, with the secretary sometimes having no contact with lower members. Early on in the piece, the …show more content…
Furthermore, it contained the important ideas of civil-service workers not being addressed based on the size of the bureaucracy, as well as the fact that workers are treated poorly. These topics were very interesting to learn and provided a unique, entertaining insight based on the experiences of a former department