Grueling Pace At White House Is Downright Intoxicating

A staff job at the White House may sound great on the dinner party circuit, but the reality is something different. The price for the prestige, the honor of serving and the opportunity to build your resume is a work environment that would likely kill most of us or at least mangle our home life. Today's Washington Post presents a very accurate picture of what a West Wing job in the White House entails.

Aside from the high-profile jobs, there is a host ordinary people doing ordinary jobs for ordinary Federal Schedule pay. Nothing glamorous about that. Then there are the volunteers, some of the most dedicated and hard working - I would add most difficult to supervise - folks inside the White House fence.

I knew a few of those ordinary folks and met a few of the higher-ups as well during my time in Washington forty years ago. The pace was grinding then and in some respects - the Vietnam war was raging - may have been worse then. But that doesn't take away any of the respect I have for anyone working in the White House today. It's a tough job from top to bottom and no wonder that the pace is taking its toll just six months after the inauguration. It takes a special kind of person to accomplish the task and, very often than not, one who is in a" right place, right time" situation. For those dedicated servants who thrive on the excitement of the moment, it can be very rewarding. For most of us, forty hours will suffice. Having somewhat been there and done that in Washington, retirement will suffice, thank you.