IDLED GOVERNMENT WORKERS FACE MORE SHOCK THAN YOU'D EXPECT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993                   TAG: 9302250098
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
IDLED GOVERNMENT WORKERS FACE MORE SHOCK THAN YOU'D EXPECT
People who lose jobs in government downsizing face a cultural shock when they seek work in commercial-sector companies, according to a Reynolds Metals Co. government contracts manager.
Government employees have tunnel vision, while industry rewards employee initiative, Robert A. Lynn said at a seminar for contract managers.
Those who leave government will suffer language shock because they are accustomed to the government's fondness of using acronyms for federal agencies, Lynn said. Federal employees "can almost cut a civilian out of a conversation," he added.
If you do business with the government, you must learn "governmentese," just as you learn a foreign language when you go to another country, he said.
He spoke Tuesday to Roanoke-area chapters of the National Contract Management Association and the American Subcontractors Association at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel.
As Reynolds copes with federal downsizing, he said, the company is developing new products to fill in the gaps in business. Reynolds' federal contracts amount to 3 percent of $6 billion in sales.
Among its new products are plastic pallets and an aluminum and lithium alloy used in welding.
Brian Wishneff, Roanoke's economic development chief, told the contract managers the city "ought to have our share of new business . . . an increasing amount of small and start-up companies are forming."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB