Stolen and sold to pawn shops, I'm sure. This is why tracking systems on laptops is a good idea.

I think ministries are not ready to face the facts that their own employees sell them to pawnshops

haha... maybe they should pay them more? Or, in reality, maybe they shouldn't be afraid to fire worthless employees.

Haha, I don't necessarily think government employees are more incompetent - but they do get away with being a lot lazier and don't risk being fired as easily. I've worked in both worlds, and while I've seen some dire examples of horrible employees and work ethic during my government days, I've also seen staggering displays of incompetence in the private jobs I did, up to middle to high management. Like a native English speaker managing to make 3-4 spelling errors in a 10-page powerpoint presentation. Not typing errors (anyone can make those), but really misspelling common words. That's not as bad as being a lousy manager (which he was), but a lot easier to factually 'prove' he did wrong. Anyway, I always got the impression that once you are IN, like in the loop for the management meetings etc, you really have to fuck up to still risk much in terms of being laid off or demoted. And from there, if you're competent enough and/or suck enough dick, it's easy sailing. Well, maybe not if you're just competent, then it's hard work.

So yeah I'm not surprised either way at much shit they are losing. I think especially as a routine business traveller, you get very comfortable doing it and will be more inclined to not watch your suitcase or laptop than you are when you're travelling for private purposes. It's almost like commuting really...people lose shitloads of stuff on trains and buses too during their commutes, since they're so comfortable in it.

Incompetence is everywhere, and is often not punished (unfortunately).

Example from my wife at work:
Starting this year, she has a team of workers she has to evaluate. Now there's one guy that's constantly falling asleep. Literally. In front of his computer. I don't even have to add that he's doing a piss poor job whenever he's awake, that alone is bad enough as it is. This has been going on for years according to my wife.

Now she was shocked to find out that he NEVER had been given a negative evaluation. He always got a 3 (on a scale to 5) which is what most people get appearantly, unless they're really happy with your work (-> 3+).
After a meeting with her boss, it was decided to give him a 3-, since any lower would be too much of a shock/surprise for him.

What? Gotta love corporate structures i guess.

yea, there you go. Which is why I really need to run a company... I have no qualms being a total dickhead. Someone deserves to be fired? No problem! I'll do it!

Haha, yeah. But by the time you (or anyone) gets to be CEO, you'll probably be so removed from these 'pedestrian' issues that you can't be bothered to personally lay off one incompetent asshole every so often. Instead, you'll move to the next level and fire faceless groups and departments of people. Much easier!

@ J's story...I worked for a short time at a backwater government department here in Antwerp, and the boss actually asked me to make the evaluations for my colleagues and me. He couldn't be bothered, and just told me to copy-paste the same evaluation ('acceptable' or something) for everyone and, if I felt like it, make up some extra shit to diversify the evaluations a bit. Then afterwards he'd read and sign them. He even told me that he just gave everyone an 'acceptable' qualification because he couldn't be bothered with the drama from either one of us or the higher-ups when they started askign questions about why he has incompetent retards working in his little department.

So yeah...I've gazed into the Abyss, and seen the darkness in almost every way but getting fired on invalid grounds. I'm sure that'll happen some day though, knowing my authority problems.

At the rate you're going, I think you're safe from ever being fired.