Time & Perspective Quote by Jodi Rell

There is a certain old-school moral theater in Rell's line: the manager as priest, salaried not just for output but for surrender. The sentence pretends to be about policy mechanics (comp time, eligibility, pay structures), but its real target is legitimacy. It tries to reframe long hours not as a symptom of understaffing or bad planning, but as proof of managerial worthiness - a kind of civic penance that "especially at these salary levels" turns into a public-pleasing punchline.

The intent is disciplinary and performative. By stripping managers of comp time, you create a one-way ratchet: hours can expand indefinitely while compensation stays fixed. That's not an accident; it's the point. It tells voters and rank-and-file workers that the state is being "tough" on higher-paid employees and that leadership roles come with a permanent on-call obligation. The phrase "not be allowed" signals more than guidance. It's moral enforcement, policing the optics of fairness.

Subtext: management isn't labor in the same way labor is labor. Once you're on salary, your time is no longer a measurable resource; it's a badge of responsibility. That framing also quietly absolves the organization. If managers are "expected to work as many hours as needed", then any systemic overload becomes an individual duty, not an institutional failure.

In political context, it reads like a budget-era message designed to survive a headline: discipline the top, reassure the public, and recast compensation debates as character debates.