Paula stayed on at the EDD amid the crisis, working long hours and withstanding enormous criticism, because she saw herself as a steward of a public program. Stewardship is a core value among civil servants, in part because of the frequent turnover in administrations, each of which brings its own priorities and approaches.1 What looks like resistance to change is also a ballast, stabilizing against what amounts to fads rolling through government every time there’s an election.
