OPINION: Decline of a thousand empires | Auckland Opinion | Local Voices from Auckland, New Zealand

"There were Emperors who were totally insane and feared any man who showed the least amount of skill or intelligence in either running an army or running the government. There were Generals who marched on Rome with their legions, leaving the frontier to defend itself. The Games bled the empire as thousands died and free grain was given to the poor people of Rome to keep them happy. Slaves worked the empire's farms and factories and mines."

I confess, this account of the fall of the Roman Empire by Michael Valdivielso is drawing a long bow to the current situation in the small empires built from the boroughs and cities of Auckland. But it is worth bearing in mind as we consider the current situation for thousands of council workers who are watching the pages of their calendars tear away to November 1.

On that day, their jobs will cease to exist.

Not only their jobs however. Almost every scheme, project, plan and proposal has been either scrapped or lapsed into limbo.

As the Auckland Council is being clicked into place piece-by-piece from the Auckland Transition Agency offices in Newmarket, many council workers are feeling more and more like the slaves caught in the flailing deadthroes of a system in swift decline.

They will not speak publicly of their grim days however. Most are hoping for roles of some sort in the newly reconstructed empire. The scramble for these positions is currently at hysterical levels. If there is humour to be had, it is very black humour indeed. One worker told me he has been offered a job description that bears no resemblance to any of his skills or experience.

"I'm very much of the same view of everyone else," he says. "The word is: get inside the tent and negotiate later."

Meaning: these workers are taking whatever is available, even if they have no ability or affinity for the job, and they will try to find something more suitable later.

If that sounds utterly mercenary, then that's because it is. The managers who they'd loyally aided are frantically trying to get a place "in the tent" for themselves - or have gone.

Each working day, these public servants are turning up at their desks to discover empty cubicles nearby where once there were colleagues. The office comedian who passed on funny emails has gone; the chap who always refilled the coffee machine; the woman who always smiled at you in the elevator; and the old chap who couldn't work the photocopier.

Daily tasks are to close files on projects that have just begun; cancel contracts for schemes you created that have been resoundingly successful; and shelve applications for ideas that haven't yet been endorsed.

One key assignment is to write a full account of your roles and responsibilities for whomever may be hired to pick them up.

As each day passes and the worker remains, their prospects get bleaker.

Earlier this week, the NZ Herald reported new recruits to the Auckland Council are being hired at 20 per cent to 30 per cent less than existing staff. Benefits such as childcare and holiday conditions are reduced.

Human resources team leader Laila Harre says existing council staff will not get less pay for doing substantially the same job.

However, one council staffmember says this is a "gentle" version of what's really going on.

"This is a brutal place to be right now," he whispers down the phone from an office with no audible background noise. "Everyone is in a pretty dark personal place."

So who will pity their plight?

Not the irate ratepayers who have been fed a steady diet of "about bloody time they got a rocket under them" from everywhere south of the Local Government Minister.

As the Generals march off to Rome to take whatever they can get, it seems our frontier camps are being left with little fuel to warm the diminishing army.

But I can tell you - from my relatively secure reporter's desk - some of the most helpful, public-spirited, efficient and caring people in these emperiled enclaves are still to hear their fate.

- Edward Rooney is the chief reporter at The Aucklander