Federal Employees

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Can someone explain to me the disdain people hold for federal employees?
Every one of those "studies" used to explore federal pay usually leave out very large differences -
for example they will mention that a cook in federal employ makes far more than your average cook -
what they leave out is, MOST of those work in the prison system and not running the hot dog stand
in the cafe.

It is true that the less skilled jobs are higher than a lot of the private sector, but the higher skilled jobs -
engineers, lawyers, computer scientists - absolutely make less. Any one of my co-workers would attest
that they choose the lower salary for job security, flexibility and benefits.
 

GregV814

Well-Known Member
well, having worked in Washington DC for a few years back in the late 1990's, I made an observation once to a co-worker. Especially in the DC Govt., not the Federal Govt. Many of the blue collar workers were nothing more than former unemployable folks working menial jobs. In sec. 8 apartment complexes, there may have been as many as 8-10 employees sweeping sidewalks and raking leaves and taking breaks every 3-4 minutes. Or the folks shoveling asphalt into potholes. And it was quite evident that the DC Govt. merely transferred welfare payments to shovel ready works programs. Its a win win...On paper, the welfare roles were minimized, the folks had a job and their income was taxed, coming back to the City...No brainer...So, this has probably migrated into the formerly known GS grade employees...

Much akin to the programs Roosevelt did before and after WWII.
 

Grumpy

Well-Known Member
IMHO at least 1/3 don't contribute to anything ...

Apart from the science/space/DOD FED orgs, I agree with the above. The science/space/DOD orgs do have their share of slackers but no where near the level of the State, HUD, Education,etc orgs.
 

terbear1225

Well-Known Member
Apart from the science/space/DOD FED orgs, I agree with the above. The science/space/DOD orgs do have their share of slackers but no where near the level of the State, HUD, Education,etc orgs.

Maybe this is why I disagree with those who disparage fed workers. My only experience is with DoD types and they definitely do not fit the stereotype of “lazy govt worker”
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
The federal government employs 2.1 million civilian workers in hundreds of agencies at offices across the nation. The federal workforce imposes a substantial burden on America’s taxpayers. In 2017 wages and benefits for executive branch civilian workers cost $276 billion.

Since the 1990s, federal workers have enjoyed faster compensation growth than private-sector workers. In 2016 federal workers earned 80 percent more, on average, than private-sector workers. And federal workers earned 42 percent more, on average, than state and local government workers.

In 2016 federal civilian workers had an average wage of $88,809, according the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). By comparison, the average wage for the nation’s 114 million private-sector workers was $59,458.

When benefits such as health care and pensions are included, the federal compensation advantage over private workers is even larger, according to the BEA data. In 2016 total federal compensation averaged $127,259 or 80 percent more than the private-sector average of $70,764, as shown in Figure 2.
https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-worker-pay

I think they'll be okay. (Not that I believe the proposal will result into any meaningful change)
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
frankly until you remove Baseline Budgeting and Automatic Entitlement Raises this is a fart in the wind
 

steppinthrax

Active Member
Being a federal contractor for the past 7 years I can tell you that many federal employees are some of the worst employees in the world. These are the type of people that you would never hire if you were creating/starting a company. They are usually the type of people that are lazy, difficult to work with or have major psychological issues. I can tell you many horror stories of federal employees. As well as how long it took to fire one...
 

steppinthrax

Active Member
A guy I worked with had a very difficult personality. I only worked with him for 1 year or so.

So he started worked for the agency and had a female boss, he didn't get along with her and they argued, he filed a formal complaint against her. He was later transferred to another boss, he had a problem with her after a year or so. At some point he got into a raging argument with his boss and was escorted out of the building. He was given FMLA and paid leave for a month to work out psychological issues. He was finally transferred to a department by himself, a woman was hired to be his boss after some time. Since he had more seniority he was angry and eventually filed another (3rd or 4th one) against her.

In this complaint he also mentioned that in our work department no one is at their desk. He says this because the only thing he was ever good at is coming to work at around 5:00 am in the morning. He lived in DC so it was easy, while everyone else came from NoVa, Rockville, etc... We also had various meetings taskings throughout the day.

This caused the HR department to start monitoring us more carefully to see what percentage of time we were at our desks. We had to explain any time we got up and left for major times (meetings, lunch, trainings).

Anyway this 4th complaint he filed was unfounded and for some reason they used it to terminate him with.


Guess what, this guy had been working for the same agency for 6 years. By the time he left he was drawing around 140K (less than what I made :D), his skills and abilities were also very low. Later speaking to people he took a lot of psychological medication and had various issues etc....

This is story 1 of 100000
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
That's not who's being protected. Many members of the protected classes are the ones who need to go, but, EEO hangs over all our heads like the sword of Damocles.

:yay:

Yeah True .... don't give a POC a bad Review

That's Racist
 

steppinthrax

Active Member
how the hell did he get away with this :shrug:

that is not 'normal' business hours

You messed up there

BUSINESS is the word that you realize dosen't apply to the gov.

So if you can make it early enough then you can leave early enough as well..
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
So if you can make it early enough then you can leave early enough as well..



a good friend was 20 yr Gov. Employee, drove from Accokeek to Silver Spring Every Day


tried for yrs to get them to allow him to come in after 09:30 .... Nope Outside 'Normal' Hours

he was a Web Designer and MAC IT Support Guy for NOAA
 

Clem72

Well-Known Member
Being a federal contractor for the past 7 years I can tell you that many federal employees are some of the worst employees in the world. These are the type of people that you would never hire if you were creating/starting a company. They are usually the type of people that are lazy, difficult to work with or have major psychological issues. I can tell you many horror stories of federal employees. As well as how long it took to fire one...

And I have worked with dozens of contractors who absolutely could not make it in the real world where there are consequences for lying about your abilities and how much time or cost is involved in an effort.
 

BOP

Well-Known Member
A guy I worked with had a very difficult personality. I only worked with him for 1 year or so.

So he started worked for the agency and had a female boss, he didn't get along with her and they argued, he filed a formal complaint against her. He was later transferred to another boss, he had a problem with her after a year or so. At some point he got into a raging argument with his boss and was escorted out of the building. He was given FMLA and paid leave for a month to work out psychological issues. He was finally transferred to a department by himself, a woman was hired to be his boss after some time. Since he had more seniority he was angry and eventually filed another (3rd or 4th one) against her.

In this complaint he also mentioned that in our work department no one is at their desk. He says this because the only thing he was ever good at is coming to work at around 5:00 am in the morning. He lived in DC so it was easy, while everyone else came from NoVa, Rockville, etc... We also had various meetings taskings throughout the day.

This caused the HR department to start monitoring us more carefully to see what percentage of time we were at our desks. We had to explain any time we got up and left for major times (meetings, lunch, trainings).

Anyway this 4th complaint he filed was unfounded and for some reason they used it to terminate him with.


Guess what, this guy had been working for the same agency for 6 years. By the time he left he was drawing around 140K (less than what I made :D), his skills and abilities were also very low. Later speaking to people he took a lot of psychological medication and had various issues etc....

This is story 1 of 100000

Out of 2.1M federal workers, that's 4.76%. Got facts to back that up?
 
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