Any other sector and you are gone in a heartbeat.
Unless you're the boss's wife or brother - or you're screwing the boss.
Or you're someone's buddy. Seen a LOT of this too, in the private sector.
How many businesses have you seen where someone hired the significant other -
who really had no business BEING there?
My experience is, the occurrence is about the same.
I do think there are quite a number of problems with the way government is managed.
Part of it is - because it's government. Philosophically - it "has to" be funded.
So it's not going out of business if it is managed badly.
I do think government typically wastes human resources - I've been on projects
where very skilled staff are doing stuff way below their skill level because at the time - there's no one
to do it. They have absurdly long hiring processes and more rules as to who can be selected.
Imagine creating a job posting for a job in your office - and you actually KNOW a few people who
would be perfect for the job - and you know they applied - but human resources never sends
them your way for an interview - because they didn't pass their screening process, which might
include all kinds of diversity and EEO requirements. I know of a few positions where they just
chose not to fill the job because none of the ones that got sent to them were qualified.
They often have antiquated ideas of organization, because it's just the way it's always been.
I've NEVER understood how it happens that the highest levels of management I've worked with
are so far removed from the rank and file - that they don't really have ANYTHING to do with what they do.
I remember being invited on a "ride-along" with the director, and I could have named every project
being done under him - and he knew just about nothing about them. If you're working in a car manufacturing
plant - the boss might not know how to assemble stuff, but he knows a thing or two about the car.
You can go to NSA, the Pentagon, Langley - there are some very, very smart people there.
My uncle has been a lawyer his entire career with the federal government and he is brilliant.
I'm pretty smart, but I would say just about all the people I work with are smarter than me.
And they work for the government because of the flexibility - I can take an hour off here or there
for my kid's medical needs in a pinch. I can change vacation plans at the last minute.