Fed employees and work ethic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are all these unicorn fed workers who work longer hours than biglaw?

Listen, i don't begrudge any of you your very sweet fed gigs. The pay is lower, the work often less rewarding and more, well, governmental.

But I have many, many highly competent friends in DC who work for the feds (some straight out of grad school, and some many years after a private sector career). And I've only ever know a handful of them who work past 5:30pm. That's the whole point of federal govt. None of them would say that their jobs or their colleagues' jobs require long hours.

Weird that all 16 fed workers out of 3 million who work 60 hours a week are all on dcum.

DCUM tends to attract the higher paid types. The HR person and the payroll ladies that are GS 7/9/11s aren’t the ones complaining about long hours. It’s the SES levels, lawyers and medical/scientists with high stress jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are all these unicorn fed workers who work longer hours than biglaw?

Listen, i don't begrudge any of you your very sweet fed gigs. The pay is lower, the work often less rewarding and more, well, governmental.

But I have many, many highly competent friends in DC who work for the feds (some straight out of grad school, and some many years after a private sector career). And I've only ever know a handful of them who work past 5:30pm. That's the whole point of federal govt. None of them would say that their jobs or their colleagues' jobs require long hours.

Weird that all 16 fed workers out of 3 million who work 60 hours a week are all on dcum.

IME it's very agency, division, and sometimes even supervisor dependent. DH has one of those jobs right now where he's regularly working 10+ hr days, but it wasn't always like that. It kinda sucks, he's never home for dinner anymore, and the only reason it works is because my job is not as demanding and I can typically logoff at 5pm.

Despite the demands he DOES like his job, but has already said that if they start slashing benefits and pay, it may not be worth it anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a fed for several years and it depends on where you work. Many feds are hardworking, many are not.
Here's where I've worked:
NIH: Almost everyone was passionate, smart, committed, and worked long hours.
FDA: huge step down from NIH. Snail's pace, parochial, clock watching
CDC: Smart and hardworking, lot of great people.
MHS: (Military Health headquarters) Lazy, lazy, lazy. Nothing got done. Cronyism, passing the buck, toxic

No experience with MHS but mostly agree about the others, although FDA is, in IMO, more mixed. There are some really dedicated people there too.

NOAA, NIST are also great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

COVID shutdowns and social media has done them in hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

COVID shutdowns and social media has done them in hard.

That's exactly how Gen X felt about y'all when you showed up. Kids these days huh? Every generation has felt this way when the younger ones shake up the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

COVID shutdowns and social media has done them in hard.

That's exactly how Gen X felt about y'all when you showed up. Kids these days huh? Every generation has felt this way when the younger ones shake up the status quo.

Okay except I’ve seen it first hand. I have coworkers that don’t do in person meetings because they’re autistic, and they tell you first time they meet you. Also had an employee requesting sick leave due to their anxiety/issues over the election.

[Anonymous]

Yes, so have I. For example, most people with quasi emotional support animals don't trend towards Gen Z. And if you started trading crazy coworker stories, you'll find all ages have them.

And I can be a curmudgeon, but I also understand that every generation has had to deal with the younger generation's new way of thinking and dealing with the issues of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

COVID shutdowns and social media has done them in hard.

That's exactly how Gen X felt about y'all when you showed up. Kids these days huh? Every generation has felt this way when the younger ones shake up the status quo.

Okay except I’ve seen it first hand. I have coworkers that don’t do in person meetings because they’re autistic, and they tell you first time they meet you. Also had an employee requesting sick leave due to their anxiety/issues over the election.

I would side eye refusal to have in person meetings too, but the problem with the second one is just someone giving TMI about why they're using sick leave. Anxiety is a mental health issue, which is health. But it's also private.

[Anonymous]

Musk fired 80% of Twitter's staff and the site still works. And that's the one private business where this has occurred because he doesn't own all the other ones. You can see all these WFH employees in the private sector who are leisurely walking their dogs or running errands during the day.

But go on about Feds and state employees doing nothing.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the DC area and feds always had the reputation of being lazy. I’m sad that Trump got reelected but happy that his administration will trim them down. Many get paid for not doing much at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the DC area and feds always had the reputation of being lazy. I’m sad that Trump got reelected but happy that his administration will trim them down. Many get paid for not doing much at all.

So you would rather have people on unemployment than actually doing something at a job? Either way society has some people who are not very productive.

[Anonymous]

Well, OP, your limited view of a handful of people should not guide policy.

I’d counter that the current Supreme Court does very little.

Certain Congress members don’t even show up to vote.

The firing that Musk wants to do will just lead to the government spending more on contractors. Musk will earn a lot from this. He’s a government contractor.

If you want to imagine firing federal workers will save so much money, go ahead. Let me know how it feels when you have listeria in your salami or can’t get a passport renewal easily or have a tax prep error and need to fix it and no one is there to help you.

My family all works for the government and they bust their behinds.

One of my parents worked too root out spies and the spies were jailed. But we should fire all those people who accomplished things you never hear about and let things run amok.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think OP's perception/mi-perception of feds being lazy comes with territory. The most dedicated folks I met over the years were feds, the laziest folks I met over the years were feds as well. Op, it's no different than any other jobs except, in govt, we can't get rid of problematic folks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the DC area and feds always had the reputation of being lazy. I’m sad that Trump got reelected but happy that his administration will trim them down. Many get paid for not doing much at all.

If you grew up here, you were simply ingested Reagan and Gingrich propaganda. How do you know how someone works unless you work with them? Did your parents? My family lives in Bay Area, but none of them know what life is in Big Tech companies other than what they read on internet.