Yes. I agree SEC is not the same now. |
Baby formula, please |
Same with FTC. |
we are working on it between happy hours |
Really why? Talk to me abut this. Looking at a job at the OND. |
What's OND? One-n-Done? |
| SI |
+1 for Commerce with their new insane telework policy. |
I'll disagree with you. After 30 years at NASA, I will say that it is a great place to work. Morale is high at NASA and we are productive and enjoy our employment. I know many who have left NASA over the years, including those who left to work in private industry and the struggled to find jobs to return to NASA. |
Why do you think that is? Is it because NASA by nature, has clearly defined goals and success indicators? For most fed agencies, success is hard to visualize. |
Because there is a lot of respect for people and their talents here. It isn't just the flight operations that is a good place to work. I've moved between the Earth science directorate, the Space science directorate, the Engineering directorate and the Flight Missions directorate over the years. People here respect each other and their expertise. People here generally try to do their best to accomplish not only the agency's mission, but what is best for the work force. People take employee morale and employee's well being into account when making decisions. I have friends that work for various other agencies and my spouse works for a different agency. The level of respect that employees in those agencies get is significantly lower. Other agencies don't prioritize the work force nearly as much and it shows. And the agency attitude runs deep. Here's just one basic example. I do IT system and network administration and IT security for NASA. We deploy equipment like laptops to the employees. When we deploy laptops, we give them choices for the equipment that they get. We have a variety of folks who use agency standard configuration laptops (users have choices for Windows, Mac or Linux systems), engineering laptops which are higher powered and more suitable for the high level calculations that some of the engineering or scientific modeling tools need (also Mac, Windows and Linux options), and if none of those work, their location project, division or mission can purchase them a specialty machine that does what they need for their job. Conversely my best friend who works for another agency and my spouse who works for a third agency both struggle because they have very few options for computer. They get assigned whatever is standardized by the IT directorate at their agencies and they don't have much choice. My spouse needs specialty software that is not available on Windows, but can't get and use the software that would be the best to do their work because they are not allowed to get Mac laptops which would make the most sense for the type of work that they do. Instead they are forced to do the work with a lesser software package that does not have all of the features they need to do their job well and then are criticized that they can't provide features that other similar projects provide (who use the appropriate tools). This is the type of stupid bureaucratic nonsense that happens at many agencies and kills morale. Just one example of basic needs that are not met for the employees. |
About NASA, I read The Thin Book of Naming Elephants: How to Surface Undiscussables for Greater Organizational Success by Sue Annis Hammond and Andrea B. Mayfield. The book uses NASA's tragic accidents and Enron's bankruptcy as examples of the price of not having open, constructive dialogue. Has NASA possibly improved their culture? If so, how have they improved? Does NASA really do anything anymore? |
They only realized the job sucked because the type of work and skills that most of NASA have are tied to aerospace, and the pay is crummy and comes back to the government anyways unless you own your own contracting company or work on the business side. The average NASA PhD will do more work for less pay 99% of the time in industry. That said, NASA itself is somewhat brutal place to work these days now that they have set the centers to compete with one another for funding and projects, and how you have to scramble for a new project when yours ends or is cancelled -- its a lot like consulting in that always be hustling mentality, without the chance for real money |
Agree with PP, Commerce Telework policy is crushing morale and the workforce will reflect those with options leaving. |
| Good luck getting hired at one of you are not a veteran. |