Why do some private sector workers hate Fed workers so much?

[Anonymous]

It’s a well-known fact in state and local government that feds show up in huge teams to review data, write reports, and look around.

Fed salaries are spectacularly high in flyover country, even with the cost of living adjustment. Some towns are so excited to get those high paying jobs with big benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do some private sector workers hate Fed workers so much?

I have never worked in the public sector. I don't spend my days worrying about Americans who work in other sectors. I wish everyone luck.

But the absolute hatred toward Fed workers is borderline psychotic if you want my honest opinion? Why is that? I just don't get it.

I know what you mean, it shows up on this board quite a lot but also in the wild from time to time. My read on it is, when economic times are good these private sector people tell themselves they're so much smarter/better than feds and the "proof" is in how much more money they make. Then when economic times are bad they're furious that feds [usually] don't have to live in fear of job loss the same way private sector workers do.

Of course the extra money that private sector pays is to reward risk; there are many feds who consciously choose to make less money for less volatility. But once you've convinced yourself that "anybody could do what you do; I'm the only one who can do what I do" about people with a federal job, then any time those people have an advantage over you, be it job security or a pension or better healthcare, it's infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former fed, I had the opposite experience. We hired private sector contractors and then had to redo all of their work because it was of such poor quality. The problem with a lot of contracts is that they do a terrible job of specifying quality.

I was a statistician at the BLS before moving to Wall Street 20 years ago. I was shocked at the lack of statistical rigor in the private sector. It was insane. And worse, "massaging" data to sell a product was not only common practice but it was expected. It took me awhile to adjust and I never did and eventually left Wall street.

Does Boeing ring a bell to anyone? The for profit sector does not give a sh**t about YOU. It's all about making sure the capital owner squeezing the last cent.

Wall Street still lacks statistical rigor up to today.

Government statisticians are really really good. The US army Corp of engineers has very good civil engineers. We have excellent crop scientists and on and on.

Those are Fed workers. Which Fed workers are the lazy ones that you guys are talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I see the feds have rushed in to defend themselves - all the best performers I'm sure. I ask you though, if you're doing such a great job it must really piss you off seeing all those co-workers coasting along right? I was a DOD contractor for 5 years in the DC area and it was egregious how little some people did. They also didn't have to answer to anyone and had so many early releases/"trainings" etc they barely even had to show up.

Are you telling me you don't know anyone in the private sector who get paid for doing nothing lol?

I don’t. I have been in private for 15 years. Everyone has a lot of responsibility starting from the 23 years old.

So you never worked with a higher ups buddy or someone's nephew? That was rampant at the small companies I worked at.

Maybe at F500 top shelf employees the stack racking helps, but even there there is buddy protection and hire to fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When private sector people get let go, downsized or fired, there is no sympathy, and it is just another day. When federal employees, who get paid back, or for a load there is a lot of woah is me and hand wringing. They will be OK. It’s more of a well now it’s your turn to feel what we’ve all felt before.

See, this is where many people get it wrong. Federal jobs are inherently different from private sector jobs, otherwise there would be no need for them to exist. The long-standing tradeoff has been job security for specialized skills. When that job security goes away, the result is much worse for fired Feds because those skills/knowledge don’t transfer well to the private sector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I see the feds have rushed in to defend themselves - all the best performers I'm sure. I ask you though, if you're doing such a great job it must really piss you off seeing all those co-workers coasting along right? I was a DOD contractor for 5 years in the DC area and it was egregious how little some people did. They also didn't have to answer to anyone and had so many early releases/"trainings" etc they barely even had to show up.

I don't feel like I have to defend myself to anyone, certainly not to you. It's clear you have no clue how Govt works and that's okay. I don't know why you created "Govt worker haters thread during your work hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When private sector people get let go, downsized or fired, there is no sympathy, and it is just another day. When federal employees, who get paid back, or for a load there is a lot of woah is me and hand wringing. They will be OK. It’s more of a well now it’s your turn to feel what we’ve all felt before.

Feds in lower-education sectors (think drivers, janitors, some trades) are paid on average more than their private sector counterparts. Feds in higher-education sectors (think lawyers, medicine, financial services) are paid on average less than their private sector counterparts. For the latter, hand wringing can be because there was an expectation of higher job stability as a tradeoff for taking the lower salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I see the feds have rushed in to defend themselves - all the best performers I'm sure. I ask you though, if you're doing such a great job it must really piss you off seeing all those co-workers coasting along right? I was a DOD contractor for 5 years in the DC area and it was egregious how little some people did. They also didn't have to answer to anyone and had so many early releases/"trainings" etc they barely even had to show up.

I don’t know any co-workers coasting. Everyone is working hard for comparatively low pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When private sector people get let go, downsized or fired, there is no sympathy, and it is just another day. When federal employees, who get paid back, or for a load there is a lot of woah is me and hand wringing. They will be OK. It’s more of a well now it’s your turn to feel what we’ve all felt before.

Can not count the number of times employees have been fired and replaced with h1bs. Most feds do not m ow what h1b is

I have no sympathy until they start supporting other US workers getting replaced with h1bs

[Anonymous]

I was a federal contractor for several years (working for a BAH / SAIC type firm). The Feds struck me as normal people who wanted to do their jobs in 40 hours a week and go home, and have good job stability. I was paid more than many of them but it seemed like a fair trade off because I was expected to work a lot more (doing BD and dumb firm initiatives, like planning team building events) and there were definitely layoffs. Several people on my team pivoted to the govt. because they wanted more job security and WLB, and I respected them for it.

I feel for Feds. They’re taking away what made working for the govt. make sense. Now everyone might as well take their chances in the private sector.

[Anonymous]

1. They think they work harder and are more competitive. This is their flex, that they are masters of the universe and government employees are their lessers.They make more money! This makes them smarter and better.
2. Jealousy. In the 2008 recession, suddenly all these people cared about pensions and what a good deal we had. I heard this so much. It was so much money! Oh, I thought you didn't want that because you outearned me by such a huge margin and why couldn't you save up much more than I'd ever make?
3. They are people who can't keep a job so they hate anyone who has one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I see the feds have rushed in to defend themselves - all the best performers I'm sure. I ask you though, if you're doing such a great job it must really piss you off seeing all those co-workers coasting along right? I was a DOD contractor for 5 years in the DC area and it was egregious how little some people did. They also didn't have to answer to anyone and had so many early releases/"trainings" etc they barely even had to show up.

Are you telling me you don't know anyone in the private sector who get paid for doing nothing lol?

I don’t. I have been in private for 15 years. Everyone has a lot of responsibility starting from the 23 years old.

I have been a fed for 35 years and we work a full day everyday. We never get let go early (just two hours at Christmas). I am sure there are unproductive workers but please do not group us all as one.

[Anonymous]

It is a scam not open to anyone. They get crazy high pay and barely work and goof off all day all I dont' mind except they reach into my pocket to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

We need about $25K/month or $300K/year to retire. Pensions and social security will bring in $150K/year and the rest will come from investments. The plan is to move to Florida on the water (an inlet). We will have about $800K towards a house.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s because they don’t understand or see what we do. To be fair, I have no clue what so many people do in Amazon web services or Capital one headquarters, but I’m not out there bashing them. Clearly they know how many people they need on staff.

Some of it is that we can’t hire and fire quality employees. I’ve had several coworkers or my direct reports who have lost their minds this year and it’s shocking how long it’s taking to fire. One went berserk in the office and everyone saw it and we still haven’t fired them yet. It’s winding its way through HR. It’s a major issue to everyone else that these persons are on paid administrative leave while we do all their work. Just demoralizing.