Hard working GS-15 Fed - Sometimes feel inferior to higher paid non-Fed friends

[Anonymous]

My friends go on fancier vacations, they have nicer cars, they eat out A LOT, their private school is really expensive.

Other than that, my life is no different. I have my healthy (probably from cooking), I have great friends, I am home with my kids at 4pm on a bad day, I have an amazing salary.

We spend quality time together.

I don't for a second let my family "complain" about "not being rich". Sure they would love to spend a month in Europe, but it's not important.

You need to do some introspection on what is really important in life. Money does not buy you happy healthy relationships or family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all a matter of perspective.

My wife is a civil servant (GS-14) and I am a federal contractor (I make the equivalent of a GS-15). We may make less than peers in the private sector, but we also know we have a much better work-life home balance. We see our kids way more than those peers in private sector do and we have a lot more flexibility to take care of our family as we need to. My wife has a long term medical issue that has required significant medical treatment over the years (including 15 surgeries in 14 years). We can take the time we need to travel for the best medical care in the country including many follow-up medical visits to another city. We can flex our time to cover lots of this. We can take family vacations and take time to do things for our young children. For example, one of the parent chaperones had to drop out for our kids' class field trip this week. I found out last week about 6 business days before, but with very little notice, I could request leave and replace that chaperone (in fact, the teacher asked me if I could come as I've chaperoned before and work well with the kids). My work had no problem. I know friends in my field out in private and some guys would be pressured not to go or would be frowned on asking for last minute leave for a child's field trip. Not worth it at all. My wife's benefits are extremely good for our family and she gets to telework 4 days a week thanks to her special accommodations. A lot of her peers in private would not be able to do that. We have plenty. While we make less than our peers, we also make more than 95% of the country and 90% of locals. We're grateful for what we have and do not resent being out in the stressful grind of the private sector and missing out on our children growing up.

Favorite post by far!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you sound a lot like my DH. For the first 5-7 years he was a fed, his sense of mission and work made him feel like it was fine that he was making less than his peers (he was in biglaw before and took a paycut to go into the fed gov). Then he moved up in his agency, and soured on the sense of mission as he saw how politics played into his work. Before that he definitely felt like he had great work life balance, good colleagues in the gov, and felt like he was doing good in the world and that his gov job was a great career opportunity.

Once DH lost the sense of mission in his gov job, he became more focused on the financial aspects of his job, and more keenly aware that his former biglaw colleagues were making more. Eventually this combination drove him back to private practice/biglaw, and (honestly) he is MUCH, MUCH happier than he was as a fed.

That hits home really hard for me - - and I think a lot of my Agency. A LOT of people are looking to jump.

But won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is probably more of a self-worth issue, but sometimes I feel less accomplished (almost inferior) to my friends who make more outside the government. I have a good job with decent work life balance, am respected, and believe in my agency's mission. I know that money should not be the value of someone's worth, but it's easy to lose perspective around here. Just needed an anonymous vent for a moment.

How many of them have pensions?


I'll be sitting on my ass collecting $60K. My husband will be collecting even more.

That's how I justify my government job.

And trust me when I say I work hard each day.

Some firms do have pensions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all a matter of perspective.

My wife is a civil servant (GS-14) and I am a federal contractor (I make the equivalent of a GS-15). We may make less than peers in the private sector, but we also know we have a much better work-life home balance. We see our kids way more than those peers in private sector do and we have a lot more flexibility to take care of our family as we need to. My wife has a long term medical issue that has required significant medical treatment over the years (including 15 surgeries in 14 years). We can take the time we need to travel for the best medical care in the country including many follow-up medical visits to another city. We can flex our time to cover lots of this. We can take family vacations and take time to do things for our young children. For example, one of the parent chaperones had to drop out for our kids' class field trip this week. I found out last week about 6 business days before, but with very little notice, I could request leave and replace that chaperone (in fact, the teacher asked me if I could come as I've chaperoned before and work well with the kids). My work had no problem. I know friends in my field out in private and some guys would be pressured not to go or would be frowned on asking for last minute leave for a child's field trip. Not worth it at all. My wife's benefits are extremely good for our family and she gets to telework 4 days a week thanks to her special accommodations. A lot of her peers in private would not be able to do that. We have plenty. While we make less than our peers, we also make more than 95% of the country and 90% of locals. We're grateful for what we have and do not resent being out in the stressful grind of the private sector and missing out on our children growing up.

Thank you for not pretending it's all about mission, service and other big words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, you nailed it. I feel the exact same way. I am a 14/7 and no longer want to even think about coming into work. The job just isn't satisfying any more.

I was in your same boat (high 14) with 20+ years in. Got tired of the 15s above me with their "don't rock the boat" mentality. So I resigned and jumped to the contract side.

Stressful? Yes. Better job satisfaction? hell yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another 15 here. To me it's lose of tech skills... All of my work is papers/emails/meetings. I've become a generalist over the years.

Is this typical? What exactly do you create or contribute each day? Not snark, serious question. Do you feel like it is a lot of wasted time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another 15 here. To me it's lose of tech skills... All of my work is papers/emails/meetings. I've become a generalist over the years.

Is this typical? What exactly do you create or contribute each day? Not snark, serious question. Do you feel like it is a lot of wasted time?

I'm starting to feel this way, only a 14 but the promotion is to a liaison role within the agency, so more management work, personnel matters, identifying cost-effective yet valuable training courses/programs, dealing with IT implementations, vetting vendors providing new tools (think databases, etc.) anything that touches upon what our technical people do or use every day. It's not awful, but I do miss my technical role. That said, what I do is necessary to keep the division working smoothly, advocate for my team on intra-agency matters, etc. So I still have a sense of purpose, just not the same passion. But unfortunately at my agency, the passionate roles cap out at 13, and I wanted to move up. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is probably more of a self-worth issue, but sometimes I feel less accomplished (almost inferior) to my friends who make more outside the government. I have a good job with decent work life balance, am respected, and believe in my agency's mission. I know that money should not be the value of someone's worth, but it's easy to lose perspective around here. Just needed an anonymous vent for a moment.

If you don't want to be a Fed or want to try the private side, just go do it. You might like more entrepreneurial, competitive work environments over bureaucratize tenure-based systems.

[Anonymous]

Getting a 15 at some agencies is extremely difficult to do. If you are craving 20K more, and better benefits, aim for SES.