S/O Best and Worst Federal Agencies

[Anonymous]

I work at a DoD agency at the pentagon and it's pretty bad. Morale is soooo low. Military folks throw civilians under the bus and expect us to do more with less. RIFs are planned but no one is saying more than that so the rumor mill gets going. Civilians not getting bonuses or raises while watching every O5/6 that wants to return as a nonsupervisory 15. No telework. No flexibility. When military gets a 4 day weekend, you can be forced to take leave since your office is closed. It's just bad all around even though it's a smart, dedicated bunch of civs. We work a lot with OSD and a lot of the civ/mil issues don't exist there but I think the quality depends on which group you are with. Lots if turnover with who we deal with up there as we get close to an election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on annual surveys, I think NASA is rated best and Homeland Security is down at the bottom.

Yup. And my friends who work for NASA love it. Awesome agency mission, and everyone's proud of it.

And it hasn't done anything of significance in over 35 years. But anyway...

How many robots have YOU put on Mars?

Who gives a shit about Mars? Seriously. And don't give me that bs answer about new inventions coming out of the space program. I hear now they are planning to land a man on Mars? What a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on annual surveys, I think NASA is rated best and Homeland Security is down at the bottom.

Yup. And my friends who work for NASA love it. Awesome agency mission, and everyone's proud of it.

And it hasn't done anything of significance in over 35 years. But anyway...

We'll I've worked for NASA for 22 years and I disagree with you. Even if you don't care much for the space program, NASA has a fairly large Earth Science component as well. NASA launches the weather satellites that NOAA uses. During hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, and other major weather conditions, those weather satellites give forewarning so that affected areas can be evacuated, track weather systems and help with the aftermath. During Hurricane Katrina, when the Army Core of Engineers needed to fix the levee breaches in Lake Pontchartrain, they use NASA EOS (Earth Observing Station) satellites to determine where and how large the breaches were (the lake conditions were consider dangerous for divers to go down before they surveyed the conditions). This information was critical to the rebuilding of the levee system. There are still very significant experiments being conducted at the International Space Station.

NASA technology is used everyday in so many aspects of your life and many current products are based off of NASA technology. NASA continues to develop technology that is incorporated into everyday parts of our lives. If you have thin snow-wear like thinsulate or ultra-thin coats, the thin insulating materials used there were originally developed to cut down on the bulk of astronautic space gear. If you have any of the new shoes like Nike Air, etc, then you are using technology that was developed for moon boots. If you wear glasses made of plastics instead of glass, that was originally developed by NASA for conditions like space where you need more durable and more lightweight than glass. If you or your child has had "invisible braces" for your teeth, the material used was developed by NASA. The entire industry of freeze-dried foods are based off of NASA innovations. Current models of radial tires were developed based on techniques used to make extraterrestial lander tires/treads more durable. Temperpedic and memory foam pillows, mattresses are all based on NASA innovations. The anti-rusting costing on many cars is based off of NASA innovations. Many, many innovations from NASA are in use in medicine and health care. For example, if you get many of the modern tests like CAT, full-body scans, etc, a lot of the software innovations that tied the scanning equipment to the computers was developed originally for tying computers to the NASA equipment on space missions. The use of eqiupment like Xray, Ultrasound and CAT scanners was originally performed as NASA. Cochlear implants instead of hearing aids were developed by a NASA scientist. Water filters, solar panels, air filtration systems are all based on developments by NASA engineers trying to solve problems for manned spaceflight. Many of the comforts of daily life as we know it have come from advances that were originally developed at NASA.

I can also attest to the fact that NASA is an excellent place to work. My coworkers and I all agree with the assessment that it is the best place to work in the federal government. Morale here is high and people do not want to leave. I've know many people who have decided to take better offers at other agencies and the vast majority of them come back...some have worked for years to get back and when they do, they are so glad to be back.

How much time idd you waste typing this out? tl;dr zzzzzzzzzzzz

[Anonymous]

Too bad you're so lazy, 8:33. The PP actually did a great job reminding the doubter of the many valuable contributions NASA makes to everyone's lives.

No, I don't work for NASA but I definitely appreciate knowing how much they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homeland Security is the worst, especially ICE. EVERYTHING is politically motivated; the top managers, since inception (2003) have been awful; mission changes from month to month.

Anything within the DHS immigration infrastructure is pretty bad (ICE, CBP, USCIS). Low morale, ancient equipment, and lots of questionable hires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homeland Security is the worst, especially ICE. EVERYTHING is politically motivated; the top managers, since inception (2003) have been awful; mission changes from month to month.

Anything within the DHS immigration infrastructure is pretty bad (ICE, CBP, USCIS). Low morale, ancient equipment, and lots of questionable hires.

Crap! I'm trying to renter the workforce after staying home with kids and applied to be an attorney for ICE a month or so ago. The job is with OPLA. Thoughts? (Should I get an interview that is). I worked in immigration law before quitting to stay home. I had high hopes for this one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homeland Security is the worst, especially ICE. EVERYTHING is politically motivated; the top managers, since inception (2003) have been awful; mission changes from month to month.

Anything within the DHS immigration infrastructure is pretty bad (ICE, CBP, USCIS). Low morale, ancient equipment, and lots of questionable hires.

Crap! I'm trying to renter the workforce after staying home with kids and applied to be an attorney for ICE a month or so ago. The job is with OPLA. Thoughts? (Should I get an interview that is). I worked in immigration law before quitting to stay home. I had high hopes for this one!

Lots of attorney turnover in ICE. The former Chief Counsel is being sued by other ICE attorneys for harassment and hostile work environment. Many of his cronies remain there.

[Anonymous]

ICE spouse here - there are so many lawsuits against various supervisors at ICE. My husband's supervisor has like 4 or 5 investigations going on right now. He hates it, but he's FPF 14 so once he gets his 14 he's out of there. They have very high turn over. And it's a shame because he likes the work a lot, but can't stand the supervisors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homeland Security is the worst, especially ICE. EVERYTHING is politically motivated; the top managers, since inception (2003) have been awful; mission changes from month to month.

Anything within the DHS immigration infrastructure is pretty bad (ICE, CBP, USCIS). Low morale, ancient equipment, and lots of questionable hires.

Crap! I'm trying to renter the workforce after staying home with kids and applied to be an attorney for ICE a month or so ago. The job is with OPLA. Thoughts? (Should I get an interview that is). I worked in immigration law before quitting to stay home. I had high hopes for this one!

"renter the workforce"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GAO

GAO is not a federal agency.

Huh? Then how am I a federal employee??

Maybe you are in the wrong building!

[Anonymous]

EPA Office of Emergency Management. Staff leaving in droves. Management is horrendous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on annual surveys, I think NASA is rated best and Homeland Security is down at the bottom.

Yup. And my friends who work for NASA love it. Awesome agency mission, and everyone's proud of it.

I work for NASA and find it less than awesome. I think it no longer has a mission, except to waste money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EPA Office of Emergency Management. Staff leaving in droves. Management is horrendous.

Concur. hilarious! I am from a different and have worked closely with OEM. The above statement is so true.

[Anonymous]

Don't even consider the VA unless you're a RN or Doc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm an outsider looking in, but everyone I have ever worked with at USTR is outstanding. I have the highest respect for everyone there.

Is it hard to get hired at USTR?

NP. Yes it is...and honestly as an international trade analyst I would not want to work there. It is crazy competitive and most people are completely overworked. I work at Commerce in itA and there are a lot of interesting international trade jobs that offer a much better lifestyle.

http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/detail/TN00