Tell me what I need to know about working in the Federal Government

[Anonymous]

I'm making assumptions? Didn't someone just tell me I'm a lawyer who doesn't make copies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my agency I see deference given to policy makers (politicals) but people don't really tip toe around senior civil servants very much.

Our admins don't get paid much GS 7, maybe 9 at the most. They will do big copying projects, but it's pretty rare we need that and you get used to doing your own stuff mostly.

I'm the one who made the original point about copying, and just be be clear, I'm not talking about doing my own copying. Everybody does that. I'm talking about large jobs with many hundreds of copies on a frequent basis.

your agency should have people to do this. There aren't any codes that handle it?

In my agency, normally the youngest female gets stuck with the burden of all the copying/filing and the purchasing credit card for that division. Even if she happens to be a lawyer... Who the hell has admin staff to do things like that? I do all of my own correspondence and mailing as well.

Amazing. Your office blatantly and illegally discriminates on the basis of gender, and you have no problem with that. The youngest female has no business doing all the filing for all the other professionals. A big problem in govt work is the admin staff is too often incompetent so their work is given to professionals. Managers don't want to have to deal with making admins do their own work.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the PP said they were okay with it, just that it happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised by the absolute deference to the most senior person in the room. In meetings only they would talk unless they said something incorrectly and then you could carefully say something.

There are people who do very little.

I was also surprised by this. Especially how people will fawn over someone in the SES. What is worst is when the SES person thinks they deserve to be treated like an extra special person.

Until you have established a successful track record, play the deference game.

When people don't make a lot of money, the little things like titles, office space, who arrives first at a meeting, can become very important to them.

NP here, and sorry if I am inappropriately hijacking.

How do you guys deal with this? I find this very shocking and harder to put up with as the years go by. Do the higher ups know how they are perceived by the GS folk, who have the equivalent professional degrees and years of experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised by the absolute deference to the most senior person in the room. In meetings only they would talk unless they said something incorrectly and then you could carefully say something.

There are people who do very little.

I was also surprised by this. Especially how people will fawn over someone in the SES. What is worst is when the SES person thinks they deserve to be treated like an extra special person.

Until you have established a successful track record, play the deference game.

When people don't make a lot of money, the little things like titles, office space, who arrives first at a meeting, can become very important to them.

NP here, and sorry if I am inappropriately hijacking.

How do you guys deal with this? I find this very shocking and harder to put up with as the years go by. Do the higher ups know how they are perceived by the GS folk, who have the equivalent professional degrees and years of experience?

This could be part of it:

When people don't make a lot of money, the little things like titles, office space, who arrives first at a meeting, can become very important to them.

They probably don't care because all that seems to matter is that they are above you in the pecking order, for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my agency I see deference given to policy makers (politicals) but people don't really tip toe around senior civil servants very much.

Our admins don't get paid much GS 7, maybe 9 at the most. They will do big copying projects, but it's pretty rare we need that and you get used to doing your own stuff mostly.

I'm the one who made the original point about copying, and just be be clear, I'm not talking about doing my own copying. Everybody does that. I'm talking about large jobs with many hundreds of copies on a frequent basis.

your agency should have people to do this. There aren't any codes that handle it?

In my agency, normally the youngest female gets stuck with the burden of all the copying/filing and the purchasing credit card for that division. Even if she happens to be a lawyer... Who the hell has admin staff to do things like that? I do all of my own correspondence and mailing as well.

What agency? I would like to avoid it as I scan through USAJOBS..

[Anonymous]

ref the G Fund - the poster criticizing it doesn't know all the facts.

The G fund is free money, and in essence another benefit given to federal workers.

To explain why in simplified terms; bonds are sold either as short term or long term. Short term bonds carry less risk, but as a result have lower returns. Think of it like a CD from your local bank; shorter duration CDs pay less interest than longer term CDs.

The reason why the G fund is free money is that the risk part of the equation (interest rate exposure), is set every few weeks. In other words, it is a very short term bond risk wise. But, its pay out is tied to the average duration of USG owed bonds, which works out to around 9 or 10 years.

In other words, the G fund is a very short duration bond that pays out equivalent to a much longer term 10 year duration bond. To put it back in the example of a CD, it is like your bank offering you a 2 week Certificate of Deposit but giving you the same interest as someone taking out a ten year CD.

Moral of the story - it would be stupid to not take advantage of the G fund if you have access to it. You should always take advantage of free money. Even if you have a very high risk profile and want to be disproportionately into equities, you should still maintain a bond or reserve portion. In general, mixed equity/bond holdings outperform straight equity holdings. It allows you to have a set aside amount of money where you can actually buy low / sell high, rather than being 100% committed into one asset class.

On top of that, since it is free money, any reserve funds you might have are also well suited for the G fund as again, it is basically free money. The government is handing you a free % or two per annum with no associated risk

[Anonymous]

It's not that I don't know about the G fund, I just don't see an investment in the stock market funds over several decades as a risk. G makes so little over time that it doesn't pay put the same over time. In the last few years it has been good because the market was bad, but it still hasn't outperformed other investments over time.

the matching is the real benefit. Don't invest less than 5% in TSP regardless of which funds you choose.

https://www.tsp.gov/investmentfunds/returns/returnSummary.shtml

honestly the L fund solves much of thus anyway, as it's adjusted over time. I did mention the L fund in a previous post but people are so defensive of the G fund no one noticed. My husband has an MBA and my sister is a CPA, and I've taken 2 federal government financial planning courses. I'm not just jabbering. It's just my opinion. People should do whatever they wish with their own money.

[Anonymous]

I am a contractor who moves among many federal agencies. You'd have to tell your agency/department for me to tell you my impression of your staff/location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) If you want Life Insurance above the standard, get it now because Life Insurance open seasons almost never happen and you otherwise can't get one unless you submit to a physical (which can backfire in your coverage) or have a qualified life event (like a baby or a marriage). If you don't do it now, do it within 30 days of your qualified life event or your window will pass.

2) You will start and think at first that things don't work and that people are moving slow. You won't feel a commitment to your work immediately. As time passes you will start to see the value of your organization (assuming you work for a 1/2 decent organization.....which most people actually do). You will feel very committed to your "mission", but it takes time. You may work with world-class experts in particular fields. Yes, things move slowly and it's difficult to get rid of the weight of bad employees, but the good ones more than make up for it.

3) Government Employees LOVE to complain. Like most people. But you should pay attention to what they're complaining about and wait until you know what they're saying. It's sort of like "I can say that about my sister but you just met her and you can't say that".

4) Take charge of your own career. If you're interested in a rotational assignment, do it. If you have a boss that doesn't take care of you, find a new group. You are not stuck at your organization. Take training if it's offered.

5) Take pride in being resourceful. You will not get whatever you want whenever you want it. Make do with what you have and people will notice. It feels good to do it, actually.

6) Try to keep your mouth shut about political things unless you know your audience very well.

7) Don't invest in the G fund on your TSP. It's like putting your money in a sock under your bed.

8) Get ready for the barrage of people telling you you're lazy and stupid and everyone you know at work is lazy and stupid. And then wait for their job to suck and them ask you for tips on getting past USAJobs.

Good luck!

Disagree strongly on two points:

1) FEGLI is not great life insurance, you can usually do better on the private market. My advice would be skip it entirely and go to a good company like Guardian or Northwestern Mutual, etc., and get your own policy.

2) The G Fund is THE best possible money market fund you can find for the cash portion of your retirement portfolio. It has lower admin costs and a higher return than any private money market fund. Every retirement plan IMO should be diversified and never fully in or fully out of any of the funds. The G fund has an important place for a smart investor. For an example of how to diversify smartly see the TSPPilot web site (I have no affiliation other than as a paying customer for more than 10 yrs. who retired at 58 in part thanks to all the losses that their advisories helped me avoid and get steady 10% annualized return). Yes, right now, money funds are way low. That won't always be the case.

Other than these 2 pieces of bad advice the rest is pretty good.

I'd add: Max out your TSP contribution from Day 1 to get the full match and your maximum contribution. You will thank yourself when you want to retire.

[Anonymous]

I stand solid on my opinion of the G fund, but I'm interested to see what the TSPPilot is all about. I've never heard of that!

As far as Life Insurance goes, I never said they "should" get it, just that if you want to you should be aware that the open seasons are nearly never.

[Anonymous]

There is pretty good research out there (backdated) on asset allocation. Very rarely and under very few scenarios does a 100% equity allocation ever make sense. Even during secular bull markets. To simplify, you can't buy low, sell high, if you only ever carry one asset class. Even a minimal G fund holding of 5-10% allows you to sell down G fund and buy C/I if the market is doing poorly, or vice versa if the market is performing well.

And, like I said, it is free money. You should always take free money when offered, and if this gives you a little too much safety/security in your portfolio than desired, just tailor the other non-TSP parts to match.

[Anonymous]

I am the OP of this thread and I want to thank everyone who contributed to it- there is some really useful and interesting advice on here. I appreciated the comments on the different funds available, even though I am not completely familiar with these issues yet.