Federal pension jealousy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly for me, someone mid 50s who has been laid off twice, my jealousy of government employees is all about the stability and relative lack of worry about job security. Also, those jobs seem to value longer careers and experience more than private sector ones.

I'm a federal employee and saw people being fired, so there's no job security in the government. Both fired employees were long in the government ( 10 years+).

As compared to the private sector, yea there is. It’s pretty hard to fire a fed. You need cause to do it, whereas private sector employment is at will. Just because it happens doesn’t mean it’s easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are fed pensions a set amount for life? Or a 401k fund?

I am a full time Federal employee who will get no pension.

People tend not to believe me, but I am on the AD (rather than GS or SES ) pay scale…and that is how it was set up at my agency.

So even as a Fed, I am jealous of people with access to a pension, TSP, etc.

Who's on the AD pay scale?

Professionals like PhD’s and lawyers. They don’t necessarily supervise underlings, but command a higher salary due to their expertise.

[Anonymous]

AD stands for “administratively administered.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly for me, someone mid 50s who has been laid off twice, my jealousy of government employees is all about the stability and relative lack of worry about job security. Also, those jobs seem to value longer careers and experience more than private sector ones.

I'm a federal employee and saw people being fired, so there's no job security in the government.

You saw them being fired like they were called into the boss’s office one fine day and immediately marched out by security?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 48 years old in private industry and have a pension with 25 years worth of service contributions. Looks like I can start receiving pension payments in the amount of $9K per month at the age of 55. Are federal pensions significantly higher than this? I also have $2.9M in my IRA and another $1.3M in my 403b.

It depends. My pension will be 50k a year but my DH’s will be 150k (at a finreg agency at top of pay scale with many years of service).

How does the math work for that $280 * .01 * 30 is $84k. Is some agency giving 2%? Paying $600k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a federal government pension, do you get nasty talk from neighbors or family about it? For example, do they say that their tax dollars are supporting you. Or, the pension is too rich?

If so, do you try to explain your years of service, lower-than-private pay, and monetary contributions toward your pension? Do these arguments make a difference?

No, I simply don't waste my time replying

[Anonymous]

My family was jealous that I started at the Fed right out of college and started saving immediately. The pension is great and so is the healthcare benefits. No higher degree and I’m almost at 180k/year. The 10 years I was saving while my family was going to get doctorates is what set me ahead.

[Anonymous]

Federal salaries and pensions were something to talk about during the Great Recession. A lot of jealousy due to their perceived safety during scary times.

Since that time, the private sector has blown it out of the water. My salary and benefits couldn’t be duplicated in the government since around 2012.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a non-profit, so arguably, really serving--not faux "public service" that government employees claim. So I probably make less and do not get a pension. So please spare me the "years of public service." We're all working hard, so there's no argument there. You are not changing the world, and you didn't go into government work to make the world a better place, you did it for security, the fact that it's nearly impossible to get fired, and for the pension. Public service. Please.

Honestly I feel the same way.

If you were in the military, you served.

If you’re a 100% remote non-sup GS15 who’s spent 20 years with the U.S. govt, I’m not convinced that you spent your career “serving the public.” Most Feds I know are bored at work and stick around for flexibility and security.

But either way you’ve earned your pension so I won’t begrudge you!

I'm a fed who is bored at work and have stuff cuz around for the security and pension, and I still think what I do is public service.

I'm a structural engineer with now 20+ years of technical expertise. In the private sector I would make double what I make for the fed, plus years of bonuses. What I do is essential and I'm good at it, even if at this stage I'm bored and don't feel that passionate about it anymore.

So why not quit and go where you’re worth?

[Anonymous]

I never say it out loud but I see their points.

It’s not envy. It’s resentment.

You were paid fairly for your work if you worked for a federal agency. What makes you think you could have earned more in a private company? Did you receive actual private company offers and turned them down repeatedly?

Just don’t engage in the conversation and eventually they will move on. Don’t get your feathers ruffled so easily either. That’s a fairly tame opinion compared to the judgement that gets heaped on me by extended family and I don’t have any pension at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am more jealous of your healthcare options in retirement, but not mad at you. I just want similar options.

Same. We could afford to retire in our mid 50’s too if we could just have consistent access to feasibly priced healthcare.

This. Not to speak ill of the recently deceased, but this is Joe Lieberman's doing.

[Anonymous]

I'm happy that my siblings, friends, and neighbors are getting good pensions in their retirement. Why would I begrudge them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a non-profit, so arguably, really serving--not faux "public service" that government employees claim. So I probably make less and do not get a pension. So please spare me the "years of public service." We're all working hard, so there's no argument there. You are not changing the world, and you didn't go into government work to make the world a better place, you did it for security, the fact that it's nearly impossible to get fired, and for the pension. Public service. Please.

You want to repeat that to my husband at NIH, who has worked on cancer, Alzheimer's and cardio-vascular disease? Researchers who don't work 9-5, because their living model organisms do not replicate, die and give birth 9-5? Researchers who work weekends, nights, according to the requirements of the experiment?

When you or a loved one falls sick with a dread disease, bear in mind you criticized the people who identified key pathways and discovered life-saving treatments and medications.

Shame on you.

Cool it. There's a lot of truth to what the poster said. I deal with fed employees all the time. The vast majority are dull bureaucrats and barely competent. It takes them four times as long to do something than in the private sector. Sure, there's some great NIH researchers but that's a tiny minority of Fed employees, who are mostly pushing paper from one end of the desk to the other and postponing deadlines.

If you can nab a GS-13/14 at 120k a year for life without working very hard (or hard at all), it's not a bad way to coast through life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm happy that my siblings, friends, and neighbors are getting good pensions in their retirement. Why would I begrudge them?

Seriously. For me, it's the same as people who started working for a startup that became very successful right out of college. Good for them!

[Anonymous]

Because she’s govt workers are scammers and make the rest look bad.

My daughters old public School superintendent of school district retired one school district with a 500k a year pension and went to our school district for bargain price of 400k a year and her husband was a retired principal with a 300k pension.

Her greed is what public sees not the other thousands of low paid hard working
Govt retirees.

My BIL is in a non govt union with equal good benefits. But you need to do 40 years to get full benefits and can’t collect till 65.

Govt should do that