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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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

This would be exceptionally rare and unusual in the private sector.[/quote]

This is laughable. Have you ever worked in a law firm? I am a fed and I spent 10+ years in the private sector. Incompetence is plenty everywhere. I’ve seen (and still see from across the table) attorneys who bill hundreds of hours for complete shit work. People get paid for doing nothing all the time and people get paid for doing a lot of crappy work all the time.[/quote]

+1. I spent 10 years in the private sector in giant corporations that are every bit as bureaucratic as the government. They also have people who barely work and skate by. There was one woman who spent 1 hour a week updating a spreadsheet and just hung out the rest of the week. But her spreadsheet was the only record of an entire P&L for the company and was so illegible only she could decipher it, so her job was secure. [/quote]

I've worked both in private and Fed jobs. There are slackers everywhere. But Fed certainly enables it much more easily than in the private sector, where layoffs are frequent and culls of low performers happens all the time. People wanted Fed jobs because of the security and promise of a pension. The Feds I worked with all openly admitted it. They willingly accepted lower salaries (historically) in exchange for security and no fears of being pushed out at 55.

The Fed efficiency isn't great either. I've seen many paper pushing jobs, even at the G13 levels. Big corp isn't immune to this either but these roles are ruthlessly scrutinized when there's a tightening of belts. I've lived through mass layoffs and it was brutal. Very few Feds have that experience. [/quote]

Your mistake is equating private sector layoffs with culling poor performers. That is not what layoffs are. They do not target poor performers and are often done for reasons unrelated to actual efficiency.

Feds will talk about wanting security from layoffs, from age discrimination, from the company closing. Not about security from being fired for poor work. And the accountability required on the federal side is much higher, in terms of working when you say you are, spending only what you are allowed, etc.

As a side note, I don't understand the repeated mention of "paper pushing" on this thread. Government programs and funds are documented, and records of government activities are preserved and made public, because of the public accountability required. What is the "paper pushing" you think shouldn't happen? Reports required by Congress, maybe, but our hands are tied there. [/quote]

I don’t know where you work - private or fed but you are naive.  In my 30 years of  senior mgmt roles in private sector, layoffs always target poor performers and/or trouble makers.   It’s house cleaning of sorts under the guise of an RIF and a few companies I worked for it was a matter of usual business.  We were not stupid enough to cut our own throats by “riffing” high performers. We worked around star performers and always found a landing for them. [/quote]

High performer actually leave for better paid roles. Juniors leave every 1-2 years, MDs leave every 5-8 years.

Unless someone is absolutely non-productive, we don’t jump to fire someone right away. And I work in an extremely competitive field.[/quote]

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