I was in your situation two years ago, 7 years into my federal career, and this is what I'd say:

- even when you're being promoted to manage your own office, being a manager is a completely different job than the SME job you have currently. Personally, I was interested in the promotion because I was bored with my SME job. The supervisory job has it's ups and downs, but it has been a new professional challenge, which has been satisfying.

- being a manager requires a completely different skill set than being a subject matter expert. Your SME experience is secondary, and may be - depending on your office - significantly less relevant than you think. You might want to talk with hiring manager or other managers at your level to learn more about the skills that are needed to be a good manager.

- being a manager entails dealing with people and their problems, even when you have very high performing staff. I have no low performers on my team, and yet I swear to god, being a manager is like parenting children who come to you to fix every little problem that they have.

- does the job set you up for the long term career trajectory that you want? my promotion puts me in line to be the SES over my office, likely within the next 15 years. I'm actually worried that I will get railroaded into the position just because that's the way my agency works. At this time, I don't want a promotion beyond my current position.

- don't take the job for the money. that would be foolish because the pay difference is nominal. Even the little pay bump if I did get the SES position isn't enough to be worth it (in my opinion).

- as the manager, you set the culture for the office. you do the hiring, you control the quality of the training, you are the one who is responsible for working with lower performers to improve their performance.

- how reasonable is the chain of command above you? first line supervision sucks if your chain of command has unreasonable expectations and will not support you if you find you recommend pushing back on unreasonable expectations - especially in the federal gov't where every office I see if short staffed. if the people above you will never say no to their leadership, you will likely find yourself frustrated and unhappy with the position. I actually like being a manager but from what I hear from others at my level in my agency, I absolutely would not do this job for a problematic chain of command. If you're on the fence about the promotion, don't take it if you don't think your chain of command is unreasonable.

- likewise, do you actually like your chain of command? Do you think they make reasonable decisions? You will work closely with these people, and they will become your new professional peers (because the people you used to work alongside will no longer be your friends after you become their manager).

- I personally don't work many more hours than I did before becoming a supervisor. Typically 40 hours a week, with some crunch periods here and there where I work a couple of extra hours a week to wrap up an urgent project. But that's a boundary I establish and enforce myself, so if you aren't great with boundaries, your work hours will probably creep up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-supervisory, capped 14-10 here and hell no I wouldn’t trade it for a supervisory GS-15. But unlike the OP, my retirement is much sooner (3-5 years).

NP here. My spouse is a non-supervisory tech 14-8 and also has no interest in a supervisory GS-15. But then, my spouse is also due to retire in the next 3-5 years. In 5 years, they will reach max retirement, so that is the goal, but they are already qualified to retire at any time.

Your sounds like Retirement in Place(RIP) already.

Nope. Far from it.

My spouse is the most productive person in their division. They are the SME on multiple systems and knows the most about those systems. Three of those systems still rely on documentation that my spouse wrote and the current caretakers of those systems still rope my spouse in to help when they are beyond their own knowledge. My spouse frequently gets new assignments dumped on them and then goes to the higher-up management saying which of these other priority projects on my plate are supposed to be deferred while I work on new priority. And they always respond that my spouse is too overloaded and they need to redistribute the work to other project staff. But it doesn't happen. It just got worse. Another guy who was similar to my spouse just retired and some of his work was dumped on my spouse as well because they are the only one who can pick up the ball without a couple of weeks of ramp up time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was hired under the CARES act so am GS14/15 equivalent but am non-supervisory with a starting salary of $220K. From these posts it sounds like the best of both worlds. I am almost ashamed to say I am also on a flexible schedule. My only question is about career path and whether to aim for promotion ever and if not whether I will feel restless.

Is this unicorn job even real? Starting at 220K? What is the cap?

Read the CARES act. It's in there.

Anonymous wrote:I was hired under the CARES act so am GS14/15 equivalent but am non-supervisory with a starting salary of $220K. From these posts it sounds like the best of both worlds. I am almost ashamed to say I am also on a flexible schedule. My only question is about career path and whether to aim for promotion ever and if not whether I will feel restless.

Is this unicorn job even real? Starting at 220K? What is the cap?

Anonymous wrote:I was hired under the CARES act so am GS14/15 equivalent but am non-supervisory with a starting salary of $220K. From these posts it sounds like the best of both worlds. I am almost ashamed to say I am also on a flexible schedule. My only question is about career path and whether to aim for promotion ever and if not whether I will feel restless.

what agency?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-supervisory, capped 14-10 here and hell no I wouldn’t trade it for a supervisory GS-15. But unlike the OP, my retirement is much sooner (3-5 years).

NP here. My spouse is a non-supervisory tech 14-8 and also has no interest in a supervisory GS-15. But then, my spouse is also due to retire in the next 3-5 years. In 5 years, they will reach max retirement, so that is the goal, but they are already qualified to retire at any time.

Your sounds like Retirement in Place(RIP) already.

What a judgmental response.

PP could be right. There are a lot of Feds at 14/15 spots that don't care before retiring. Taking it easy and sucking up the $ss as long as they could. This does not bring enthusiasm in the rest of the team and the next guy probably would do the same thing till he retires.

I was hired under the CARES act so am GS14/15 equivalent but am non-supervisory with a starting salary of $220K. From these posts it sounds like the best of both worlds. I am almost ashamed to say I am also on a flexible schedule. My only question is about career path and whether to aim for promotion ever and if not whether I will feel restless.

The real question is do you want to be a leader in government. It's not for everyone. Unfortunately the government is full of people in leadership positions who only pursued them for money or ego.

If you want to be a leader in government then go for it. If not please don't.

I was offered the opportunity but turned it down. In my case I have small children and am the default parent. It's a work/life balance calculation and it just did not seem worth it to me. Another major reason is that I know how much administrative work is involved in being a manager. Some people don't mind it, some people grumble but get it done. Me? I actively hate it. It's not part of my strength at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-supervisory, capped 14-10 here and hell no I wouldn’t trade it for a supervisory GS-15. But unlike the OP, my retirement is much sooner (3-5 years).

NP here. My spouse is a non-supervisory tech 14-8 and also has no interest in a supervisory GS-15. But then, my spouse is also due to retire in the next 3-5 years. In 5 years, they will reach max retirement, so that is the goal, but they are already qualified to retire at any time.

Your sounds like Retirement in Place(RIP) already.

What a judgmental response.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-supervisory, capped 14-10 here and hell no I wouldn’t trade it for a supervisory GS-15. But unlike the OP, my retirement is much sooner (3-5 years).

NP here. My spouse is a non-supervisory tech 14-8 and also has no interest in a supervisory GS-15. But then, my spouse is also due to retire in the next 3-5 years. In 5 years, they will reach max retirement, so that is the goal, but they are already qualified to retire at any time.

Your sounds like Retirement in Place(RIP) already.

Anonymous wrote:Non-supervisory, capped 14-10 here and hell no I wouldn’t trade it for a supervisory GS-15. But unlike the OP, my retirement is much sooner (3-5 years).

NP here. My spouse is a non-supervisory tech 14-8 and also has no interest in a supervisory GS-15. But then, my spouse is also due to retire in the next 3-5 years. In 5 years, they will reach max retirement, so that is the goal, but they are already qualified to retire at any time.

OP here. Thank you for the thoughtful replies. I realized my original post sounds like I’m mostly considering the money but I appreciate those who have highlighted that supervisory positions provide leadership opportunities. This is what I wrestle with— the fact that I enjoy the mission of my agency, I like working with people, and feel like leading would be motivating for me. I have to weigh that against the downsides. Also, I can totally see a scenario where a new administration comes in and cancels telework for supervisors.

Anonymous wrote:The only reason to advance to GS15/SES is because you are strategizing for an external private exit where that added experience will bolster you chances of being hired.

You can get hired as a good GS-14/15 too. It is not that big of a deal.

Anonymous wrote:I would rather have a side hustle than be a supervisor.

What can you do as a Fed? I am not talking about working at Home Depot or driving uber but something that uses more intellect.