Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

I am a non sup GS 15 and if i head back to the private sector I will also get paid twice as much but have 4 times as much work and 6 times as much stress. Mediocrity has its benefits

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent 16 years as a federal supervisor. It was a challenge. It was hard to reward/retain great employees and near impossible to get rid of bad ones.

This is the main reason it’s “hard.” There is underpay, tons of incapable freeloaders, and bad management everywhere.

However I wouldn’t compare the claim that it’s “harder” than a private sector management job. Those are very hard I’d imagine but for the stress of P&L, less job security, board politics, somewhat similar hiring & laying off decisions, need for relocation, etc. reasons.

Quite different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

Anonymous wrote:I spent 16 years as a federal supervisor. It was a challenge. It was hard to reward/retain great employees and near impossible to get rid of bad ones.

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

What's your speciality?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

all this. I was a GS15 with cyber pay and it was the worst job I ever had.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A non-supervisory GS-15 in the Fed is the holy grail of positions.

But after nearly 40 years in the Fed, OP is absolutely right. Non-sups generally have it gravy (that's where I fall), but Supervisors have their hands tied behind their backs because they can't do anything about poor performers. ER will pay you lip service, "put them on a PIP", but to outright fire someone, they have to get caught looking at porn on their work computer, come to work repeatedly under the influence of something, and bring a loaded gun to the workplace. Those are the only examples I've seen.

We've had employees threaten supervisors, stalk supervisors, get into physical fights with coworkers, literally fall asleep at their desk repeatedly, be working a second job on the job, sit in the lobby for hours watching the TV, you name it. We've just either shipped them off to another office, or hoped they'd retire as soon as they were eligible. Supervisors are terrified of officially-filed grievances, which are a nightmare and upper management gives little support and just wants them settled.

And now, post-pandemic, you can't even get staff to come into the office. Where I am it's 90% fully remote. We have a people who have moved to locations like Florida, but keep their house in the DMV and rent it out, so they can still get the DMV pay. Or just never change their address, because who is going to know?

I don't know how you tolerate it. I was a non-sup GS-15 with special pay scale. The unicorn. But I couldn't stand being surrounded by the mediocrity you describe. So I'm headed back to the private sector, back into a leadership position where I know I'll thrive and get paid more than twice as much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand government employees. I always hear it’s so hard to get employed by the government, but 99% of the time I interact with employees at the DMV or Medicaid or customer service lines I’m struck by how slow they are. Who is hiring these people?

Your DMV and Medicaid customer service are not run by the federal government, which is the topic of this thread. They are run by your state government. In the case of Medicaid, the call center you’re reaching is probably staffed by employees of a private contractor.

Federal government, state government. Same issues. This is still the government.