Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If most Americans have a negative view of Fed workers, there must be some bit of truth to it.

I only have experience with IT side of things and it is utterly dysfunctional process wise which allows a lot of people to get paid without getting any real work done.

Uh, no. The majority of people can think the world is flat, that doesn't mean there's some bit of truth to it.

People's views on Feds come from their general dislike of taxes and rules, their random non-Fed experiences waiting in line at the DMV or trying to get a building permit for their deck, and whatever they half-understand from the news. That's how you get poll results that say things like "80% of Americans think there should be more oversight of government purchasing" on the same page as "80% of Americans think government purchasing is too slow."

Almost all surveys and estimates put the number of Americans who believe the earth to be flat under 10% and most under 3%.

Maybe among Fed co-workers this might be 80%?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s usually jealousy.

Oh, honey, no. That’s just what your mom told you to make you feel better when the other girls were being “mean” to you in middle school: “They’re just jealous!” You were supposed to grow out of believing it long before you became an adult.

I appreciate the apt comparison to MS girls.

And as a parent of a MS girl, I assure you it's always either jealousy or insecurity (or both). Classic "hating on someone else makes me feel stronger" thinking.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone linked this thread yet?

To answer OP; this is why:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/773851.page

Most Feds aren't furloughed and what do you expect the ones who are to do? It's not their fault they are not allowed to come to work.

Anonymous wrote:It’s usually jealousy.

Oh, honey, no. That’s just what your mom told you to make you feel better when the other girls were being “mean” to you in middle school: “They’re just jealous!” You were supposed to grow out of believing it long before you became an adult.

Anonymous wrote:If most Americans have a negative view of Fed workers, there must be some bit of truth to it.

I only have experience with IT side of things and it is utterly dysfunctional process wise which allows a lot of people to get paid without getting any real work done.

Uh, no. The majority of people can think the world is flat, that doesn't mean there's some bit of truth to it.

People's views on Feds come from their general dislike of taxes and rules, their random non-Fed experiences waiting in line at the DMV or trying to get a building permit for their deck, and whatever they half-understand from the news. That's how you get poll results that say things like "80% of Americans think there should be more oversight of government purchasing" on the same page as "80% of Americans think government purchasing is too slow."

If most Americans have a negative view of Fed workers, there must be some bit of truth to it.

I only have experience with IT side of things and it is utterly dysfunctional process wise which allows a lot of people to get paid without getting any real work done.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone linked this thread yet?

To answer OP; this is why:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/773851.page

That’s a troll sock puppet pretending to be a Fed. Anyone vacationing in Miami and no mortgage on GS14 obv is made up or had a trust fund. Nothing in their post is relevant to being a Fed employee. Most are fearful of no backpay and how to pay mortgage

A lot of it is because we’ve let corporations and companies abuse workers. And all these abused private sector workers didn’t want to hear about feds who had nice jobs.

We need a revamp of unions but different. Unions cost way too much money and blocked too many things. Our Fed unions were a disaster. They were always on the side of the lazy employee.

Has anyone linked this thread yet?

To answer OP; this is why:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/773851.page

Anonymous wrote:Missing from the discussion is why civil servants have protection unlike commercial employees. Commercial companies are created and operated to make a profit. Generating a profit is the sole goal of the CEO. If the CEO cannot increase revenue; s/he must reduce costs. Government has a different mandate and Congress moved away from the “spoil system” of rewarding political donors with federal jobs. They did this to create an efficient workforce that is isolated from the political apparatus. The civil service has served both Republican and Democratic administrations to implement administrative policies. The Trump administration did not like to be told that their policies interfered with laws/regulations so Trump ratcheted up the war on civil servants begun decades ago by the Nixon and Reagan administrations.

I will add that the agencies I have worked for have been dealing with dwindling budgets for a while. We are operating on a shoestring budget and with persistent openings on my team because commercial pays dramatically better. We fire people if they can’t perform because we cannot carry dead weight. This was the case at all three different agencies. Given what is happening, it is unlikely we will ever be able to hire those positions.

Same with my agency. However, firing has gotten increasingly hard and we have no guarantee that we’ll be able to fill that FTE if we fire. So some managers are keeping bad employees around because an employee doing 50% is better than a vacancy who can’t do any work. Hiring and firing has become such a mess.

As someone who was in the private sector government contracting for over 30 years, I respected most of my Fed clients. They were diligent public servants. A handful of my clients during my time were horrible. Treated the private sector with disdain. Thought we made a ton more money. Made comments at meetings with Feds from their agency/dept. and other Feds that Feds needed to watch government contractors very closely as "we are their to steal from the government." It's like me saying "well I pay for your salary with my taxes."

Most Fed workers went directly from school to their Fed job and never worked in the private sector. They had a safe and secure job. Hard to fire those underperformers, and they knew they had a job for life. That doesn't happen in the private sector. We are at-will employees. We don't have a union. We don't have pensions. Don't have healthcare for life after we retire.

What is happening to Fed workers now is horrible! This is not the way to make Fed government more efficient. Change the laws and policies to make the government run more efficiently.

I am retired now. Got out last November after the election, as I saw this coming. Feds are being furloughed, and contractors are being fired as Fed contracts are being cut. It's going to get worse.

What's funny (and sad) at the same time is I saw a recent post on LinkedIn by one of my recently retired former FED clients (one of the ones who despised government contractors) looking for side-consulting FED work. This person was a FED for 35 years!

F him!

Missing from the discussion is why civil servants have protection unlike commercial employees. Commercial companies are created and operated to make a profit. Generating a profit is the sole goal of the CEO. If the CEO cannot increase revenue; s/he must reduce costs. Government has a different mandate and Congress moved away from the “spoil system” of rewarding political donors with federal jobs. They did this to create an efficient workforce that is isolated from the political apparatus. The civil service has served both Republican and Democratic administrations to implement administrative policies. The Trump administration did not like to be told that their policies interfered with laws/regulations so Trump ratcheted up the war on civil servants begun decades ago by the Nixon and Reagan administrations.

I will add that the agencies I have worked for have been dealing with dwindling budgets for a while. We are operating on a shoestring budget and with persistent openings on my team because commercial pays dramatically better. We fire people if they can’t perform because we cannot carry dead weight. This was the case at all three different agencies. Given what is happening, it is unlikely we will ever be able to hire those positions.

Anonymous wrote:I’m hating on the politicians who get an entire year to finalize a budget but fail. Local and state govt also prepare fiscal year budgets but they always find a way. The us congress members, and more particularly the leadership are the true losers!!

But but according to pp the politicians are the ones who are “accountable!”

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think there is a pervasive nihilism where like 40% of the working population are losers in life and blame their problems on anyone but themselves. Immigrants, government workers you name it.

They have given up on trying to get ahead and now are happy just to bring others down to their miserable level.

This is the answer.

I’m hating on the politicians who get an entire year to finalize a budget but fail. Local and state govt also prepare fiscal year budgets but they always find a way. The us congress members, and more particularly the leadership are the true losers!!