Anonymous wrote:What union?

NFFE, NTEU, and AFGE, for example.

This happens in private practice, too - I know from experience.

I would be surprised to see that it today's business model. Big law (at least) has gotten a lot leaner, with partners losing equity status and even given the boot if they aren't carrying their weight. The days of making partner and coasting are long gone, and for associated, they work their butts off without ceasing. Most support staff positions are being consolidated with assistants taking on more attorneys. All we are seeing is a trend for producing more, and doing it more efficiently.

Anonymous wrote:

There is dead wood in any organization. In my agency it tends to be in the support staff area because computer programs allow attorneys to do much of what staff used to do.

Then we need to cut the dead wood. The private sector is gettng leaner and meaner and the feds need to establish basic business practices. In my former agency, we certainly had our fair share of minimally effective support staff, but we has some of the laziest attorneys I have ever encountered (I was privileged to share an office with the snorer and the talker). I figured it was about a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 split. 1/3 were the best, brightest and hardest workers I have encountered, 1/3 were average, run of the mill employees, but 1/3 were the laziest, least efficient parasites on in the working world--a product of knowing it was nearly impossible to get fired.

The federal employment system needs an overhaul.

This happens in private practice, too - I know from experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public workers have it good. A strong union, very little chance of job loss, great benefits. Private sector cant find jobs let alone a pay freeze yet Fedsworkers won't be asked to sacrifice like the rest of the economy. What hypocrisy.

Not a Fed employee and I am not only in favor of a continued pay freeze, I think many govt. agencies could indiscriminately cut every third employee and the job could still be done. It seems to me, from DCUM, that women, in particular, only want to work for the Feds because they are "family friendkly" and they can take off whenever they feel like it, "work from home" while they run errands. The pay freeze should continue until unemployment is under 5% and the economy is rolling.

Do you get that one of the reasons that unemployment is so GD high right now is BECAUSE government isn't hiring? Private industry is doing relatively fine right now - it's gov't payrolls that are dragging down the averages. See http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm (oh - and that's the bureau of labor statistics - another federal worker probably provided that info). Employment everywhere is trending up - EXCEPT government which is still trending down - and has been since 2008. Do you realize "fedsworker" jobs includes military? R&D NIH researchers finding the next cure for everything and anything? Do you realize that if all the fed workers eligible for retirement actually retired the brain drain would be staggering? http://federaldaily.com/blogs/gov-careers/2011/12/retirement-is-it-time-to-run-for-the-hills.aspx

There is dead wood in any organization. In my agency it tends to be in the support staff area because computer programs allow attorneys to do much of what staff used to do.

Then we need to cut the dead wood. The private sector is gettng leaner and meaner and the feds need to establish basic business practices. In my former agency, we certainly had our fair share of minimally effective support staff, but we has some of the laziest attorneys I have ever encountered (I was privileged to share an office with the snorer and the talker). I figured it was about a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 split. 1/3 were the best, brightest and hardest workers I have encountered, 1/3 were average, run of the mill employees, but 1/3 were the laziest, least efficient parasites on in the working world--a product of knowing it was nearly impossible to get fired.

The federal employment system needs an overhaul.

jsteele wrote:
Why are the top three wealthiest counties in the US located here in the DC area?

Well the smallest counties are in the East Coast
Orange County is huge. Includes many millionaire zip codes and also the city slum
So it is obvious that the wealthiest counties would be the smaller ones and therefore in the East Coast. But that statistic is so misleading. I say forget about it

Anonymous wrote:Of course the ONE question that no one on this board will ever ask is why the top three wealthiest counties in the US are located here in the DC area.

C'mon - that's not the ONLY one. For example, I would never ask, "Where can find your collected writings?"

Anonymous wrote:
Of course the ONE question that no one on this board will ever ask is why the top three wealthiest counties in the US are located here in the DC area.

Why are the top three wealthiest counties in the US located here in the DC area?

A lot of those down trodden federal workers live right here in N. VA. The same N. VA that has the top three wealthiest counties in the US:

#1 City of Falls Church, VA
#2 Loundoun County, VA
#3 Fairfax County, VA

Of course those federal workers need pay raises. How else can they afford to live here?

Of course the ONE question that no one on this board will ever ask is why the top three wealthiest counties in the US are located here in the DC area.

Do you also realize that the entire discretionary portion of the federal government is only 12% of the total. We could cancel the whole thing..every employee and expense and we would still have a deficit problem if we don't change entitlements. This is just a popular distraction used by lawmakers..it will not fix things.

The old federal government pension system was very generous. While there are still many people in the government who fall under that old system (mostly Baby-Boomers) there are many of us who don't. We have a very, very modest pension system and what is like a bad 401K plan. A hugh cost to the government is paying the retirement benefits those employees who receive the old generous pension benefits. The money we are paying into the pension system is being used to fund the pensions paid out under the old system. The idea that federal employees get great benefits is outdated. We don't. The benefits are good, but they are not any better than those someone at a large company would receive. I think it is unfair to continue to freeze the wages of the current workforce so the the debts owed to the prior workforce can be paid.