Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get all the defensiveness from the federal government workers. You should be livid about your lazy colleagues.

My DH worked for the federal government for 12 years, and by the end was supervising over 40 folks (although only 4 direct reports). He constantly complained about underachieving folks in his department and how hard it was to do anything about their lack of work ethic or get them fired. Their laziness was extremely unfair to the folks who did work hard. He felt there were only about 40% of folks in his division who were working their full hours. fWIW, his division was largely lawyers and engineers/scientists, so well paid and well educated folks who were just retired in place.

DH went back to private sector, and he believes that the federal government loses a lot of good folks who get tired of carrying the dead weight. Everyone would be better off if those folks were reported.

Wait, so you personally have no fed experience right? Also, weren’t 4 direct reports first line supervisors? If so, why was your DH supervised these ppl?

PP here - I was actually a contractor for 3 years for the DoD and now work in the non-profit sector. I also supported some terrible and lazy feds when I was a contractor, but my DH was a first line supervisor for 6 years and then division director for 2 years (and normal government employee before that) so I figured he had more perspective. When I was a contractor there was one senior administrative fed who took a nap (with his door wide open) every afternoon. We All liked him so everyone had their own way of waking him up from outside his door so we never embarrassed him by walking in on him and waking him up.

When DH was a first line supervisor he had to spend 2 years trying to get someone fired who was drinking all day on the job and had been for years. He had one employee who got the worst performance ratings and when DH talked to him about it, said he was happy being a “C+ kind of guy”. Both of these folks were highly paid and has graduate degrees. DH has many, many stories like that. I am not making this $hit up, wish I was.

There are certainly good feds, but stupid to think these lazy ones don’t exist.

Many feds work on production. It’s clear when people aren’t doing their work and the manager has a talk with them. There are consequences for most feds. Your neighbors are the outliers.

Troll post. Don't feed it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My next door Potomac neighbor, both husband and wife are Fed, both GS-15 and they are working probably less than an hour a day. Even before the pandemic, whenever they are working from hiome, they spent 90% of their working hours taking care of the flowers and trees in their yard. Now that both are working from home, they are spending about 99% of the working hours taking for the lawn and flowers. How do I know this? They told me. They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers. The contractors do the jobs for us.

Must be nice having a government job like them.

Only look in someone else’s bowl to be sure they have enough.

This post makes you look bad, OP. Try being a better person.

I love this quote. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone's engaging seriously with this obvious troll. "They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers." Very convincing.

Funny to imagine, though. If I said hi to my neighbors in the backyard and they chorused in unison "we do not work. work are for suckers" I would suspect a Conehead invasion.

While doing their gardening!

So the scene is that the (fictional) Potomac OP strolls over from his/her house on a Tuesday afternoon, approaches the (fictional) neighbors bent over their rosebushes with their clippers, gets their attention and asks, "Do you work? Or do you think work are for suckers?"

"We are Fed, both GS-15! We are working probably less than an hour a day, and are spending about 99% of the working hours taking for the lawn and flowers!"

All three laugh uproariously, while (fictional) OP mentally composes an urgent report for DCUM.

And that concludes today's episode of Troll Story Theatre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone's engaging seriously with this obvious troll. "They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers." Very convincing.

Funny to imagine, though. If I said hi to my neighbors in the backyard and they chorused in unison "we do not work. work are for suckers" I would suspect a Conehead invasion.

While doing their gardening!

So the scene is that the (fictional) Potomac OP strolls over from his/her house on a Tuesday afternoon, approaches the (fictional) neighbors bent over their rosebushes with their clippers, gets their attention and asks, "Do you work? Or do you think work are for suckers?"

I know one too! I was asking about how to manage job and kids school and her agency just has them working 4 hours a day! WTF? The job, FWIW, doesn't really need to exist at all IMO.

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone's engaging seriously with this obvious troll. "They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers." Very convincing.

It sounds like a troll but to be honest, I can recall playing golf with a couple of guys like this who happened to work for Commerce (I won't name the subagency). They were discussing how many contractors they had working on their grant proposals and how easy it was for the Feds overseeing this. I'm a GS-15 fed and I found it appalling because my position is nothing like that. It has real deliverables and deadlines, many of which have increased post-pandemic. My DH is also GS-15 Fed at DOJ and has been working as hard (both pre and post pandemic) as when my DH was at a top law firm. Both of us could easily be making more money in the private sector but continue to chose government for the mission/sense of purpose and the interesting work.

I can believe that there are Feds out there depending on the agency and position. Usually it's a combination of a bad hiring decision, seniority and nebulous job responsibilities. In my experience, I saw the same thing happen in the private sector (it's just that usually wasn't as tolerated for as long).

Work honestly is for suckers. And I say that as a working person.

I’m not sure about your neighbours, OP, but many jobs become less hands on as you go up the rankings. If their job is honestly to just manage the contractors, then it may not take all day, every day. These are jobs that get paid for when things go wrong, and if they are efficiently managing things when they’re going smoothly, it doesn’t take that much grunt time. It’s not their job to “do” - it’s their job to make sure that things are getting done and follow up when it’s not.

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone's engaging seriously with this obvious troll. "They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers." Very convincing.

Funny to imagine, though. If I said hi to my neighbors in the backyard and they chorused in unison "we do not work. work are for suckers" I would suspect a Conehead invasion.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get all the defensiveness from the federal government workers. You should be livid about your lazy colleagues.

My DH worked for the federal government for 12 years, and by the end was supervising over 40 folks (although only 4 direct reports). He constantly complained about underachieving folks in his department and how hard it was to do anything about their lack of work ethic or get them fired. Their laziness was extremely unfair to the folks who did work hard. He felt there were only about 40% of folks in his division who were working their full hours. fWIW, his division was largely lawyers and engineers/scientists, so well paid and well educated folks who were just retired in place.

DH went back to private sector, and he believes that the federal government loses a lot of good folks who get tired of carrying the dead weight. Everyone would be better off if those folks were reported.

Where do you work?

My mom is a fed researcher. She's working and has always works a ton including research. I work with a ton of defense feds and 99% are hard working and stretched thin and get results. I don't waste my time on the other 1%.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get all the defensiveness from the federal government workers. You should be livid about your lazy colleagues.

My DH worked for the federal government for 12 years, and by the end was supervising over 40 folks (although only 4 direct reports). He constantly complained about underachieving folks in his department and how hard it was to do anything about their lack of work ethic or get them fired. Their laziness was extremely unfair to the folks who did work hard. He felt there were only about 40% of folks in his division who were working their full hours. fWIW, his division was largely lawyers and engineers/scientists, so well paid and well educated folks who were just retired in place.

DH went back to private sector, and he believes that the federal government loses a lot of good folks who get tired of carrying the dead weight. Everyone would be better off if those folks were reported.

Wait, so you personally have no fed experience right? Also, weren’t 4 direct reports first line supervisors? If so, why was your DH supervised these ppl?

I can't believe anyone's engaging seriously with this obvious troll. "They both said: we do not work. work are for suckers." Very convincing.

Thank you so much to all of the PP who are posting about the crazy hours they and/or their spouses are working in service to our country. For any instance of “good enough for government work” you can find countless dedicated public service officers who are pouring excessive “extra” time into maintaining our democracy. A strong civil service is what keeps our country going, as we successfully change leadership every 4-8 yrs according to the votes of our people. Government work is so much more than “just a paycheck.” It really is service to our nation. Thank you.