Federal employees have had no increase in pay for two years. We are due to get a half percent increase in March. This is bullshit as health care premiums are going up.
Dedicated Federal employees like myself are going to start looking elsewhere for work if this does not change.

Unfreeze and RIF workers and contractors. 5% reduction in headcount across the board. That should amount to 5% reduction in employees and 15% in contractors.

Welcome to the real world.

How could health care premiums be going up? Obamacare made it all better remember?

Sure, go look. I'm sure you'll have to fight off the offers. lol

I worked as a federal contractor and consultant for over 25 years. Based on my experience the federal employees were mostly lazy and worthless and would be no loss if they left. They just got in the way and all they talked about was when they would be able to retire. You are lucky to have a job that accepts that so you are lucky to still be collecting a paycheck at all.

Welcome to the real world of business.

BigK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked as a federal contractor and consultant
> for over 25 years. Based on my experience the
> federal employees were mostly lazy and worthless
> and would be no loss if they left. They just got
> in the way and all they talked about was when they
> would be able to retire. You are lucky to have a
> job that accepts that so you are lucky to still be
> collecting a paycheck at all.


How long ago was that, and what agencies did you deal with?

A lot of this idea that Govt workers are lazy is anecdotal. There definitely are more freeloaders and floaters in government, but a lot of the things the government does still gets accomplished.

I've seen a few on both sides. I've even seen lazy, incompetent contractors kept on by agencies because they just didn't get rid of people. They're usually invisible because they're placed on small projects or tasks which don't matter. It's very sad actually. I think the bigger problem is the time stealers which are rampant among both employees and contractors. DoD is probably the worst with long lunches and very early afternoon departures (offices empty by 3:30).

BigK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked as a federal contractor and consultant
> for over 25 years. Based on my experience the
> federal employees were mostly lazy and worthless
> and would be no loss if they left. They just got
> in the way and all they talked about was when they
> would be able to retire. You are lucky to have a
> job that accepts that so you are lucky to still be
> collecting a paycheck at all.


There are still some lazy ones around but there are many like myself that save the taxpayers 500 to 1000 times what we are paid each and every year.

I worked with 2 federal agencies over the years and retired 5 years ago. 90% of the government employees came in late and left early. All they cared about is when they could retire and how much they would get when they did. When they were working they were so out of touch with what was really happening around the work place. If it weren't for the contractors and consultants nothing productive would have ever happened. I agree we were well paid but we were required to really work.

BigK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked with 2 federal agencies over the years
> and retired 5 years ago. 90% of the government
> employees came in late and left early. All they
> cared about is when they could retire and how much
> they would get when they did. When they were
> working they were so out of touch with what was
> really happening around the work place. If it
> weren't for the contractors and consultants
> nothing productive would have ever happened. I
> agree we were well paid but we were required to
> really work.

Without being specific about which agencies, it's hard to judge. There are some agencies that really are just filled with total dead weight. There are other agencies that do a lot of work.

I imagine USPTO is filled with lazy people who sit around all day.

I know someone who had a contract with State and they were shocked to see one floor where everyone was just sitting around reading the newspaper. I mentioned that State kind of needs to keep up with world events and maybe they weren't all reading the same newspaper. Later on that person was glad to discover that those people were actually doing their jobs, they would write up briefs based on the day's news from around the world.

Social Security and IRS is filled with people who actually work. FAA, probably not. DOI has some parts where nobody works, other parts where they have no choice but to work (think Park Police, Park Rangers, etc).

There is no question that there is a lot of dead weight that can be cut from most or all agencies, but to say that all government workers are lazy and out of touch is just making a blanket generalization based on anecdotes and narrow observations.

I worked for Dept. of the Navy and the FBI. In both cases the feds were basically worthless.

The prevalence of contractors sometimes kills morale. I've seen it in both private and government. They assume that the consultants are paid hourly and eager to put in the overtime. All the employees are gone by 5 pm except for the managers.

BigK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked for Dept. of the Navy and the FBI. In
> both cases the feds were basically worthless.


Add DOE and EPA to that list.

At both there are some very good hard working people but the bulk are middle-level people doing needless circle jerk work and both have a ton of contractors doing the same. None of which contributes much if anything to their mission.

Lester Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The prevalence of contractors sometimes kills
> morale. I've seen it in both private and
> government. They assume that the consultants are
> paid hourly and eager to put in the overtime. All
> the employees are gone by 5 pm except for the
> managers.


I worked as a consultant and contractor for federal departments. In both cases I was paid a weekly salary not hourly. In both cases I aways worked more then 40hrs per week. The government employees almost always had to leave by 3 or 3:30 because of there car pools. We, the real workers, were the only ones to EVER see 5pm...or later depending on the workload. I have zero respect for the majority of the governments workers.

My father spent 35 years as a governement employee. When I graduated and was searching for a job he tried to push me toward a government job. I just told him,NO, I want to really work for a living.

I work for one of the OIG's in DC and 99% of the lazy deadweight employees are black and staunch Obama supporters. Just saying...

wilf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I work for one of the OIG's in DC and 99% of the
> lazy deadweight employees are black and staunch
> Obama supporters. Just saying...


My last 12 years as a contractor was at the FBI. Almost all of the government employees I worked with are very hardcore Republicans. Just saying.....

I can back BigK up on that. I was contracted to EPA. No one came in on Mondays until after 9, work started at 8. No one except the contractors worked on Friday, the EPA workers were always off on a three day weekend. I saw employees spend entire days shopping online, talking on the phone or Facebook. One guy used a government pool car at Christmas to go shopping. He bought the gifts back and wrapped them at his desk.

The supervisors were usually related by blood or marriage to someone high up in the agency. Govt regs prevented them from working directly for them but there were ways around it. The employees were lazy and worthless but they didnt bother me while I did work. They were happy to play on the computer all day or take two hour lunch breaks. The supervisors had nothing to do so they bugged me all day long with stupid questions about how things worked. Keeping in mind they were the ones in charge.

The supervisors had no desire to write employees up as the motto was and always had been "Go along to get along" and "Don't rock the boat" Most could tell you to a day when they could retire.

the federal government is a jobs program. one cunt hair away from welfare. bitch, please.

Its time to fire 25% of federal employees. No one would notice a difference.

Get a big stack of pink slips, walk by every desk at 3pm on a random Wednesday. Put one on each empty seat you see.

Federal worker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dedicated Federal employees like myself are going
> to start looking elsewhere for work if this does
> not change.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good luck with that. If you don't know it already, most contractors think that most Government workers don't do a damn thing and are at best useless. I've seen both sides, and it's true.

Seriously - you don't have a clue. If you can find a job in the private sector, you'll be working your ass off with absolutely NO job security. An entire office can come in to work in the morning and be gone by the afternoon. If your only complaint about your Government job is the pay raises, count your blessings.

At my old company, we hired some guy who came from the gov't. Eventually it came to pass that he had ONE project to work on, while I was asked to do his shit in addition to mine because I could meet deadlines. On days that he was out, I did his shit in one hour - stuff that he'd work on ALL DAMN DAY. Eventually, it pissed me off so much that I went to the owner and said basically - I'm doing this fuckhead's work for him, all of my stuff and he's getting paid more than me. Here's the proof. Is that fair?

He must have thought so because he gave me nothing. I quit 2 months later. The government guy left about a month after that and went back to the government sector. I actually heard stories from someone who knew him in his new job that he would go to the shitter every day and take a nap. What the fuck?

EDIT: I still can remember how I felt when I resigned. It felt great. My boss pleaded with me to stay, saying that I was really valuable and asking what he could do. I told him "in the future, you should probably take employee concerns seriously, especially if you feel that they are valuable to your company. I came to you 2 months ago and laid out my situation. I brought invoices, a list of projects, everything that showed you that I was doing the work of two people and making less than him and you completely dismissed me. As much as I enjoyed it here, I can't work in a place where I feel that I'm being taken advantage of."

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2012 08:00PM by Warhawk.

I like how the new pay grade system that started in 2007 didn't work out. Now they just went back to the same ol' GS system.

eesh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like how the new pay grade system that started
> in 2007 didn't work out. Now they just went back
> to the same ol' GS system.

+1 for this.

I think part of the problem was that people were always converting the new system to the old system all the time anyway. Its like English vs. Metric measurements. It doesn't matter how good the new system is, people are just used to the old one.

You make enough.

http://php.app.com/fed_employees11/search.php

I've spent time as a contractor at the FDIC, USDA, and ARNG, and it's true: most govies are lazy fucks that do nothing all day. There is always that ONE guy who works hard and seems to enjoy his job, but everyone else sits around gossiping and counting down until retirement. And it is strange, they're all hardcore democrats.

Imagine that: fat, lazy gov't workers who are democrats. Now that's one, lazy, brainwashed, out-of-touch with reality douchebag.

These people wouldn't make it a year in the real world.

Jealousy is rather unattractive y'all.