- Mar 27, 2012
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You make a case for improving the pay and benefits for SOME Federal Workers.It’s easy to bash federal workers and use the worst abuses to define the entire workforce but many are unpolitical professionals including scientists, foreign policy experts etc who work hard to make systems run smoothly so we aren’t even aware of it. For example, the career civil service that collects and organizes data for briefings, does all the groundwork for an international event, makes sure that the political appointees do not commit any major faux pas, and that is just in the foreign service.
While I get that there are abuses in the system, I don’t think people realize that a) these are people like any people with a job to do and a family to feed, working all around the country and b) you are most likely a beneficiary of their work without even realizing it. In an era when Congress is incompetent and gridlocked and partisan, these people manage to keep things running in spite of it.
Teleworking, from an employers point of view, can often save money in maintenance or rental physical space, utilities, etc. for jobs that aren’t dependent on a physical presence. So…why bash that?
The other thing is that every tine they get an increase…people bitch. But their salary, particularly in upper level professional fields, is not competing with the private sector and in fact, the pay gap is widening.
In recent years, data comparing federal government and private sector compensation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics had indicated that the gap has slowly trended downward, with federal workers earning 22.47% less on average than private sector workers in similar jobs in 2021. But this year, the pay disparity spiked to 24.09%.
It’s easy to point to the abuses and waste in the system, and we all likely know of some examples. When I worked at NASA, 34 years ago, the director of our unit, a political appointee, was a complete buffoon who played video games on his computer during work. Being a political appointee, there wasn’t much you could do about it and it was thanks to the professionals under him, who were serious about their mission, that things got done.
The other thing many don’t realize is that many of the rules that make it hard to fire civil servants also means it is harder to fire people for political reasons and replace them with political people every time a new administration comes into power. Imagine the loss of expertise and institutional and project memory that would be lost and have to be rebuilt every four years? ( and btw, I don’t believe in the Deep State crap…it’s an excuse completely politicize the civil service).
All that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues to address, but they deserve a pay raise like any other professional and when you have such a pay gap, you struggle to attract good people. It shouldn’t be pitched as a Social Security vs Federal Workers issue either. Both need increases and it isn’t a zero sum equation.
But that does nothing for the thousands and thousands of useless, corrupt and worthless Fed Workers that simply get in the way.
When you find a nest of Rats do you try to determine which ones are good rats and which are the bad rats? When you have to clear a Hornet's nest do you try to separate the stinger-less drones from the dangerous ones?
Better yet -- Can you?
Yes, there are some wonderful people working for the Federal goobermint. Dedicated, selfless, caring, etc.
Then there's people like Fauci
But overall, collectively...... They suck. With the EPA being the absolute worst of the worst or the worst. And the FBI being right behind them. The IRS? They're a real treasure, huh?
Your words are compelling but they are wasted trying to save Federal Workers. Collectively, the worst Rats' Nest on the Planet