DGS49
Diamond Member
This is not really "military" but related, and should be viewed in light of the DOGE thing...an attempt to curtail government waste and excess.
I worked for the Department of Defense between 1975 and 1980 doing a job that was duplicative and relatively worthless, but ignoring that for now, I'm going to lay out a typical "work" day in my office.
0800-0915: Early morning work period.
0915-0945: "Fifteen minute" morning break.
0945-1130: Late morning work period.
1130-1230: "Half hour" lunch break.
1230-1415: Early afternoon work period.
1415-1445: "Fifteen minute" afternoon break.
1445-1600: Late afternoon work period.
1600-1630: Preparation for departure.
1630: Actual departure.
The total actual work time was about 6 hours. This was not just me and my peers; it was everyone in the office. In five years, with only one exception, I never saw anyone - clerical, administrative, professional, or management - work a minute of overtime...that is, one minute past four-thirty. The one exception was, we had to come in on a Saturday for half a day one time to facilitate getting new office furniture. That's it. Four hours of overtime - for which I got paid - in five years.
When we went to "flex - time" it became much worse. We had to sign in on arrival, work our 8 hours, then we could go home. It was customary to sign in exactly ONE MINUTE after the previous signature. That is, if we got in at, say 0835 and the previous signature was 0815, we wrote our time as 0816. Almost no work was done before 0900 (when everyone had finally arrived) and no work was done after 1530 (when the first people could legitimately leave). We signed out exactly eight hours and thirty minutes after we signed in.
I had a boss who was considered a "hard worker" in the office, and he often told the tale of how he once worked a full Saturday, and was greatly disappointed at how little that impacted his actual paycheck, so he "would never make that mistake again."
By comparison, after leaving government employment in 1980, I worked in private companies until 2016, and I never once had a scheduled break during that entire thirty-six odd years. We were given an hour for lunch in most places and the work schedule allowed for it - 9 hours from the starting time until finishing time, and most people at my level worked well after the scheduled end of the day. They typical work week for administrators, managers, professionals, and executives was 50-55 hours per week.
I don't know if my experience was typical of all Federal employment, or government employment in general, but I suspect that very, very few government offices and shops work a schedule that is truly comparable to what an office or shop works in the private sector.
And when people talk about "government waste," this sort of thing is not even part of the discussion. My office could have had its staff reduced by 25% and nobody would have even noticed.
I worked for the Department of Defense between 1975 and 1980 doing a job that was duplicative and relatively worthless, but ignoring that for now, I'm going to lay out a typical "work" day in my office.
0800-0915: Early morning work period.
0915-0945: "Fifteen minute" morning break.
0945-1130: Late morning work period.
1130-1230: "Half hour" lunch break.
1230-1415: Early afternoon work period.
1415-1445: "Fifteen minute" afternoon break.
1445-1600: Late afternoon work period.
1600-1630: Preparation for departure.
1630: Actual departure.
The total actual work time was about 6 hours. This was not just me and my peers; it was everyone in the office. In five years, with only one exception, I never saw anyone - clerical, administrative, professional, or management - work a minute of overtime...that is, one minute past four-thirty. The one exception was, we had to come in on a Saturday for half a day one time to facilitate getting new office furniture. That's it. Four hours of overtime - for which I got paid - in five years.
When we went to "flex - time" it became much worse. We had to sign in on arrival, work our 8 hours, then we could go home. It was customary to sign in exactly ONE MINUTE after the previous signature. That is, if we got in at, say 0835 and the previous signature was 0815, we wrote our time as 0816. Almost no work was done before 0900 (when everyone had finally arrived) and no work was done after 1530 (when the first people could legitimately leave). We signed out exactly eight hours and thirty minutes after we signed in.
I had a boss who was considered a "hard worker" in the office, and he often told the tale of how he once worked a full Saturday, and was greatly disappointed at how little that impacted his actual paycheck, so he "would never make that mistake again."
By comparison, after leaving government employment in 1980, I worked in private companies until 2016, and I never once had a scheduled break during that entire thirty-six odd years. We were given an hour for lunch in most places and the work schedule allowed for it - 9 hours from the starting time until finishing time, and most people at my level worked well after the scheduled end of the day. They typical work week for administrators, managers, professionals, and executives was 50-55 hours per week.
I don't know if my experience was typical of all Federal employment, or government employment in general, but I suspect that very, very few government offices and shops work a schedule that is truly comparable to what an office or shop works in the private sector.
And when people talk about "government waste," this sort of thing is not even part of the discussion. My office could have had its staff reduced by 25% and nobody would have even noticed.
