After eight years with DoD (3 Army):
- The best people don't go to work for the government. If they have any ambition they go into the private sector, either in a corporation or an entrepreneur. You are talking about the figurative "bottom of the class." They have the degrees, but barely.
They also are paid more than the average college graduate, even though they often were pulling up the rear.
- There are some good, productive people working for the Feds, but they are side by side with mediocre people, and they don't want to topple the apple cart by being too good or productive.
I found this to be the case during the one year I worked for the Feds. I came up with a workflow tracking chart (this was long ago) and I was criticized by my co-workers for making them look bad.
- The workday that I saw was a joke. Extended breaks morning and afternoon, an a lunch break that is expanded dramatically. I worked in responsible positions for about a dozen companies over 35 years in the private sector, and I NEVER saw anything comparable to government work.
You betcha. Back when they actually came to the office, they were late by 45 minutes and nobody blinked, took extended lunch hours, all sorts of breaks, etc.
And you are right. Nothing like that comes close in private industry. If work hours started at 8:30, you would get a 5-minute allowance, but if you came in at 8:40, that was definitely LATE.
- People in small 'p' "professional" positions in the private sector work far more than forty hours per week. I never saw anyone work a minute of uncompensated overtime with DoD. My boss with DoD often spoke of the time when he worked a Saturday (for pay), and he was so disappointed with the small increase that made in his paycheck that he vowed never to do it again. And this was a GS13 executive speaking to his subordinates. Never in the private sector.
Also true. In a corporation I worked for, it was routine to come home at 6, have dinner, and then log back on at 8ish for an hour or two.
- Every large organization I ever worked for could lose ten percent of its headcount without impacting function. In the DoD offices where I worked, it could have been 25%, but that doesn't tell the whole story. If extraneous, unnecessary, and counterproductive work were eliminated, it could be 75% as long as the right people were retained.
- I agree with the poster above who opined that most of the ones who are taking the buyout are people who would be retiring in the next 18 months anyway. One hopes that they are not replaced with new hires.
- The "union" that represents Federal GS workers (they do not have true collective bargaining and cannot strike) is a cancer that can never be cured, and it is killing the taxpayers. They collude with every Democrat Administration to keep feathering their nest with pay raises, bonuses (virtually guaranteed), benefit enhancements, and protections for lazy, unproductive, incompetent, and even subversive employees.
And the people working for the union are getting $180,000 a year, not counting benefits, to protect incompetent workers from being fired.
- I wish DOGE the best, but their task is virtually impossible and would take at least three Trumpian Administrations to remove the removable fat. I should live so long.
They indeed have an uphill battle ahead.
