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From private sector to Federal goverment, WWYD?

V14_Heels said:
You're lucky with whatever sector your in, but I have worked close to 3 different government sectors and unfortunately they've all been the same. This isn't an individual thing, it's a cultural thing. And the culture is created by, in my opinion, the fact that it's near impossible to fire someone in the government sector, so inherently you end up with alot of mediocre employees. It's also created by the fact that it's very tough to hire hire top talent and the true best candidates into a job opening because of "stoppers" and all the other things that trump who should probably be getting interviewed but can't even get to that point.
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When I joined the Federal Government in the '90 during the Clinton Administration, the probationary period for the government was 12 months. An employee could be dismissed without cause within that 12 months window. After that, it would be very hard to dismiss a Federal employee without jumping through mountains of documenting all the steps which could take YEARS. Most managers just simply gave up. Instead managers promoted those slackers and have them transferred to other departments or agencies. There was an employee at the SEC who claimed a SME in Linux Operating Systems and yet he didn't know how to check the file system storage with a simple "df -h". That's what you typically get from Federal workers, mediocre or low level performers, and I am about to join the dark side 😢.
 
golfguy2021 said:
When I joined the Federal Government in the '90 during the Clinton Administration, the probationary period for the government was 12 months. An employee could be dismissed without cause within that 12 months window. After that, it would be very hard to dismiss a Federal employee without jumping through mountains of documenting all the steps which could take YEARS. Most managers just simply gave up. Instead managers promoted those slackers and have them transferred to other departments or agencies. There was an employee at the SEC who claimed a SME in Linux Operating Systems and yet he didn't know how to check the file system storage with a simple "df -h". That's what you typically get from Federal workers, mediocre or low level performers, and I am about to join the dark side 😢.
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The Federal Reserve vs. GS-Governement is a different animal. I do want to put that out there, I've found the Federal Reserve to be filled with some pretty sharp people, and they can actually hire and fire, but there is still a cultural difference there compared to an Apple. It still moves very slow, is very heirarchical, etc. etc.
 
For me if it comes down to what I am doing every day and what my long term plans are. If I could work 5 years at the higher salary then not work at all I would probably do that. If you think you don't want to retire sooner, the government job would be less stressful and you would be happy with the work you should change. If you hate it you could likely find another job back in the private sector.

I will add as some people have already mentioned the fact that you can make 6 figures in what seems to be a part time job is disappointing.
 
golfguy2021 said:
When I joined the Federal Government in the '90 during the Clinton Administration, the probationary period for the government was 12 months. An employee could be dismissed without cause within that 12 months window. After that, it would be very hard to dismiss a Federal employee without jumping through mountains of documenting all the steps which could take YEARS. Most managers just simply gave up. Instead managers promoted those slackers and have them transferred to other departments or agencies. There was an employee at the SEC who claimed a SME in Linux Operating Systems and yet he didn't know how to check the file system storage with a simple "df -h". That's what you typically get from Federal workers, mediocre or low level performers, and I am about to join the dark side 😢.
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One of my managers showed me a file on how long it took her to fire an employee. It was 2 years! She finally got rid of someone though. You are spot-on about transfers too. It is just easier to move them somewhere.

Incompetence... I was one of the managers that did the technical interviews and wrote job descriptions. It didn't take long before they did not want me on the interview panel and they would always try to "water down" the job description - go figure. They would hire non-technical people for technical positions and you know what that lead to. Thank goodness I was able to get some good people while I was on the panel and they are doing a great job.

They usually hired on the emotional "feel good" aspect and that would rarely work out. You just wound up with another employee you were paying that did not know how to do anything. This caused work overload on the few that did know how to do their jobs because someone had to do the work.
 
jbb2388 said:
Comparable PTO? I don't know. I would seriously think twice. You say you love your job. That is a SIGNIFICANT cut in pay. Everthing I've heard about govt jobs has been awful. At that point you become just a number. Tough choice. Good luck with your decision.
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;)
Agree. I’d figure out exactly how much longer you need to work at the current higher paying job to retire. If that is just a couple of years vs. working 5 or 6 years at the government job, I’d stay where you are. I retired at age 53 in 2018 and have no regrets for going out early but some of my buddies love to work and would go crazy if they retired. It sounds like the government job is very part time and maybe that fits you better.

Good luck with your decision.
 
V14_Heels said:
The Federal Reserve vs. GS-Governement is a different animal. I do want to put that out there, I've found the Federal Reserve to be filled with some pretty sharp people, and they can actually hire and fire, but there is still a cultural difference there compared to an Apple. It still moves very slow, is very heirarchical, etc. etc.
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I did a PC upgrade consulting gig at the FR way back in the day and you summed them up well, they had some solid sharp folks there, but as you put it, there is still a cultural difference from other sectors.

My IT Director knew if he gave something to me I would get it done, but he also knew that in the agency we were in it would be a long uphill battle and in many cases would never get done. I was tasked with getting SCCM into the environment. The word "battle" comes to mind. So many came to me and said it will never happen here.

What should have took two weeks to four at most, took a full year. So much wasted time. There were many times I wanted to throw in the towel because I was also managing the service desk and juggling other IT projects, but somehow I got it done.
 
Luchnia said:
I did a PC upgrade consulting gig at the FR way back in the day and you summed them up well, they had some solid sharp folks there, but as you put it, there is still a cultural difference from other sectors.

My IT Director knew if he gave something to me I would get it done, but he also knew that in the agency we were in it would be a long uphill battle and in many cases would never get done. I was tasked with getting SCCM into the environment. The word "battle" comes to mind. So many came to me and said it will never happen here.

What should have took two weeks to four at most, took a full year. So much wasted time. There were many times I wanted to throw in the towel because I was also managing the service desk and juggling other IT projects, but somehow I got it done.
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@Luchnia & @V14_Heels: Which locations of the Federal Reserve did you work? I worked at the FR headquarter in Washington DC, right next to the State Department. I was there when Alan Greenspan was still Fed Chairman :).

I do disagree with @V14_Heels about the FR hiring and firing. There were a lot of smart people there but also a lot of deadbeats and no one got fired while I was there 😢
 
Working within the DoD can be taxing. Yes it takes time to get rid of a deadbeat but it can be done. The "Peter Principle" is alive and well there as it is in a lot of private sector companies. I worked int eh manufacturing field for 20 years in Probably5-6 different companies and it is just as bad there and anywhere else. Todays society of live and let live and those who do"just enough" to get by is alive everywhere.....
 
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golfguy2021 said:
@Luchnia & @V14_Heels: Which locations of the Federal Reserve did you work? I worked at the FR headquarter in Washington DC, right next to the State Department. I was there when Alan Greenspan was still Fed Chairman :).

I do disagree with @V14_Heels about the FR hiring and firing. There were a lot of smart people there but also a lot of deadbeats and no one got fired while I was there 😢
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But were you at the Board of Governors where it's mostly GS? There's a big difference between the Fed and the BoG. The Fed isn't government or GS, I mean it's technically private.
 
golfguy2021 said:
@Luchnia & @V14_Heels: Which locations of the Federal Reserve did you work? I worked at the FR headquarter in Washington DC, right next to the State Department. I was there when Alan Greenspan was still Fed Chairman :).

I do disagree with @V14_Heels about the FR hiring and firing. There were a lot of smart people there but also a lot of deadbeats and no one got fired while I was there 😢
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I was at the Richmond FR and it was a short contract. I think it may have been 2-4 weeks - been so long ago I don't remember. I do remember we had to go through about 3 levels of security every time we entered the building.
 
V14_Heels said:
But were you at the Board of Governors where it's mostly GS? There's a big difference between the Fed and the BoG. The Fed isn't government or GS, I mean it's technically private.
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Yes, I was at the Board of Governors and I remembered that the pay is higher than GS scale. Both SEC and FDIC also have a higher scale than regular GS level, if my memory serves me right.

I was so excited to join the FR because I got to travel to other regional FR banks in Kansas City, St. Louis, Boston, NY, SF, Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta, etc... It was fun for the first six months but it got boring after that.
 
Just received a text from my former colleague who is now GS-15 in the Federal Government. He and three other GS-14 buddies are playing golf in Florida during work hours. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of them are working from home. They take laptops with them and turn them on while playing golf to pretend that they are working. They have been doing this since the pandemic of March 2020. They encourage me to take the job with the government so that I can join them.
 
golfguy2021 said:
Just received a text from my former colleague who is now GS-15 in the Federal Government. He and three other GS-14 buddies are playing golf in Florida during work hours. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of them are working from home. They take laptops with them and turn them on while playing golf to pretend that they are working. They have been doing this since the pandemic of March 2020. They encourage me to take the job with the government so that I can join them.
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To each their own but I’d personally have a hard time looking myself in the mirror if I did that on the regular.
 
golfguy2021 said:
I am contemplating what I should do with my professional career now that I am in my 50's. I love my current job and what I do. On top of that, I am being compensated very well with very good health/dental benefits, 403b plan, pension and a bonus of about 75k/year. My annual salary is about 300k/year and I get to work remotely. Everything seems great, right? The downside of the job is that it is very stressful, some days with long hours and sometimes receive calls early in the morning around 2am for operational issues.

Five weeks ago a former colleague, who left the company five years ago and is now working for the Federal government, called me and asked me if I want to join the Federal government workforce. He is currently a GS-15 making 170K/year. If I accept the position, I will start at GS-14 step 5 at 140k/year. According to my colleague, this is a great job and that it is completely stress-free. He gets 26 days of vacation per year and 13 days of sick leave. He works at most 30 minutes everyday and he is on the golf course by 3:30pm on weekdays and absolutely no work on weekends. I went to the interview and was offered the position. The interview was completely rigged in my favor, LOL.... Now I have to decide...

Pros of getting the goverment job:
- completely stress free,
- it is like collecting a $5400 paycheck, before taxes, every two weeks without actually working,
- plenty of time to play golf,
- have this job until I retire,

Cons of getting the government job:
- salary reduction of 2/3,
- I might hate this job for not doing anything to contribute to my well being,

I have enough in my 403b and pension to live comfortably in retirement so money will not be the deciding factor but I wouldn't mind having more money. My wife tells me that I should take the government job so that I can enjoy life because it is too short.

Would you take the government job if you were in my situation?
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It sounds like a no-brainer to me. Take the government job, especially because you said that quality of life is more important than money to you.
 
golfguy2021 said:
Just received a text from my former colleague who is now GS-15 in the Federal Government. He and three other GS-14 buddies are playing golf in Florida during work hours. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of them are working from home. They take laptops with them and turn them on while playing golf to pretend that they are working. They have been doing this since the pandemic of March 2020. They encourage me to take the job with the government so that I can join them.
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People that would do that while being employed by the Fed have the kind of Morals that i would not play golf with at any time. I have seen people fired for less since a days pay at that level is a felony theft charge.
 
As others have stated there are a LOT of differences working for the federal government. As a corollary, there are a lot of different or potential sources for stress. A buddy of mine once told me, "You remember when we founded that company together and each of us did the work of six people?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Well here six people do the work of one and it is driving me crazy!" He meant it. Left there after less than a year!
 
donny475 said:
I worked in the Private sector in manufacturing while in the Reserves for over 20 years. I 2007 i went DoD and I will retire from here soon. I never regretted changing to GOvt work as my stress level went down considerably. I do my job and actually have been working from my house fo almost two years now with no heading back to the "office" in sight.
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Well! Good for you! Your stress level went down! You worked in private business, and you had stress! Oh! What a hardship! You poor thing! How dare they stress you so, to pay you the money they did! The bastards! I made a whole lot less money than you seemed to, and guess what? I had STRESS! Sorry that you're such a tender soul!

golfguy2021 said:
When I joined the Federal Government in the '90 during the Clinton Administration, the probationary period for the government was 12 months. An employee could be dismissed without cause within that 12 months window. After that, it would be very hard to dismiss a Federal employee without jumping through mountains of documenting all the steps which could take YEARS. Most managers just simply gave up. Instead managers promoted those slackers and have them transferred to other departments or agencies. There was an employee at the SEC who claimed a SME in Linux Operating Systems and yet he didn't know how to check the file system storage with a simple "df -h". That's what you typically get from Federal workers, mediocre or low level performers, and I am about to join the dark side 😢.
Click to expand...

Luchnia said:
One of my managers showed me a file on how long it took her to fire an employee. It was 2 years! She finally got rid of someone though. You are spot-on about transfers too. It is just easier to move them somewhere.

Incompetence... I was one of the managers that did the technical interviews and wrote job descriptions. It didn't take long before they did not want me on the interview panel and they would always try to "water down" the job description - go figure. They would hire non-technical people for technical positions and you know what that lead to. Thank goodness I was able to get some good people while I was on the panel and they are doing a great job.

They usually hired on the emotional "feel good" aspect and that would rarely work out. You just wound up with another employee you were paying that did not know how to do anything. This caused work overload on the few that did know how to do their jobs because someone had to do the work.
Click to expand...

These people are also making my point! It seems that we taxpayers just exist to make the workplace "stress free" for government apparatchiks!

V14_Heels said:
But were you at the Board of Governors where it's mostly GS? There's a big difference between the Fed and the BoG. The Fed isn't government or GS, I mean it's technically private.
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But, who is GS paid by? Oh! It's the U.S. Gubmint! BTW, nice try to disguise it by calling it just the GS and not the GSA! Of course, maybe that's a gubmint thang!
 
Buckeyegolfnut said:
Well! Good for you! Your stress level went down! You worked in private business, and you had stress! Oh! What a hardship! You poor thing! How dare they stress you so, to pay you the money they did! The bastards! I made a whole lot less money than you seemed to, and guess what? I had STRESS! Sorry that you're such a tender soul!
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A person voicing their opinion doesn’t need or deserve this type of response. it’s time to tone it down and stop the name calling and condescending posts.
 
I am never sure if these posts are trolling or serious. I lean toward trolling. I do get sucked in though.
 
I can understand how or why people could be bitter or it cause frustration in this thread... money, stress and politics are a deadly cocktail... :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Life is too short to take anything for granted. We must have gratitude for everything we have, for in the blink of an eye it can all go away. Many of us struggle with what I call "1st world" problems.

To the OP, I 100% agree with what @Canadan. 10/10 times I am taking quality of life over money. I love and cherish my family. I have seen first hand what happens to them, when I was overly stressed with work. I did what I had to do, to provide for them until I could find an opportunity that was best for my family.
My father told me this.... If you want to be a successful husband or father it's about quality of life, not quantity of life. I "fail forward" regularly, but I wake up every morning knowing that I need to be great for my family. I am blessed beyond measure to have a career where I can do that now.

If I were in your shoes, I would look at this opportunity and ask myself the following questions. Which of these is going to enable me to be the best husband and father I can be for my family? What does my family really need to be successful and am I enabling those things with my career choices? If the answer is neither opportunity, then you should look elsewhere.

Please don't take offense to this... Don't be distracted by the noise of others, or the ability to "do what you want" during work hours and still get paid. Those things are self serving.

TBH I can't wait to hear what you choose to do. I am very happy for you that you have been blessed with such great opportunities. Good luck!
 
JB said:
A person voicing their opinion doesn’t need or deserve this type of response. it’s time to tone it down and stop the name calling and condescending posts.
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Okay, I'm sorry. And I do suppose that some of the stress can really depend upon who your boss is. I had some that were just the most wonderful people. Then I've had others who I could swear were sent straight from Hell!
 
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