Most of the government workers that cause so many problems are in the various Washington-connected agencies and they give us all a bad name. Most of my co-workers spent 20 or more years of honorable military service and it was a a natural move to go back to the same base they retired from to fill a civilian slot - they get to leverage their military experience when it comes to training new recruits and over the last 4 years, it was either fill a civilian vacancy or go on unemployment - not much choice there. I spent 24 years in the AF and my 13 years as a DOD civilian makes 37 years in/around the military and the folks I love so much.
Not all the civilians are like my co-worker; he can't convince me so he goes to other. I overheard him asking a young civilian what he thought it meant that Obama got so much of the vote - the young man looked at him and said, "Because so many people are stupid?" It was a good moment to see the look on his face.
“Most of the government workers that cause so many problems are in the various Washington-connected agencies and they give us all a bad name.”
Agree with that. I also hate the fact that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to fire a fed employee. That aspect also hurts the hard working ones. There needs to be a threshold they cross where they lose their job as anyone would.
“Most of my co-workers . . . honorable military service.”
My husband fits into that category. He left active duty during the Carter administration and the times for finding work were hard to say the least. Also, we didn’t look at a federal job the way we do now - and sure didn’t realize some could keep their pay coming no matter what they did.
My husband’s field (both college and Air Force) is electronics, so I’m sure he could have found something in the Carter economy eventually, but after years of starving in the service, we were pretty desperate for a bit of security. Fast forward to today and here we are with the broad-brushed govt employee label.