Ok Freepers, Time to Come Clean on Your Opinion of Government Workers

[ducttape45]

I am writing this partially because I really want to know where the Freeper community stands on a whole on the issue of government workers and partially because of my disgust for certain members of the Freeper community.

There is a member on a another post who I won't mention (but who I'm sure will make his/her presence known here) who thinks that just because I work for the federal government that I should be forced from my job and unto the streets begging for money. This person apparently has a very low opinion of anyone who works for the US government. Over the past several years I've encountered many more like this person.

Yes, I work for Uncle Sam, but I am also a military veteran of 10 years (United States Air Force), and I've been in the employ of the US Government at a local military base supporting first a civil engineering squadron and now an air refueling squadron.

I do not make a whole of lot money. I am a GS-05 and I barely scrape in $24,000 a year. I'm paying on bills that I racked up helping to put my kids through college. I do not regret ever doing that because they are all very successful now in their adult lives, yet, as a single father I barely have two nickels to rub together most of the time. So to hear Freepers wish me "out on the streets or working at McDonalds and Walmart" just because they hate the government so much, I feel like I'm being lumped in with the crooks on Capital Hill. The vitriol that has been spewed at me by members of the Free Republic community has been nothing less than totally disgusting, yet at the same time I give credit to the many who have been very supportive.

Now don't get me wrong, yes, I know there ARE crooks on Capital Hill. I will be the first person to agree with you. I've seen folks here locally take advantage of the system. They have two retirements going and are still working part time racking in the dough. Yes, it's wrong, and I'll be the first person to stand up and say so. That's also part of the reason why I'm still a GS-05 because many years ago I dared to stand up to the system and have been kept from promoting ever since. I see the cronyism and nepotism that takes places on a government installation and it sickens me to the core of my being. Yet, I'm being lumped in with them. I see the wasteful spending going on, yet I'm being lumped in with them. I see people working in positions they have no business working in, while people (like myself) are being kept from being in positions they are more than qualified for because we don't suck up to higher management, yet I'm being lumped in with them. I see the evil in people like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Obama and his boyfriend Michael, yet I'm being lumped in with them when I'm nothing like them nor will I never be!

So it's reckoning time, members of Free Republic. Do you honestly feel that every single person who works for the federal government is evil? Is this "guilt by association?" Are folks like myself to be branded as "less than human" because we work in an office or in a capacity that many of you find reprehensible? If so, and if people like me are not welcome here, then I'll leave Free Republic. There are many great people here, to be sure, and if I am forced to leave because of the bad apples then I will be the less for it, but I will not tolerate the hateful attitudes and insults of those bad applies any longer if those feelings are representative of Free Republic on a whole.

It's time to make your positions known. Are you anti-government to the point where you could care less for the good people who work within government, or do you have the capacity to realize not everyone who works for the US Government is out to scam and steal from the tax payer and is just trying to make an honest living?

[wgmalabama]

GS-5 in 2018 without any locality starts at 28945 (step1) and tops out at 37630 (step 10). Even in 2017 rates unless a person is seasonal it’s not 25k.

As to gov employees. The ratio of idiots to workers is about 30/70 if you include people doing dumb but mandated jobs. Otherwise in normal/corporate world it’s 50/50. In corporate world it’s 20/80. Yes even in big corporate world 20% don’t do jack.

Pay/benefits can be argued till the cows come home. The old pension system is dead so no one since 1984 has those teacher union pensions in GSA world anymore. Thank goodness since it was outright generational theft.

So do I bitch about a gs-5 No. All the SES positions, yeah. Probably about 40% to many of them.

I’m a BSEE working in military efforts so I see all types of waste gov and contractors. I do my best and say screw the rest.

[Joe Boucher]

It’s called socialism

[Chickensoup]

I know a number of hard working and useful government workers. However I resent that they are unionized and pick from my pocket. I don’t think that government workers should at any level be unionized.

[SuperLuminal]

"...partially because of my disgust for certain members of the Freeper community."

Here a couple of days (since 2010) and "disgust" has overtaken you...What a snowflake!

It's a good thing you weren't around for the flame wars of the late 90's...Wimps were self-culled long before they had a chance to be "disgusted"...

[amigatec]

Going from a WG-02 to a GS-12, totally illegal. Should have been investigated. Had someone here go from a GS-05 to a 07, then get offered a 09 without the position ever being advertised. Total cronyism.

I have seen promotions like this well, just saw a man promoted from WG7 to WG9 it was NEVER posted anywhere, his job was illegal when he first got it several years ago, now it's even more illegal.

There is No Time in Grade for WG jobs, you can go WG1 to WG13, or from WG1 to GS13, in one jump. It really is LEGAL. It is almost unheard of that this kind of promotion can happen. I was invited to give this information to members of the US Senators office, they were shocked!!! They had never heard of this happening before.

The real problem here the person that was promoted was doing private work for the GS13 in charge of the Kitchen. He had a key to the man's house and was even eating dinner with him. He was getting special favors, he was working on official VA documents at his home. He was sending these home via e-mail, on an un-secure connection. Think Hillary's email server.

The person selected for the GS12 had NEVER worked as a Safety Manager in his life. He doesn't have the first clue about safety. The fire extinguishers where I worked haven't been checked and certified in years!!! This is one of the KEY PARTS of his job. I keep saying someday somebody is going to get hurt or killed because his guy is incompetent. His wife works at the same Hospital and he was cheating on her in plain site. He's a real piece of work.

I read his resume, he claimed he worked for Homeland Security, claimed he had his own Home Construction Business, claimed to have been a Reserve Police Officer, claimed to have written at least 1 book on Terrorism, HELL with all the experience he claimed he would have to be over 150 years old. All of this was a load of crap.

Just like the Plumber that was promoted to GS12, OPM told HR the man wasn't qualified, he needed a Degree in Engineering, and he was still given the position, and HR rewrote his PD twice AFTER he got the Job.

I could go on and on about all the corruption I have seen. I have 3 1/2 years to go before I retire.

[ducttape45]

Now that's interesting. I was told locally that it's impossible for a WG to jump that many slots. Unbelievable.

But yet, maybe not so "unbelievable." What follows are hiring situations I encountered at the civil engineering complex after I confronted senior management over their inability to reign in the two bad elements who mistreated me. These are a series of positions I applied for, and didn't get, the reasons why, and the interesting facts about who got it and why.

Budget Assistant - Attempt #1
2005 - Applied, Referred, Wasn't Selected - Reason Given: Not enough experience. Person chosen never had any experience in finances. I was a cost center manager and bookkeeper in the military and an accounts payable clerk and data entry clerk for local redevelopment authority just outside the base. Total experience - 13 years.

Budget Assistant - Attempt #2
2006 - Applied, Referred, Wasn't Selected - Reason Given: Same as before. Person chosen, again, never had any experience in finances.

Budget Assistant - Attempt #3
2008 - Applied, Referred, Wasn't Selected - Reason Given: None. Person chosen came from another state. He was experienced but no more than me. I should have appealed but didn't. They chose someone from half way across the country instead of someone right the hallway.

Budget Assistant - Attempt #4
2011 - Applied, Wasn't Referred, Wasn't Selected - Reason Given: I didn't match the time in grade. This is the one where they changed the hiring criteria so that no one, including me, who wanted to apply could in an attempt to keep the list clear of anyone who could oppose the person senior management was targeting. This is the one I almost walked out over.

Budget Assistant - Attempt #5
2014 - I never even saw the job advertised. No one on the base did, yet somehow someone in a town 75 miles away did. How did that happen? By the way I found out the job had been listed it was too late and someone else had already been hired. Once again I got screwed and management proved they were trying to keep me from applying.

Emergency Management Technician - Attempt #1
2007 - Applied, Referred, was not Selected. Reason - They didn't want to have to send me to a 12 week school, or anyone else for that matter. So where do you think they sent the person who was hired for 12 weeks? You guessed it, to the 12 week school.

Emergency Management Technician - Attempt #2
2007 - Applied, Referred, was not Selected. Reason - They said it was because I was colorblind. Come to find out later that reason was invalid.

That's just seven. There are several more, but you get the picture. This is the kind of garbage that gives federal employees a bad rap,and honestly, rightly so. This is dishonesty at its worst, and what makes this situation worse is these folks claim to be Christian. They are the most hypocritical lying thieving Pharisees I've ever met. At least the two malcontents in my former office made no attempt to hide their contempt for me. The senior management in the CE complex shook my hand while stabbing me in the back at the same time.

[ducttape45]

Good point

[amigatec]

WG has no Time in Grade requirements, GS positions do, GS can only jump 2 grades at a time.

I have 25 years experience as a Mechanic, I applied 3 times for the same Mechanic position. The first time I showed up for the Interview and was given illegal test. It was a last minute decision to add the test. This is ONLY time testing was ever done for a Job Interview. The test had no standards, didn't meet ANY requirements for testing, was NEVER authorized, and to this day I have never seen the results of the test.

The person selected was a Carpenter and was close personal friends the Selecting official.

The second time I applied a Pipe Fitter/Welder was selected for the position, and one of the persons on the interview panel used to work for him. The same Plumber that was promoted to GS12 later. This Plumber also lied under oath about this.

The third time the Welder was selected.

The GS12/Plumber was a real slezeball.

He did so things that were illegal, like splitting Credit Cards, allowing Contractors to use Government Equipment and material, hiring family and friends. etc.

I raised so much hell about him, I was the reason he was forced to take a early retirement, and after they hired the Welder the Chief of HR as removed from her position. WE don't have any reason to hire a welder, we have NOTHING to weld. I talk with members of OPM from DC over this and gave them a packet with all on this stuff in it.

HR has finally been cleaned out, but it has taken some time. The biggest reason they do this is because they can. Most people don't have the money to fight them. We still have a LOT of illegal hires, but it least now HR is under new management.

[trebb]

The worst of the troll end up getting the ZOT!

Some of them have an occasional lucid moment. If we boot everyone who we disagree with, then JimRob will be the only one left on FR....

[GOPJ]

Thanks

:)