Posted on 02/09/2018 7:43:30 PM PST by 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?
Speaking of those “with a screw loose....”
I’ll definitely post back, as you can see! I’m not a lazy drone. I work my butt off only to see others get the money and accolades. But, the folks in the ARS I work for now appreciate my work and tell me every day how much I’m appreciated so I very content in my present position. I love working for the “multi zipper suited sun gods” as it’s very loving put!
Government employees OK. Government unions should be outlawed.
GS-05, Step 4. After taxes and deductions, that’s all I bring home. I am single, no one else at home but me, so they take out lots in taxes, and in Indiana I pay federal, state and local taxes.
My dad was career military and worked for the FAA after retirement.
Screw you. Take your overpaid, lazy gov head and shove it up your ass.
Hope you get fired with no pension. I can’t afford you and your like anymore.
McDonalds is hiring, as is Walmart.
Retired military 20+ years between active and reserves.
I’ve been working since I got my drivers license age of 16. Have never been unemployed for more than 2 days except for when I quit prior to the Army.
Currently employed with a county public works agency. We work hard. I know the perception, The thing is that we are first responders to crisis situations. Road closed because of a powerline down? That was us.
Road closure because life flight being called in? Might be us. I’ve given up my life since 18 years old in service to others. May God bless us all.
FEDERAL government employees are supposed to defend the country and deliver the mail.
STATE government employees should be doing the other stuff.
I believe that was the original intention before Washington decided to build itself a monolith.
Idiots and morons like you are quite happy to badmouth govt employees until you need one of them, then they are ok. What a disgusting, ignorant jerk.
That's the question I'm trying to get answered. I hope that there are more Freepers who see the good in people and who don't paint people with a broad brush, and so far that's what I'm seeing. (Thank God!)
But in recent postings the hatred being spewed out towards government workers in general by others is downright hateful and disgusting, and it's also hurtful towards us who are genuinely trying to put forth our best efforts in our jobs. That's why I put this thread out there. I really want Freepers to think before they type.
Other than Jim and John Robinson, there is nobody that can speak for the whole community. I would not try to.
My work as a contractor for the federal government will be ending soon and, internally, I see plenty of abuse just in my own little neighborhood. I would never think of them as all good or all bad. I’ve known some that were excellent public servants and others that are near worthless drains on the budget.
In the not-so-long-ago Obama years, you did what you had to to find a job. That’s how I wound up as a contractor. It’s been a decent living for four years but they were frustrating ones.
It taught me that my Lord is in control and He has his reasons for major life changes. So I look for the good and bad in the individual and the job I’m hired to do, not wishing to brand all of them with the same broad brush.
Bless you in your work and do it heartily as if unto the Lord. The Bible teaches we will not all have fair slavemasters. We’re still to work hard for them.
I think you’ll be disappointed if you think whatever happens here will silence the detractors however. They are who they are.
I think as government offices expanded and brought in more people in the 1980s, 1990s, etc...that lesser qualified people were promoted up the line and today serve as GS-14/15 types without a real background or demonstrated capability.
For 3.5 years, I worked in DC. I’d never been in the region and as various episodes unfolded...it amazed me how screwed up things could be. Little empires are built...poor management decisions are rewarded....money is funneled down into projects without a pay-off or advantage at the end.
One of my thousand stories came from an associate who had a GS-14 in their little group (just a dozen people in this division). The guy took maximum advantage of the work-at-home situation, with one day each week...meaning he showed up only four days. For the four days, he typically took a two-hour lunch break at some local bar and typically came back to work somewhat drunk. Over the course of three years...no one could cite anything of value that the guy had written, analyzed, or voiced. However, the leadership could not bring themselves to force him into a rehab program, or to fire the guy. He needed six more years to reach retirement, and I would speculate that this was driving his entire career. There’s probably ten-thousand ‘souls’ in the DC area who fit into this career model...aiming for retirement but worthless.
The Constitutional role of the federal government is diplomacy, coinage, measures, and military (Im guessing you fall here). Those working in Constitutionally justified roles (not the made up position for the mistress) are part of the necessary evils of government.
Those outside of those roles are parasites.
Some of the worthless individuals in valid Constitutional roles (most of congress) who refuse to preform their duty and are also parasites.
Trump is trying to de-worm the host, the least we could do is hold a match to the rest until they pop.
I have no problem with government workers, especially on the local level ...and obviously those in the military. Not a fan of the giant pensions that my tax dollars pay for, but that is not the workers’ fault. Those we elected are at fault for the corruption and spending.
The militarys weight requirements make no sense. Instituted by morons. Dont take it too personally.
I hear ya...fighting the Bulge myself...:)
I work at a local military base. I work now for an air refueling squadron. I used to work for a civil engineering squadron before I was RIF'd into my current position. I love my current position so much more than my previous one. I never want to leave. They treat me so much better and the accolades I get are many. I bust my butt for them. They know it and appreciate it.
However, because of the cronyism in the civilian personnel office on the base I've been kept in a lower paying position. Several years back I was mistreated by two Obama lovers in my office at CE. These two malcontents took advantage of the system to the point where they worked only 1-2 hours a day and smoked outside the rest. No kidding. They were hateful, spiteful, and wanted nothing to do with anyone. Unfortunately I had to share an office with them. When they started treated me unfairly I blew the whistle on them and that shown the light on local management who let them get away with their habits. As such I was never promoted, openly schemed against, and they went so far as to alter job position descriptions for job openings to ensure I couldn't apply for jobs I had the experience to do. So to get RIF'd into my current position was a blessing. But I still can't promote because the civilian personnel office is still pulling strings to ensure I stay where I am "grade wise" as a GS-05.
However, I still do the best job I can and I always will. So to see folks on FR wish me out of a job and on the streets just because I work for the government, it just angers me greatly. Am I being melodramatic? Meh, I'll let the reader decide, but I wanted to call attention to this and see what others thought.
Constitution ... there's the problem. Outside of the military, most government workers are doing things that the government has no constitutional authority to do. However diligent they may be ... their jobs simply should not exist. It's not personal; many are fine folks who could get decent work in industry. And they should. Because what they're doing in government shouldn't be done at all, by anybody.
I did not “work for” the state but I was a rented “piece of equipment”. Even most of the “hard working” ones only did about an hour of justifiable work so most of those working for the state were parasites also.
o Considering you Govt workers spend 60% of the valuable GDP, also called, Other People's Money, while producing a paltry percent of productive work, ... what exactly do you do?
o You all vote Democrat, contributing to the socialist delinquency of out great nation.
o In America's prosperous past, you Govt workers spent only a tiny 2% of the Nation's money. Now that you spend 30 times that, and the Nation is worse off, the eager question is ... what exactly now do you productively do?
o Economist Laffer said, at most, you Govt spenders only perform at a 20% useful level, even though you cause misery several times that on to nice citizens, and feeling no guilt ... what exactly do you do?
o Nice person to share a coffee but factually, your work is likely absolutely worthless.
I made up for the slacking off of fellow FReepers, who are just taking a weekend break. Slaves get a break too, don't they?
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