You are an idiot.
Many of us worked overseas long long hours withoutout overtime. 12+ hour days as communicators who open and close coms, handle pouch on weekends and coms as well.
I spent 12 years straight overseas with Army DISA Network and State. We loved our jobs and duty.
Your experience about the DC beltway might be accurate, where people might be a GS7/9 and show up at Fort Bragg and not be qualified as a GS4. That is in part because yhe cost of living and beltway corruption.
I usually had to open coms for the embassy and its tenants, before they opened and then closed when the Ambassador or Political got done late, typically 12-14 hour days for 6 of 8 years at State. Then the weekends, and dip pouch, or running phone or network cabling, fixing PCs, Printers, or comsec housekeeping because you met yourself coming and going, usually without supper, breakfast and eating on the run.
There are 10-20% in every organization that makeup for all those lazy shits you accuse everyone in govt.
And I was burned out at 54 and hung it up with 33 years, over 20 military.
That social security stipend is worth about $300 so what those pikers are whinning about is not much. To hear the comotion about these payments is almost comical.
80% of the State Dept should face a firing squad in my opinion.
You got paid for those 12-14 hour days. Nice paychecks during those times. No overtime because you were higher than a GS-10. If military, it was your choice. Draft ended in ‘73...