I see the opinion of government workers is still very negative.
When I retired from the active side of military, in 1995, I didn’t feel I was sellable to the world and went back to college for my second degree. Then I found out how right I was. For the jobs I wasn’t over qualified for, I found I was underpaid by so much that even with my small retirement, one highly over rated by people, my family couldn’t even break even financially. So when a government NAF job came open with the department of the army, I jumped at it. And we got by.
When my employers found out the knowledge I had was extensive, I was promoted to a civil service position and a raise in pay. That awarded me controlling facilities, supervising, training troops, and working 365 days a year. I did that for 12 years until my health finally collapsed and they retired me medically. So I live on that pittance and get by.
So before you consider us overpaid and under worked, consider that the majority of the military members work at not a lot over minimum wage, are on duty 24/7, are escorted into areas where hundreds are trying to kill them in a variety of ways, and most do not have a way to support themselves in the real world. Many of the civilians are also required to go into those same areas, and face the same things. Most of the jobs we did are needed there also. My career field was one of them.
A lot of past military members are employed to do the job needed for the many facets of the mission. The rate of disability of those members is, in 2013 by the GAO, a little over 50%. Try to find another profession outside of law enforcement with those numbers. There aren’t many. The big falacy on them was that after retirement, using all the facets of capabilities, they would earn over $100K annually. But what they failed to tell anyone was the amount of people attached to that figure was less than 4% of the entire retiree total for the US. And even though I am retired disabled, from all three sourced possible, I don’t make anywhere near that. And if you want to get the chance to see how many of the other half lives, visit a VA hospital an see how your money is being used. It might help you form a new opinion of seeing the cost by these people that chose to put themselvs into the pot. And I can promise you there are a lot more of those that the public thinks have homes in the Hamptons.
red
So what?
For about half of those 30 years every one of them got monthly retirement checks equal to or greater than my salary and most made damn sure I knew it. I finally passed them but still had only that salary & not the second income they enjoyed. Nor would I qualify for a second retirement and second medical coverage from aerospace employment,
As a side note, I also got to work for or with 2 or 3 retired Generals, several former JAG officers, and several former 05 &06 who were technical doers, they were all decent and reasonable men.
Retired NCOs ran the gamut from real good through behind the tech/regulations curve, to totally useless.
Most prevalent government employee attitude was that losing/wasting/p$$$ing away your budget and demanding more tax dollars to compensate is more noble than reducing costs, fixing failures, and banking a profit.
In fact, the VA might be the poster child for government waste and fraud...but its only one of many.
Want to see the problem fixed?
Cut civilian work force by 10% just for openers, cut wages the same, demand accountability and fire low performers, slam the public/private revolving door for all but necessary technical skills, withhold pensions to all former military who go back to work as civilian employees until they've retired from both (take the sugar out of double dipping). Put the VA on a time line, if a vet's issues have not been properly addressed in so many weeks they get an automatic chit for outside treatment.
Also: remind contractors that affirmative action actually applied to veterans and handicapped before it applied to most favored official minorities.