I think if you could ever go thirty days straight with a shut-down...most everyone would then ask if you need 75-percent of the employees.
I’ve been in the military and the GS world, and seen the various angles of the overall problem. Probably 10-percent of the whole civilian force in DC are non-productive. They could pass from the face of this Earth tomorrow and their office wouldn’t really miss anything. This is a group of people who’ve established themselves....have a little empire...doing practically nothing but drawing a check and attending meetings.
10%. Haha. 45-65% easily. DOD employees are feeding the slow return on taxpayers dollars. Sorry but true. I could cut 35-75% based on requirements alone. Give me a reqiuirement and hold me only to that requirement without all the mafias and I can get capability out better and faster much cheaper. I’m a DOD developer not a profit motivated contractor. Nothing wrong with them, because we all want the best but damn there is a bunch of BS illities in DOD.
“I’ve been in the military and the GS world, and seen the various angles of the overall problem. “
I have had similar actual experiences. My take is the problem is upper management allowing this. I worked in a shop where mid-level supervisors watched porn, slept, drove around drinking in military housing, played cards, anything but work. When their equipment went to hell due to lack of maintenance they’d hire a contract. I’m not making this up.
There’s a good percentage of the civilian federal workforce that do work, they are good people. In the shop above they were shunned.
IMO the federal workforce needs to be thinned with an effective appraisal system that actually identifies people that are useless. This overhaul needs to start with replacing upper management.