Out of 1.6 million civil service employees, about 400 are fired in the average year for cause. We must be blessed with near perfect employees...NOT.
The time from announcing the position to the actual day the new hire shows up for work is unbelievably slooooooow. 6 months is the norm and if you need a higher security clearance, how about 9-10 (That’s OK if it keeps the knuckleheads from getting TS clearances.) Industry will hire you in much more quickly.
So, if you want to refresh the workforce with talented people or new college grads. This problem will exacerbate as time goes on unless the Fed does something to streamline the hiring process.
You can take it a step further.
Workers at public universities are in essence government employees. It's virtually impossible to fire them.
What happens to deaddicks who work in higher ed is, a new position with better pay and less responsibility is created, and they're "promoted" into it where they can't do any harm.
Your statement speaks volumes -- takes 2-3 years to fire someone if not more than that!