Many, and I mean, MANY federal workers spend a majority of their time either gabbing on the phone or talking for hours on end in the office and maybe put in 2 hours of useful work during the day. I saw it all the time.
I was ostracized because when I came into work at 0730 hours, I started right into the job. I was always busy, and I worked until the bell rang at 1630 hours, and many times I would work from home without compensation, and they considered me "anti-social." I was working for crying out loud!
So yes, I believe many departments can be downsized, considerably. But also remember that there are federal workers who earn their paycheck because they step up and do the work that no one else does and never get any recognition for it.
Yes, SOME. My late Dad and most of his crew were from an era of people who were proud of their work and appreciated their jobs. I learned what being a salaried employee meant from Dad. He was always on the job and never complained. Many nights, weekends and holidays were spent on the job without any extra compensation or comp time. There were also lots of part time employees and the holy grail was to become full time, that was seldom, the core group did not leave. I don’t go to the project office anymore, too hard, it looks like a slum now. That would break Dad’s heart. The gooberment has money for everything but what is really important.
Therein lies the problem. YOU WORKED and they jacked off doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and You were making THEM LOOK BAD. I say good on You and Thank You for being a REAL PERSON AND WORKING !!!
I dealt with the same thing in the private sector at many different jobs I had over the years. 99% of the time the USELESS ONES would complain that I was not doing anything and since most of them had been there longer than I had so the PTB would believe them and I was at minimum reprimanded and other times I would get fired for some BS reason.
I would usually hear via the grapevine that eventually the lazy POS that complained about Me was finally caught doing something that they had said I was or wasn't doing and finally got fired. It was a bit of satisfaction but most of the time I would rather have kept that job. But I trudged across the tundra, mile after mile and kept on going.