[jospehm20]

That is because white collar private sector employees are on salary and don’t get paid for working more than 40 hours a week, which they almost ivariably do. This guy shouldn’t cheat on his time card. If he has a problem with that he can always quit, but he will not. There is a reason governemnt employee turnover is very low and it is not the long hours, low pay or ardous conditions they endure.

[magellan]

Perhaps you don't understand what I am saying. For some reason, salaried GS employees hours are tracked, even though they are considered Exempt. Despite they are Exempt, federal GS employees are supposed to be paid overtime. That is and of itself is an oxymoron. To prevent the paying of overtime, time cards are always set as 40 hours worked, regardless. If you work 60 hours on the clock, the extra 20 has to be logged as compensatory time and taken as time off in the future.

What is crazy is, instead of just saying someones hours are 7:30 am to 4:30 pm with an hour for lunch, and giving the individual the discretion to only take a 45 minute lunch break one day so they can leave at 4:15, instead everything has to be documented to a tee. If you have compensatory time "in the bank", you take 15 minutes of comp time to even it up. In fact, workers are encouraged to work a little more than 40 hours in a week, and have some comp time in the bank, so the secretaries can make the time cards work out.

I think the feds should dump the time card system, and the overtime system for GS (keep it for Wage Grade). Move low-end GS positions, like administrative over to WG. Pay for performance. Is someone is efficient, their time becomes their time. If someone gets things done via laptop and VPN at Starbucks on the way home, let them do that.

It is really bad if you are a uniformed military person working alongside a GS. Guess who is forced to work the late hours?

Why did this guy stay? Probably to get to retirement. He made it clear to his management he was not interested in the SES. He pissed off a lot of workers who thought the bonus budget should be applied equally to everyone, not for only those who deserved it. He hated the fact you couldn't fire people. He wanted to get rid of everyone except himself and his auditor. The rest he wanted to contract out.

But I think the real reason he stayed is he felt he could make a difference. He was running a international program which had more countries in it than any other weapons program, and four of the five U.S. military services. And GS-15 money is not bad.

Once he makes his federal retirement, he has a level of experience which will allow him to name his price at any aerospace or defense industry company. He will do well, because he was not a typical federal worker.