I am retired after 31 yrs at the Department of Labor and the EPA. But that never stopped me from voting conservative and supporting conservatives. Nor does it determine my responses to issues.
Was there a lot of laziness, confusion, and malfeasance among the work force? Yes. Was that a general situation? No. Most of the workers (particularly EPA) were TOO conscientious and concerned about every comma and period.
The main problem is some of the insane laws which are to be implemented, not the workers. Even the ladies who typed the letters and documents had to be very sharp since dealing with any law involves very careful scrutiny even a Sewer Use law. Read the Clean Water Act and get back to me about the ability of anyone off the street to understand and apply it. That is the law I worked under for three decades - actually only a small Section of it.
I could have made more money in the private sector but preferred to take the lesser risky route. Fed employees are generally better educated than in the private sector and with more time in the job are paid appropriately.
They can be fired and their numbers have not been growing at the federal level. Hopefully, Trump’s election will run a lot of the deadwood out and efficiency will improve.
When I worked and received a phone call from some poor confused person who had been shifted from one person to another because the appropriate person to deal with him had not been located, I would make sure that the proper person got in contact with him and a connection was made. My view of my job was to protect the public from the zealots’ fanaticism. And I tried to help every person who called or wrote
Fed employees are generally better educated than in the private sector and with more time in the job are paid appropriately.
I'm curious, if you folks in government are so highly educated with those big pay checks, why is the country 20 trillion in debt, with lawless violent open borders, Middle America in decline for 2 decades? What about your trade deals that benefit other countries and our enemies, while our economy/trade declines?