Who here works in government?

[Zynx]

I wanted to get a sense of who on this forum is involved in the thankless, grungy, nasty work of actually trying to keep this whole damn thing going. I'm also curious what the morale is like in the places you work right now.

I work for the State of Wisconsin as a policy analyst. State employee morale is what you would expect.

[stone space]

1. I teach mathematics at a state university.

I've come across a lot of resentment over my salary here on DU in certain forums.

Some right wingers here at DU actually advocate my being fired from my job.

[Zynx]

3. Yeah, I don't get the hatred for state employees.

For what we put up with from all angles, the public gets a bargain. Hating state employees has become fashionable because we're deemed to be part of the establishment due to our decidedly middle class wages.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

2. I do

I work for the Feds in an agency I can't and don't want to talk about. Our morale is rock bottom though, for reasons I can't talk about either.

If you're really really super curious you can PM me.

[Zynx]

4. I would be more curious if my job didn't leave me too apathetic to write a message. ;-)

[Mendocino]

6. I worked almost

34 years federal. Retired now, almost 4 years with no regrets at all. My advice, leave public service as soon as possible. You may or may not screwed in retirement, but leaving sooner rather than later will likely give you a better yield than waiting.

[1939]

7. Worked in various government jobs (civilian and military) 1959-1994

The government problem which was spelled out "tongue in cheek" by C. Northcote Parkinson in his book "Parkinson's Law" is that any bureaucratic organization will grow in size without regard to workload. and that the primary motivation in any organization is to "grow itself" and believe me, I have seen enough of that.

If you tell a school district to take cuts, they will immediately eliminate arts, music, and athletic positions while preserving the multitude of "assistant deputy superintendent" positions that really suck up the resources. If you cut the DMV, 100% of the cut will be in window positions and never touch the coffee coolers in the back room.i

[pinboy3niner]

8. Did some time in both military and civilian public service

No regrets, despite military leading to Purple Heart and partial disability. Left civilian public service after Republicans took control of my agency. Morale there under Democratic leadership was high; under Republicans, nonexistent.

[whistler162]

9. I work for NY state in a school district

as technical support.

[madville]

10. I've seen it from all sides

Military, civilian, state and federal contractor, and federal employee.

Basic thoughts, I made twice as much in civilian and contractor roles as I did as a government employee but I worked 5x harder and more hours. Government pension is nice but financially standard of living was lower during those working years but with a lower workload quality of life was better in many ways.

Pick your poison and all that, I got to a point that lower work stress became a higher priority than more money.

[quaker bill]

11. 23 years now

environmental scientist at a regulatory agency. morale is poor.