I live near DC. Was a fed contractor for quite a number of years for quite a few different fed agencies. I can say factually that the federal workers I worked with were the most incompetent, overpaid, and underperforming group of people I've ever had the misfortune of working with. If they weren't incompetent they were sycophants, the lot of them. Devising new ways to spend money near the end of the fiscal year because that's what they had to do. I knew and heard first hand some feds who tried making it in the commercial world; more than one couldn't do it. One I know didn't last a full week. Too much work. More than half the workforce is women, and many blacks. I knew one black woman who got a cushy job because her other black women friends got her "in." That's how it works. You check the right boxes (female, minority, veteran), you get in. Everybody knew how it worked. The fed jobs were protected because it's a big clique. They run it, and they only let you in if you're one of them.
True story: Fed told me this: He was new, got in because he checked the right boxes. First week or so there, his boss pulls him aside to talk privately to him. "Hey, Anon, we know you're new here, and you're trying to do a good job, but you need to slow down a little bit. You're making us look bad."
Anon says, "Slow down? OK. Like: pull back to 90%?"
I live near DC. Was a fed contractor for quite a number of years for quite a few different fed agencies. I can say factually that the federal workers I worked with were the most incompetent, overpaid, and underperforming group of people I've ever had the misfortune of working with. If they weren't incompetent they were sycophants, the lot of them. Devising new ways to spend money near the end of the fiscal year because that's what they had to do. I knew and heard first hand some feds who tried making it in the commercial world; more than one couldn't do it. One I know didn't last a full week. Too much work. More than half the workforce is women, and many blacks. I knew one black woman who got a cushy job because her other black women friends got her "in." That's how it works. You check the right boxes (female, minority, veteran), you get in. Everybody knew how it worked. The fed jobs were protected because it's a big clique. They run it, and they only let you in if you're one of them.
True story: Fed told me this: He was new, got in because he checked the right boxes. First week or so there, his boss pulls him aside to talk privately to him. "Hey, Anon, we know you're new here, and you're trying to do a good job, but you need to slow down a little bit. You're making us look bad."
Anon says, "Slow down? OK. Like: pull back to 90%?"
Fed boss: "No. 2."
Unfuckingbelievable.