I have mentioned here before that I am a Federal employee in DC. I won’t go into any more discussion than that. Not that I am saying anything that would harm my position but because I believe that what I do doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog.
But I do have to say something about the treatment of Federal employees in the media. We are not lazy bums sitting around all day doing nothing and getting rich off of taxpayer money. We pay taxes. We pay for our health insurance (in fact, I had a much better and cheaper plan when I worked in the private sector). We can get downsized and all the talk of reducing the size of government scares us.
When we downsize in government, it is a RIF – a reduction in force. If my position went, they would have to find me another job, but it doesn’t have to be something I like. So yes, my paycheck is safe, and I am not downplaying that. But going into a job you loathe isn’t exactly a good thing.
Right now, there is a reduction in hiring. That means that as people leave – which they do – no one else comes in to take their jobs and the rest of us take on more. Just like in private industry.
I won’t lie – I know we’re in a good spot. But I loathe the implication that we are a waste. The general public would be surprised if all of a sudden, everything shut down, including all the emergency services. We would be missed.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I’m right there with you…everyone says that it’s all of us HORRIBLE teachers that are causing the downfall of our schools, which will of course lead to the downfall of the nation. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad teachers, but there are so many other factors involved in the dysfunction that is our public education system.
Hi: I am also a Federal employee and I just celebrated my 20th anniversary with the same agency. I hate the way we are depicted by the media but I know that the work is not evenly distributed. In my agency, my unit is the busiest in the office. (My office has about a total of 80 people) We are a small unit-3 staff members and 1 manager and we have a ton of work. We could use at least 2 or 3 extra staff in my unit. The work is constant and I am always multitasking – I’m currently working on 5 major assignments and several smaller projects. I love being busy but when you see folks in other units with little or no work it is discouraging and it is not fair. One of my co-workers in another unit has no work at all each year from Oct-Dec. He is frustrated but there is nothing he could do because there is no work available so he just waits until January when his work will start up again. But, I consider myself very fortunate as my pay is very good and I have great co-workers as well as a wonderful manager. I would hate to be at work without actually having work to do.