Why I almost remained a government employee and why I did not

As a government IT employee, I agree with all points listed.<p>In particular, the most major issue for me on the positive side is stability, and the most negative issue is lack of growth.<p>I interviewed at Microsoft (as a courtesy to a friend who works there), and one of the interviewers was genuinely curious about life in the government. I told him that, barring severe budget issues or personal lawlessness, I could not be fired or demoted. But, I'm also at the top of my scale, which means I can't be promoted either. It doesn't matter much what I do (or don't), I can't go up, I can't go down. I'm just "here".<p>In some sense, that's supremely freeing. I can put in exactly as much effort as I feel comfortable with, learn new technologies and techniques right up until I don't feel like it anymore, and so on.<p>On the other hand, I'm kind of a lazy guy who works better when there is a boot up my rear. I know in the private sector I would learn a lot more, and grow professionally a lot more, because there is always that "up or out" mentality. You can't stagnate and survive in most businesses.<p>With more modern government employees, some of his advantages are lessened. For example, our retirement plan is a traditional defined contribution plan, which invests in a stock portfolio of our choosing. Likewise, our time off is two weeks per year plus federal holidays. Neither of these seems more "generous" than the average established private industry, although I don't have direct experience so I'm not sure. Startups of course I wouldn't expect retirement plans and more than the minimum time off.<p>Also the more money part would be nice, with the possibility of things like bonuses. For comparison, Microsoft offered me $110K/year base salary, presumably with the opportunity to earn a bonus on top of that. My current government position pays $84K/year fixed, no opportunity for bonus.<p>That's almost a 50% raise by making a lateral move into private industry, plus then there is further opportunity for advancement once there. (I didn't make the move because of the whole toxic environment/sinking ship, among other considerations.)

As I've surely alluded to on HN in the past, I have too much experience with Government work.<p>I generally consider most of the list of positives as negatives.<p><i>1. Huge sense of purpose.</i><p>Makes it even more frustrating when work which would serve the people is dashed due to petty internal politics and vanity projects.<p><i>2. Stability / 3. Pension</i><p>Widespread complacency about performance from entrenched employees and extreme defensiveness born from the knowledge that they can't hope to go anywhere else and reap the same wage/benefits.<p>When a place is full of people whose primary goal is to last long enough to retire with a pension or simply collect a stable check any perceived threat to the status quo, much less real change is out of the question.<p><i>4. Time off</i><p>Scheduling becomes a nightmare as someone or other is always off. Absolutely nothing gets done from the second week of November to the third week of January.<p>Most senior employees are gone at least 5 weeks a year.<p>When someone does finally retire, the position might be held up a year or more as they burn off accrued leave.<p><i>5. Big fish, small pond. Government tends to promote from within for most positions.</i><p>This compounds number 2 and 3 as the complacent culture of caring only for the next check and retirement exists from the top down.<p>Towers of management are created as moving up becomes the only/most effective way to increase salary at longevity.

From my experience, Government work is broken, and it takes a very special type of person to consider it for the long haul. Once you complete your training, you're usually worth double your salary on the open market, or more.<p>However, few industries really continue to invest in their people the way government does. I had the ability to go anywhere, learn anything, and do anything at any time, and I loved it.

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