Isn't working for the government an oxymoron?

I remember a guy who wanted to get fired by the State of California to collect unemployment and do something else, so he did everything he could and couldn't get fired. They eventually moved his desk into a hallway out of sight, and he didn't even have to show up to work to get a paycheck.

How bad is the discrimination against whites and/or males?

Can you be obvious about telling chicks you will have to be sucked off before you'll renew their registration, etc. or do you have to be discrete?

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

How many days a year do you actually have to show up at work, if at all?

How shitfaced is too shitfaced to show up at a government job?

You get lots of problems if you don't show up to work, but FMLA has been a huge disaster. Lots of employees take advantage.

A former co-worker had a can of beer roll out of her purse. I don't know the exact action taken but usually they give people a chance to get treatment along with a suspension for addiction related things.

Straw Man says

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

How many days a year do you actually have to show up at work, if at all?

On a serious note: is working from home allowed couple days per week (provided the job can be done from home)?

Not usually. Previous Department head frowned on it and it was rarely, if ever, allowed.

Current one goes into an office nearer to home a few times a month, but rarely works from home. Its not really an option for anyone else, and the organization I work for doesn't really allow it.

Booger says

How bad is the discrimination against whites and/or males?

Oh that one too please if you have time FWM.

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

Are there hygienic rules to having hookers living under your desk to service you during the day as you pretend to work at a government job?

I thought the idea of hookers was so they leave once you finish?

Anyway, you'd have to speak with the elected officials as theyre the ones with the hookers.

FortWayne says

Booger says

How bad is the discrimination against whites and/or males?

Oh that one too please if you have time FWM.

There really isn't that kind of overt discrimination and even if there was it wouldn't affect me.

I usually work harder than everyone else or take on the crap jobs no one else wants to do. So basically I'm valuable to whomever I work for. And I show up every day. So even if someone hated me because I'm white, they need me.

I have seen a couple guys with a real chip on their shoulder. It doesn't end well, regardless of race. One retired disgruntled. Two others...a black guy and a hispanic guy...got fired.

It really just comes down to treating everyone decently. I'm well liked every place I've worked and race really isnt something I even think about too much.

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

Can you be obvious about telling chicks you will have to be sucked off before you'll renew their registration, etc. or do you have to be discrete?

Talking to the wrong person. I've always shunned dating anyone from the workplace. I've seen situations where it ends very poorly so I just avoid it.

Ceffer says

I remember a guy who wanted to get fired by the State of California to collect unemployment and do something else, so he did everything he could and couldn't get fired. They eventually moved his desk into a hallway out of sight, and he didn't even have to show up to work to get a paycheck.

May have been like that a long time ago, but isn't anymore. More on that in the next post.

lostand confused says

So is it true that you can never fire a govt employee-under most circumstances. Once you are in, just get to be there and get an automatic raise?

When I first started 17 years ago, there was this lady who would go around in the morning and place an index card at everyones desk. Then she would come back around and pick them up at the end of the day. I would not see her at all anywhere in between. One day a co worker friend and I figured out we could take an early lunch and go get pancakes in the cafeteria. The lady was there, slumped out on a large soft sofa/chair. And literally that is what she did...dropped off the blank index cards, went down and had breakfast, and then slept all day. Every fucking day. I worked there a year and a half. I complained. The manager of the section said he would handle it. Nothing happened. Ever. What I eventually learned was that there was a program to hire "disabled" people. The disability could be as little as partial hearing in one ear. But what these people all had in common is that none of them actually wanted to work and universally anyone hired on that program was the shittiest employee ever.

Voting for Democrats has consequences.

Fast forward to today...no one really puts up with that anymore. The very worst employees I worked with recently either quit, retired, or got fired, Theres literally a handful of subpar employees remaining in my workplace, and there is SOME production out of them. In the past few years, I have learned a ton about encouraging performance, documenting, and re-assigning work. I am embarrassed to be in any way associated with the people who can't produce anything, and will make very sure that no one like the lady I described above ever works for me without doing a full days work. The recession actually made us kind of lean. No one who left was replaced and we had to figure out how to get the work done with less. The way to do that was to demand everyone pull their fair share. And anyone who didn't..can leave one way or another.

Most public entities have to publicly publish their terminations so its pretty easy to confirm what I'm saying is true.

Fucking White Male says

Patrick says

Should public sector unions be illegal?

Fucking White Male says

Retirement for civil servants was 4% per year with minimum retirement age at 55. That is bad. Someone who started at age 20 could have 100% retirement at age 55.

Also, you mean 100% of retirement at age 45, right? (25 years x 4%)

Public employee unions....should really not be allowed to make political contributions.

But as far as the entire systen goes, there would be nepotistic hiring and fraud in unbelievable amounts without someone guarding the henhouse. The public sector unions are a necessary evil I think. Also as much as the nature of civil service management is changing, the unions also are. It's a big part of the reason the retirement reforms are being made.

As to the calculation, ...

I want to just add to this. I work very hard. Its been well over a decade since I had an evaluation that was anything but top marks on every single category. I'm a top performer and in a private company setting I'd be compensated as such(though a top performer in private industry would be much better than I currently am). Basically I outshine my co-workers...I produce more, take on more difficult tasks, and do it better.

Still, I'd hate to work where theres no union protection. The reason is that I would be completely subject to whomever is elected. And if they put people in management positions that didn't like me...Im gone. Even if they love me, theres nothing preventing replacing all the civil service positions with exempt employees as political payback. And thats a disaster for not only me, but the public as well.

FortWayne says

How do you deal/put up with all that bureaucracy and inefficiency in government?

What do you think about our high taxes?

So theres a number of Departments I'd outright eliminate. Without going into too much detail, anything created to pander to a special interest group should be gone. Total waste of money. Bureaucracy and inefficiency? Where I work the only red tape is what the politicians do. The people who vote for the elected officials that run my employer...are incredibly stupid.

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats. Not one of the Democrats in the state assembly or senate give a shit about what you or I pay. The train that Brown is building is political payback and he's a life asshole for screwing the citizens of California with that gigantic waste of money.

Straw Man says

Is the pay competitive with comparable private sector job? Are raises/bonuses automatic?

Pay is currently better than private sector. Private sector frankly sucks in Los Angeles. In other parts of the country, private generally pays more on an apples to apples basis. .

Raises are automatic within a civil service classification up to the top step of that classification. Promotions are not automatic in any way shape or form.

Should I put on my resume that I am incredibly rude and unhelpful, but that I demand an insane level of political correctness in the work place?

Fucking White Male says

FortWayne says

How do you deal/put up with all that bureaucracy and inefficiency in government?

What do you think about our high taxes?

So theres a number of Departments I'd outright eliminate. Without going into too much detail, anything created to pander to a special interest group should be gone. Total waste of money. Bureaucracy and inefficiency? Where I work the only red tape is what the politicians do. The people who vote for the elected officials that run my employer...are incredibly stupid.

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats. Not one of the Democrats in the state assembly or senate give a shit about what you or I pay. The train that Brown is building is political payback and he's a life asshole for screwing the citizens of California with that gigantic waste of money.

Thanks for sharing that FWM. I think I'm going to be even more bitter about our taxes now after hearing your account, they are so damn high in CA and Democrats just increase them every year with more and more bonds and taxes.

Is this why We'll never get to Mars?

Tenpoundbass says

Is this why We'll never get to Mars?

Maybe. When my dad worked there in the 60's and 70's JPL was a lock step conservative place. They built the Voyagers, and as a small child I absolutely LOVED the pictures of Jupiter and Saturn...lol I always though Jupiter looked like bacon in those pictures. I still have some of those. It seems like with Space X and others, that private industry may have eclipsed JPL, but I don't have any first hand knowledge. There are some very bright ladies in tech fields, but theres a reason every single private tech company is dominated by men.

FortWayne says

Fucking White Male says

FortWayne says

How do you deal/put up with all that bureaucracy and inefficiency in government?

What do you think about our high taxes?

So theres a number of Departments I'd outright eliminate. Without going into too much detail, anything created to pander to a special interest group should be gone. Total waste of money. Bureaucracy and inefficiency? Where I work the only red tape is what the politicians do. The people who vote for the elected officials that run my employer...are incredibly stupid.

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats. Not one of the Democrats in the state assembly or senate give a shit about what you or I pay. The train that Brown is building is political payback and he's a life asshole for screwing the citizens of Califo...

I have a lot of convincing to get my wife to move anywhere out of California after I retire. I'd love San Antonio, but shes dead set against anywhere that isn't California, Hawaii(Which doesn't help) and Las Vegas where the morons moving from California might just vote in a state tax.

Do jobs which require security clearance pay significantly more?

Straw Man says

Do jobs which require security clearance pay significantly more?

Not that I'm aware of, but not my area of expertise.

PCGyver says

Fucking White Male says

Voting for Democrats has consequences.

So does voting for republicans.

There can be shity democratic workers and shity republican workers.

But only Democrats seem capable of putting in programs that return 100% unintended negative consequences.

PCGyver says

Fucking White Male says

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats

Yet it's the state with the highest GDP. Go figure. I guess the trickle down theory is bullshit.

State with highest population too.

Go figure.

Fucking White Male says

Nice hardwood floor planks.

What percentage of your office quit when Trump got elected?

They did promise that they would!

Highest GDP in spite of its policies...

PCGyver says

Fucking White Male says

PCGyver says

Fucking White Male says

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats

Yet it's the state with the highest GDP. Go figure. I guess the trickle down theory is bullshit.

State with highest population too.

Go figure.

Yes go figure, even though you complain about the taxes that pays your salary that the Democrats force on you, California has the highest population and GDP of any state.... I guess the Democrats do a much better job than the Republicans when it comes to running a state.

Theyve run it for ~ 10 years. Before that Republicans did used to get elected to statewide office.

Taxes are necessary in one form or another and like I said earlier, even the most ardent libertarian believe some government offices are necessary(after all the primary function of government is the protection of its citizens and their property), and who knows how much better California might do with less regulation and wasteful spending, thereby retaining all those business that keep leaving.

Or is it your argument somehow that business unfriendly laws, tax, and regulation INCREASE the GDP? If thats the case(and I know with you its not), I'll throw you in the same looney bin that Paul Krugman belongs in.

Fucking White Male says

. I've always shunned dating anyone from the workplace. I've seen situations where it ends very poorly so I just avoid it.

No, I meant customers, victims, citizens, whatever you call them that show up at the office looking for something. Can you just demand a blow job and take delivery of payment at your desk or do you have to nod for the donor to meet you in the parking lot and suck you off behind a dumpster or something?

PCGyver says

Fucking White Male says

California's taxes are a joke and absolute folly for the Democrats

Yet it's the state with the highest GDP. Go figure. I guess the trickle down theory is bullshit.

Good weather, a lot of people. Every time cold wind blows in midwest a whole bunch of newcomers arrive. We have some of the highest taxes in the nation, if those were reduced it would restore a lot of economy and we'd be doing 100% better.

PCGyver says

just_passing_through says

Highest GDP in spite of its policies...

Or is it because of their policies? Look at the red states that are hurting. Why, because they still think trickle down works. It didn't when Reagan was in office and it still doesn't.

Reagan recovered this economy when he was in the office. We went from inflation to economic recovery, business boomed despite the hippies and air traffic controllers protesting. Hell he and Bush Sr did so well, Bill Clinton rode into office with surplus in revenue.

Reagan was one of the few presidents who truly changed the course for good, made everything better, and even won the cold war.

Fucking White Male says

San Antonio

Great town, affordable, lots of culture, arts, and food. Austin, for a change of pace, is a skip and a hop away.

But not a "Dry Heat"... but less humid than Miami.

Thanks for this thread.

Can I work for the government for a week and be convicted of cannibalism and still file for early pension because PTSD?

is there way to work part time, since pay is shitty when you start? after 10 yr, move into permanent full time for pension?

PCGyver says

r is it because of their policies? Look at the red states that are hurting. Why, because they still think trickle down works. It didn't when Reagan was in office and it still doesn't.

Tx is just fine. if you think dem policies work, try living in IL. Some of the flyover states you cite-it won't matter if dems or repubs rule-they are not going to be a Paris or a Tokyo. Just a few short years CA was almost bankrupt-if IT takes a dive again-lets see -or the Chinese crack down on their money laundering. Gov Moonbeam is actually fiscally conservative.

I am ok with income tax rises, if you take action to fiscally solve issues. For example in IL if they said hey we are rising taxes, but cutting pension for all ne whires and working to amend the constitution to cap pension at say 60k a year and trying to cut gubmnt by say 20%-then fine.

lostand confused says

I am ok with income tax rises

In CA they are at a point where they just need to cut taxes and lower spending. They over-borrowed, overspent, and overpromised. If you are running a business, taxes strangle you out here to pay for the system that is exorbitantly expensive.

Without getting too political where someone in govt have no control over.

I tell young kids. Intern all the time, if you work with government, especially in a field that can compete with private sector. Think financial planning, after 3 years , you are unemployable.

That's the main reason not to get into it. Besides, New entrants will have nowhere the pension that the older have. Pay retiree more means pay current less, basic common sense

This is more towards competitive market like San nose. If you are in Lakeview, somewhere, yeah. Then the govt gig is the best.

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

Can I work for the government for a week and be convicted of cannibalism and still file for early pension because PTSD?

You can probably do worse :)

kgk01 says

is there way to work part time, since pay is shitty when you start? after 10 yr, move into permanent full time for pension?

Possibly, but it's not easy. Basically you start in a part time Civil service exempt position and you still get a raise in that classification every year. So ten years later you take the civil service test and you would start at one step higher than you were at.

However that assumes you can pass the civil service test and also the retirement rules have changed enough recently that I think this is a really bad strategy.

How about pension spiking. In Alameda County there was a clerk who qualified for 650k a year for pension-which is higher than the president of the United States. I learnt there are some people making 900k a year, then there was that sherriff in the city of Bell I think whose pension spiked 200-300k a year for 2 years of service.

Is this reserved for management folks? I think if you put ina ton of overtime during the last few years-your pension spikes?

Can rank and file play this pension game too??

lostand confused says

How about pension spiking. In Alameda County there was a clerk who qualified for 650k a year for pension-which is higher than the president of the United States. I learnt there are some people making 900k a year, then there was that sherriff in the city of Bell I think whose pension spiked 200-300k a year for 2 years of service.

Is this reserved for management folks? I think if you put ina ton of overtime during the last few years-your pension spikes?

Can rank and file play this pension game too??

Theres ways. But the Bell example is extreme and required corruption by the city council there.

The ways most employees can spike is to take an "acting" position on a swing or graveyard position. That would be a 5.5% bonus each(so 11%) and they would have to only do 1 year on the older retirement system. To get more than that is difficult and generally requires accepting a position they are not really qualified for. I don't know the details of the clerk you cite, but the only ones really making out are those that get a Management level position and pull their unqualified spouse up with them. I know two of those instances and the combined incomes are about $250-300k per year. Its pretty corrupt and both couples have a really shitty reputation. Yeah they are gonna get their money, but they are mostly pariahs among their peers and as they are all relatively young(late 40's) they will be marginalized at work for the next several years. Knowing both couples I actually see eventual divorce. Its one of those things IMO that if you do shady stuff it comes around and bites you in the ass.

We recently had a Clerk(for those that don't know, this is the broadest category of entry level positions. You need a HS degree or a GED and while work experience isnt required, hardly anyone gets hired without at least a year or two of work experience and references) apply for a physically demanding job on a swing shift after working 35+ years in executive level offices. Theres a 5.5% bonus for working that shift...so what do you think she is doing? She did terrible on her interview so its a moot point, but she REALLY should have passed the test for the next promotional position sometime in that 35 years rather than try for a 5% boost at the end.

For where I work, OT does not qualify for retirement, and our management tries very hard to control overtime. .