Journal npsimons's Journal: Working for the Government 1
So, reading this, it got me to thinking (again): why do I work for the government?
First, a little background: I graduated with a BS in CS in 2000. I then went to work for a startup started by my most challenging professor (I figure I'd learn more working for him than going to graduate school). Half a year later, they lay me off (but toss me some contracting work) because they can't afford to pay me (dotcom bust and all that). Somewhat naively, I decide to try consulting. Seven months later, after burning through all my savings, I'm desperate for a job. I mention this to a college friend who had gone back to his home town to work for DoD, and he manages to get me a site visit. A month later (surprisingly fast for the Feds!), I'm working at a Navy base in the middle of the desert.
So here I am, seven years later, wondering "why do I still work for the government?". A lot has changed since then. I love the town. It's small, dry and hot year round (I grew up in very similar desert). Plenty of very tall and fun to climb/hike/camp in mountains are within a days drive. I play alto sax in the local big band (and occasionally orchestra). I just got sworn in to the local mountain rescue group. The one thing that sucks is the job, and even it's not that bad.
You know how everyone says government employees don't work? It's true, but not for reasons you think. Sure, there are many who are just plain lazy. But out here at a place where we are far from the bureaucracy, where the majority of employees are engineers and scientists who are passionate about their work, the real reasons work doesn't get done are also the major reasons people quit or just gripe about their jobs. Security, while necessary, is a significant speed bump on the road to productivity. Having to get hardware you need to test out of a safe that only one person (not you) has access to, only to find out that you need a computer (that's in another safe that you don't have access to), can be demoralizing.
Not being allowed to install software that you need to do your job is another frustrating thing. It seems that even though someone may be trustable with state secrets, and be an expert in their field, they aren't allowed to decide what the best tool for the job is.
There are numerous other reasons: waiting for months for parts, having to pay credit card bills out of pocket for travel expenses (because vouchers in the travel system are 3 months behind), being forced to "standardize" on one software platform at a place where by definition, standards may be in flux (we are a research center, after all), or the standards are not the best tool for the job and were only chosen for political reasons.
So why do I still work here? I have been tempted, quite often to quit. However, there is nowhere else in this town where I could get the same salary for the same job. It's too small a town. I don't want to move; I love the town. I could try consulting/contracting, but that's iffy. And despite all it's drawbacks, it's not really all that bad. I work with smart people, and the one good thing about bureaucracy is that it's slow, so I haven't been completely cut off yet in the self-administration arena (I have a development machine that I alone am root on; the network admins and I have an understanding: I never call for help or create a problem, and they keep my connection up). All those times when I can't get real work done because I'm waiting for something? I've been playing with different programming languages, toolkits, development tools, etc. Recently, I've been going through "The Pragmatic Programmer" and quite enjoying it. I have some qualms about helping a corrupt government design weapons, but I don't blame Smith and Wesson for gun deaths.
I would jump at an opportunity to get paid to work on open source software from home (telecommute), but I'm not moving. I'm married and my wife also works on base. She has complaints about her job as well, but we both like the town; relocation is out of the question unless we could both get comparable jobs somewhere else in a similar environment.
Now, if they try to make me into a manager who doesn't get to write any code, then I will be looking for a new job.
Just try to remember (Score:2)
That's where I went wrong, 4 years into working for the State. I blogged about the Topoff 4 terrorist training exercise. FEMA saw it and jumped on my Governor, who jumped on my department head, who jumped on HR and said "Get rid of this guy"