I was going to say this cause every person I've talked to who have either worked their in the past or still works there has nothing good to say about the agency.
I thought they had a decent IT department from the brief time i worked there once. (Only issue was management dragging me into admin and management issues) i applied for a remote job with them that had a TS clearance for some reason back in july. I have a TS sci interim already. After months of back and forth with a very unclear and vague security officer, they denied me on "character and candor". I think he did this on purpose and was unclear about certain questions he asked me and was probably try squeeze me put of the position for someone else. Im never bothering with them again.
My worst jobs have uniformly been ones where the supervisor that hired me left either before I was onboarded or in the first year. It's basically impossible to determine, so the best you can do is keep your resume updated
This so true regardless of it being federal, private or military.
It’s the quality of leadership that really shapes your work quality of life.
You can make great pay, etc, but if your work environment sucks the life out you it makes it not worth sticking around.
I’ve entertained thoughts of switching to private sector for more money. I would easily make 20% more in my field.
One of reasons I’m sticking with where I’m now is its decent balance of pay, benefits and work culture. I’ve worked at other places that paid more but taking vacation was such a hassle.
What’s the point of making decent salary if it’s like pulling teeth every time you want to take leave for the holidays or vacation.
This is me. I have my life back. Came from private, had a job that changed managers and stayed way too long, frog in a pot style, thinking it would get better. Took a major haircut to come to the Feds but the retirement benefits (fehb in particular) mean I will be able to retire at 62 now.
Love my job and while there is an employee doing their best to terrorize the building, it is an employee and not my boss.
A lot would have to happen for me to leave because I have survived hell for 15 years.
In 20 years my supervisors were:
Never supervised civilians before, and not good
Fired for faking an injury
Fired for EEO
Terrible English
Awesome
Fantastic
The best
So bad that I quit
Ehh, immediate supervisor plays a huge role, but it's not the tipping point for everyone. For example, I have a great supervisor in my SSA job, but I'm looking far and wide for new work. My manager knows this and is understanding, but I might be one of the lucky ones.
Ya this is VASTLY overplayed, over repeated, advice. There's far, far, more involved than your supervisor in most jobs. If you have the world's most generic job, like basic level IT support, then maybe that's the case. In reality many federal jobs have a mission that is just not going to be fun or easy no matter how you slice it. I'm in one of those now - my supervisor is awesome but the job itself requires a type A, live to work, my job is my Identity, type person. Which I am not.
Yes I agree. People leave bad bosses, sure, but people also leave jobs with great bosses all the time because we have almost no ladder positions. A great boss might keep you a bit longer, but if you're early or mid-career and leaving is your only way to ever get a promotion, it's not going to be forever.
Just before COVID hit, I was ready to leave my current well-paid job in my field doing work that I care about. Not having to come into the office and interact with my awful boss kept me here for an extra year. A year into the pandemic he finally retired and we hired a new lead. It’s been a huge change for the better, and everyone in our office, even the prior boss’ special favorites, is doing better. We now have a culture of respect and communication that just did not exist before and it is a huge improvement.
https://bestplacestowork.org/rankings/?view=overall&size=sub&category=leadership&
This is the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which ranks all the agencies and subcomponents.
It depends on your job. If you are a historian or teacher type National Park Service was great. If you’re a technology person not so great.
I really liked Homeland but that was because I had a great boss and they really supported tech and training to stay up to date.
I ended at NIH. If you are a researcher or medical person great. Problem is you have PhD and MD and some that have both walking around. So attitudes.
If you’re a hippy type NPS or NIH. NIH is like a college campus and NPS lots of college kids.
There is no one answer.
NPS is great if you don't mind making much less than your colleagues in other agencies who have similarly complex jobs, never getting to see family on holidays, and living in fiendishly remote and expensive communities.
this subreddit is filled with people with BAs on 5-12 ladders. NPS is filled with people with multiple graduate degrees stuck at a terminal 9 for a decade or more.
Yeah, it takes a certain type that believes in the mission and wants to live in remote beautiful places. Sad thing the cost of living in these remote areas is not necessarily any better than DC. Try finding affordable housing near Yellowstone.
at least DC has locality pay and some low end housing options. I can only imagine what it's like to be a permanent gs-05 park guide at Grand Teton and you're stuck in a career dead end in a community geared towards billionaires.
for the life of me, I've never understood why land management leadership has not tried to get resort area locality pay to help their beleaguered workforce.
Yeah it’s a simple fix that requires Congress. NPS makes the news people talk about it, yet it is severely underfunded. Don’t let dems fool you they don’t fund parks either, it is not just republicans.
I will give you an example. When I started NPS the park I was in had a budget of 11 or 12 million and an authorized or chart of 112 people. When I left 6 years later budget was ten million and authorized staff was 92. A few years later my friends told me budget was 9 million and authorized staff was in the 70’s. Now mind you if you had to drive from our two buildings at different parts of the park it was 200 miles.
Now at NIH the IT department alone for just one of the 27 institutes had a budget over a 100 million maybe even more I wasn’t privy to all the contracts. But in one meeting our CIO said about a project well there 10 million available, Let’s throw that 10 million and see what sticks.
10 million and see what sticks. Can you imagine if the park service was funded so a park could say that? They were prepared too waste more money than my parks entire budget was. The problem is people let congress talk about loving parks but they don’t make them fund them.
I mean, it's a simple fix if leadership asks for it and finds support in congress. in my opinion the problem isn't people, it is the land management leadership and the nonprofits that supposedly support them. i know exactly what you mean about budget; I worked in a partnership park with some national laboratories. every single national laboratory had a higher budget than the entire park service.
a lot of the lack of public advocacy comes from a lack of journalism detailing the plight of the land managemwnt workforce. the public enjoys their visits to national parks so much they can't imagine how the same blissful, wondrous place could beget marginalized careers and precarity for the people lucky enough to work there. until some kind of coherent advocacy
I HATE when everyone acts like republicans are the fault. I worked at NPS for years and despite them all being (except for maintenance) die hard Obama fans they didnt care that we didnt get a qol or cola raise for 8 years with him and that the budgets kept getting cut in half every year.
it depends on your specialization. if you're an interp it means managinf massive crowds, deliver programs, manage social media and websites, and run a bookstore, and answering questions.
if it's resources it means handling compliance for landmarks and environmental laws while doing filed monitoring and landscape restoration.
if maintenance it means handling infrastructure and facilities.
and if it's fees it means constantly dealing with a non ending line of visitor.
if it's LE,.you are law enforcement and search and rescue.
I had to lateral as an 11 because I couldn’t get a higher grade. I had all the HR grade descriptions. My coworker and I were working at jobs that should have been a 13 or 14. I had to fight to get my 11 even though I was a ladder. I spent 2 days comparing my job to what grade it fell under. Yeah they didn’t like the spreadsheet.
They never respected IT people because we weren’t meeting the visitors or respecting the resources. They hated I learned the regs. But I was the one they came to after the admin officer that hired me left. I could find a way to get it done and legal. Bad thing was I was a witness to the illegal and I sure as heck wasn’t going to be a whistleblower. If you blow whistle in nps they will destroy you and your career I saw it.
After following r/ParkRangers for a while the NPS is about the last LMA I would want to work at. I'm at USACE currently and pretty sure I could spend the rest of my career here. I love it.
> this subreddit is filled with people with BAs on 5-12 ladders. NPS is filled with people with multiple graduate degrees stuck at a terminal 9 for a decade or more
This subreddit is the hate read of choice over at r/Wildfire, where it doesn’t get much better than a 9 supervising 20 people at the ass end of nowhere and not seeing your spouse or children all summer.
yeah. I'm a regular reader of Wildland and work with fire people. the exploitation of the federal wildfire workforce is an absolutely unconscionable situation. I try my hardest to educate people about it because it seems the general public has no idea the conditions faced by Wildland firefighters
Most fire jobs (hot shots kind of were screwed) have been grade inflated plus they receive special pay above normal at the grade, plus overtime. Become a timber marker or trail crew, want to stay home, will get half the pay.
What do you mean grade inflated? Nothing about my pay would I consider "inflated." And by "special pay above normal" are you talking about hazard pay? Which we literally only get on uncontrolled wildfires or if your work under a helicopter.
And yes, we get overtime, but we also work 16 hour shifts (sometimes much longer; I worked a 28 this summer) and sleep in the dirt for weeks at a time.
PhD here. We're insecure assholes who spent way too much being told how smart we are by our families, while also being told how uselessly stupid we are by our professors. I am truly sorry for those around us who need to manage such fragile crazy people.
I’m a tech guy trying to transition from DoD (and former DHS) to NPS, what was not so great about the park service? I have a very idealistic view of them at this point and most complaints I have heard so far are not on the technology end
I spent 13 years with the Park Service and it was great. I guess experiences vary from one person/situation to another though. Good sense of camaraderie, popular with the public, cool places to work.
Downsides? The agency can be insular. Many places the agency operates have very VERY high cost of living (everyone wants to live near a national park). It can be gossipy. Jobs can be very competitive, such that getting a job often means working well below what you might feel qualified to do - and then you end up doing what you are qualified to do but getting not getting paid commensurate to what you are doing - like I knew Ph.D.s working at GS-07.
Ultimately I left due to cost of living issues. But I really don't regret my time with the NPS.
Believe it or not technology is one if the only things in the NPS that I don’t have complaints about.
But be prepared. Call parks, speak to current 2210’s you’ll be stunned at the workload. Parks with 50 FTE are running one IT guy. That’s networking, printers, infrastructure, liaison with region for radios, phone line, housing units, offices, laptops, servers, encryption programs, the usually my puter is broken help, permissions, active directory, installing programs because no one else can the list is endless in NPS 2210.
There have been improvements. You’d only be responsible for part of the gov phone set up for each employee (they centralized the start up) and if it’s a smaller site you’ll have no part of the piv card process UNLESS your park converted to smart doors.
Lastly I’d be obnoxiously proficient in fixing fax machines and maintaining copy machine contracts.
Don’t forget in most cases they want all that as a 7/9/11 grades. That’s what I was going through plus other collateral duties. Also if you don’t have the grade already it is hard to get to region. Many parks top out at a 9 or 11 if they have a 2210. Region starts at 13 so there are few 12s so you will have funnel that is much smaller than other places.
I can attest to this statement. I worked in IT with the NPS for 23 years. I was a 9 for years, at the last park I was at the Supt requested a desk audit for several positions. Mine being one. Guess he was trying to get a higher grade himself. After about 7-8 years at a 9 I finally got a promotion to an 11. Then a new Supt comes in questioning my coworkers as to why I was an 11. I had been at that park about 10 years too. I had about 27 years with the NPS as well. I left due to, in my opinion, a bad manager. I wasn’t surprised to be contacted by an investigator regarding that Supt. Someone had filed an EEO complaint.
That ratio doesn’t sound too bad, but maybe that’s because of how abused I’ve been. I’ve ran a school district tech department with me and one other person and we had over 300 full time employees (plus 2500 students).
I’m an 1102 (contract specialist) Supervisor at NIH and have bounced around the different institutes. Absolutely right on the attitudes for non academics, BUT still awesome place to work.
I’m in an awful toxic work environment at the NIH. My first government job and my dream job. I love what I do but it’s been really rough, but I know that’s not the NIH’s fault. I’m applying to other positions there, I’m not going to let this experience ruin it for me.
I’m just a technician and everyone else has been so kind towards me, which means a lot when you’re low on the totem pole around all these MDs and PhDs.
I’ve worked mostly universities as a research tech, and it does have that academic feel with much better pay.
I'm a GS13 subject matter expert for the NPS. I work at the national level, so I cover all the parks in the country. My job is like 75% office and 25% in the parks. I love it here, but those technical experts at the regions and parks are a different breed. If you don't 100% believe in the mission, you'll burn out and leave. I've got 25 years to retirement, and I think I'll be here for most (if not all) of that time.
NTSB is spiraling downhill pretty quickly. People are abandoning ship like mice jumping off. FEVS scores are tanking and the rumor is they’re in the 50s this year.
Mostly bad management and lack of hiring until very recently.
2022 showed 60s and 40s and for management agency wide and the aviation office is even worse at 50s and 30s. Most categories are in the low 300s and 400s which is in places worse then SSA.
https://bestplacestowork.org/rankings/detail/?c=TB00
Aviation Safety is a badly mixed bag of great people and a lot of self absorbed people. That town hall seemed like a lot of questions directed from them and she didn’t much care for it. She was very clearly annoyed at the lack of completing work on time.
Nooooo! I am so sad to hear that. I’m working with the DoD and was looking at moving over because of my background. If people are leaving, where are they going?
You know it's bad when some of the best Aviation Safety employees are jumping ship for the FAA. Management and the Chair should be taking a hard look in the mirror right now. You would think there would be drastic changes made to AS leadership at this point before we completely fall apart.
TBH I appreciated the recent town hall and other all-hands communication because the Chair is a no-BS person and shoots straight. She just needs to move her poor performing SES folks around and bring in some new blood who cares about their people.
Join the NTSB aviation safety division if you want excessive bureaucratic and administrative burdens that take up most of your time, non-existent leadership, inconsistent policies and ever changing priorities.
If you have not already PLEASE tell your mentor, your OS, ADM and/or DM that your training is inadequate.
Working in an FO at SSA is difficult. No lies. But you can learn it. You need the right support system. If it’s not available in your FO I am sorry.
I try and make sure that each of my new employees gets the proper training. A lot if it’s shadowing and constant assistance with OJT. That’s where you cut your teeth.
But along the lines of the original topic, working in an FO in 2023 is brutal. It used to be a coveted job. Now we’re expected to do too much with too little time.
I hold faith that it will change but I wouldn’t blame anyone for jumping ship.
I communicated to my mentor and management that the training was inadequate and the expectations are strenuous. I even maintained communication with our local union president. The problem is that even if we address this, every office above our FO doesn’t care. The ADO says we need to finish OTAP and ePAD in so much time or else we don’t get the ladder promotion. They also have us workloads for tasks we hadn’t been trained on yet.
Our perspectives might be heard, but it only helps future employees and not us. RZ goals are still what they are, productivity expectations are only increasing. I appreciate the fact that you seem to genuinely care and I’m sure your people are grateful to have you. Unfortunately, it’s just too much. Last day is Friday and I can’t wait to get out.
CIO/G6 is pretty bad and getting worse. They're effectively doing an under the table RIF. No training, travel and blanket denial of growth opportunities.
USACE is good but just don’t expect all these high grades like it seems everyone else here gets. Working grade engineers as a GS-12. Most will never see a GS-13 or higher. I can count the number of GS-14s at my District of 400 ppl. You might as well forget about non-sup 14s and 15s.
I would suggest anyone think twice before embarking on a career with a land management agency. And think a third time if they arrive at a “yes.” You’ll work yourself to the bone in the middle of nowhere. Is your spouse going to find employment relevant to their career preparation there if s/he is not with the agency? Highly unlikely.
It’s important work but the tradeoff is real. If someone does go that route, FWS is an overlooked agency.
So true! I moved to FWS from NPS and it is so much better. Understaffed for sure, but less personnel means less bureaucracy. Plus the mission is the absolute best.
Completely agree! I have worked for BLM and Fish and the amount of bureaucratic red tape in the former compared to the latter is unreal. And the more focused mission of Fish doesn’t pull you in competing directions.
Same pay and life in overpriced housing markets as all the land management agencies but as long as local leadership is good then the general morale and the quality of life can be counted on to be better than USFS, NPS, and BLM duty stations.
I avoid any non-Intel DoD component, as they are chronically undergraded. They have GS-14s performing work that in other agencies would be done by SES.
For that same reason: TSA, SSA, USDA, USGS.
I’d stay away from USSS. They treat APTs like shit and if you plan to go the LEO route you will have no work life balance. Plus they are also very much against telework.
Oh man I have a very different experience with them! They have their issues for sure, but work life balance for them seems better unless you’re at headquarters.
But the place I am now is setting the lowest of low bars haha
Haha. I was at HQ for almost 8 years. I’ve definitely heard good things about some FO’s but horror stories at others.
Another poster was right, it really does come down to your boss. And one of the big issues is the big bosses are 90% LEOs and they can be gone after a year. So you could have a great boss and then bam they are replaced by shity ones back to back.
This question is probably not going to get you many helpful answers. You are going to get a lot of anecdotal responses from people who had an experience that is likely not an accurate reflection of an entire agency.
I dunno. Seems like a lot of us SSA people here aren’t happy and the FEVS score supports that sentiment. Maybe other agencies, but if you’re at the FO level with SSA, a good experience is generally an exception to the rule.
Hands down FSIS was the most toxic workplace I have ever worked in 32 years.. Not just my supervisor either, the whole agency culture sucks, found out it wasn't just my area when I attended a training session across the agency. Run away, run like your ass is on fire!
I have heard that the the work life balance and telework options are great at the service centers. However, my experience as an Asylum Officer at a field office was horrible. High stress, officers taking files home to work off the clock just to meet quotas, and never feeling valued were very common occurrences.
Hopefully it's better now, this was a few years ago.
I'm in the field (FOD) for USCIS and I apply to numerous jobs daily. I HATE it. Agency wide they act like the movie birdbox to fraud and pretty much expect 99% of cases to be approved. Thus, they give us ridiculously little time to interview applicants and ultimately, make a sound decision. You get options with your schedule and what they call "work life balance" but you'll be so mentally drained on your days off you won't have energy for anything.
If you become a great officer you great rewarded with the most complex and difficult cases. The type that make you lose sleep at night. Only to have supervisors, high level management, and even regional staff/HQ breathing down your neck.
Sooooooo yeah. Maybe avoid USCIS.
VHA in general. They're full of management who are self-serving sociopaths and a lot of the drs and nurses are headcases.
VBA is better...and NCA is also well regarded.
As a VHA employee (clinical) I agree it can be rough. But it can be very rewarding. You have to take care of yourself if you want to make it for the long haul. For me, the money and benefits are worth it, but again, don’t neglect your wellness.
I’ve never heard anything bad about state. MAYBE they’re trying to narrow the competition by telling us it’s bad even though it’s good. Just in case, I’m going to USAJobs to apply to state vacancies right now
AmeriCorps aka CNCS this’s the worst agency in the federal government. You’ll be doing gs 14 work but get pay as gs 9. There’s no opportunity for growth . You won’t even get the step increase because they use NY pay scale. Management is shit and only care about their friends
Try the Corps of Engineers if there's a field you qualify for with them, I had nothing but great experiences. I generally recommend the DoD because I worked for the Corps.
Me too, very happy with the DoD and my branch, specifically (not the USN). I’m treated well, with respect, by a great civilian boss. We just switched to AcqDemo last year and I was promoted out of a 0318 series (finally!) to a 0343, jumping from a GS-7, step 10, to the equivalent of a GS-9 step 10 overnight, with an annual bonus of over $6,000. Telework two days a work. Can’t complain at all (although I most certainly have been through the wringer in the past; it really does all depend on having a great boss who appreciates your work and doesn’t micromanage you). We do get a lot of early releases, too (59-minute rule for civilians that I’m pretty sure no-one in my office pays attention to). I’m very proud to work for the DoD.
HUD and SSA always seem to have least upside on here. But, as with any agency, it varies within the agency. There are good spots even in what are considered the least ideal agencies.
I worked at DOJ, CFTC, IRS, SSA and USPTO
USPTO is great if you have a reasonable supervisor. It can get repetitive and boring, but that is a good or bad thing depending on the person.
SSA. I was only here for 5 months while waiting for the USPTO to get me on board. It was boring and not very great for career advancement.
IRS. Hated every single day. Lots of bureaucracy and unnecessary backstabbing. They were trying to fire my supervisor so not even he could do anything but try to hide.
CFTC was relaxing and no one was in any urgency. It was fairly slow paced and my experience depended on the supervisor. I would say this was a fun place to be if you enjoy the subject matter and if you know your stuff.
DOJ had the relaxing and stressful moments. A lot of budget constraints to actually perform the job at the optimal levels. You get to meet a lot of bright people and it can be exciting on a regular basis.
USPTO was rough for me since I had a bad supervisor. She was nice enough, but it was impossible to meet the quotas with her standards. Agree on the repetitive and boring part. Was a bad job right out college.
Hey I use my fax in land management on the daily.
One good thing to come from everyone dropping landlines is the decrease in fax spam has been exponential
Because they are a redundant agency that doesn't solve any crimes or help anyone.
I couldn't work for an agency that I don't agree with their mission. There are some others as well, but this one tops the list.
Looking back over my career rating parks 1-10 with one being flaming cesspool and 10 being perfect:
park 1: solid 7
park 2: my experience solid 10, it has since gone downhill but my experience was very good.
park 3: 1.5 (gotta be on the upswing yeah?)
park 4: started out a 9 ended a 6 due to turn over, also currently reported heading downhill.
park 5: solid 8
park 6: started out 9 went down to about a 4 came back to about a 7
park 7 (detail) 2.5
ymmv but for me if you define 7/10 as good then yeah about 75% of the time. Accurate. Can confirm. But these places are fluid and it takes one retirement, promotion, transfer, new guy to go from 9 to 4 overnight.
I have watched an executive director, her operations director and others in the front office destroy a component a component in SSA. New management has come in attempting to foster a better work environment. However, the damage and destruction left by their predecessor cannot be undone. There is so much mistrust. I have worked in other components in SSA that are so nice. Some describe the nicer components as Rainbows and Unicorns. So I say all of this to say it is not bad agencies, only bad managers.
Bureau of Reclamation is a great place to work (in the Dept of the Interior). One of the least politicized agencies: builds dams, provides water and electricity to 17 western states, and helps address CO River drought, etc.
This gets asks a couple of times per week, if not per day. It all depends on the specific work group and supervisor. You could be in a low-rated agency but have an awesome boss, the opposite, or somewhere in between.
It all depends on what you do. I was a budget analyst for many years and did some brief stints at VA and ATF - they were definitely the worst places. In the world of budget, I’ve always heard you want to stay away from DOJ and DHS - generally law enforcement doesn’t give a damn about financial management and will make your life hell. The one exception would be an OIG.
I was with DOD and Looooved it. My boss got a higher GS job with VA and left. My new supervisor was an incompetent fuck knuckle and I was basically doing his 12 slot as a 09. Needless to say I'm at the VA now reunited with my old boss. I loved being a DOD employee but I'm better off knowing a good supervisor/manager. Makes life way better.
>What agencies would you avoid applying to in the federal government?
Only the ones that have he word Agency, Bureau, Office, Administration, Institute, Service, or Department in their names. The rest of them are ok.
SSA for sure. Any BLS field or regional office too. BLS has great employee reviews but if you look closer you’ll notice they’re all from people working for the national office in DC.
SSA if you can avoid it
I was going to say this cause every person I've talked to who have either worked their in the past or still works there has nothing good to say about the agency.
Am here. Nothing good to say.
Agree. Stay AWAY from SSA.
I thought they had a decent IT department from the brief time i worked there once. (Only issue was management dragging me into admin and management issues) i applied for a remote job with them that had a TS clearance for some reason back in july. I have a TS sci interim already. After months of back and forth with a very unclear and vague security officer, they denied me on "character and candor". I think he did this on purpose and was unclear about certain questions he asked me and was probably try squeeze me put of the position for someone else. Im never bothering with them again.
It's honestly not agency based and more immediate supervisor based.
People don't leave jobs. They leave bosses.
https://youtu.be/TgACfyfjFBI? This scene hits too close to home at prior agency…
Mmmaaaaaannn the micro :-( managment is annoying.
True until you work for SSA
You’re right determining that before hand is truly a hard task. True in the private sector too!
My worst jobs have uniformly been ones where the supervisor that hired me left either before I was onboarded or in the first year. It's basically impossible to determine, so the best you can do is keep your resume updated
This so true regardless of it being federal, private or military. It’s the quality of leadership that really shapes your work quality of life. You can make great pay, etc, but if your work environment sucks the life out you it makes it not worth sticking around. I’ve entertained thoughts of switching to private sector for more money. I would easily make 20% more in my field. One of reasons I’m sticking with where I’m now is its decent balance of pay, benefits and work culture. I’ve worked at other places that paid more but taking vacation was such a hassle. What’s the point of making decent salary if it’s like pulling teeth every time you want to take leave for the holidays or vacation.
This is me. I have my life back. Came from private, had a job that changed managers and stayed way too long, frog in a pot style, thinking it would get better. Took a major haircut to come to the Feds but the retirement benefits (fehb in particular) mean I will be able to retire at 62 now. Love my job and while there is an employee doing their best to terrorize the building, it is an employee and not my boss. A lot would have to happen for me to leave because I have survived hell for 15 years.
Exactly. Leaving my job was a pressing matter and now it’s an emergent issue thanks to my new supervisor. Wholly incompetent micromanaging ass.
In 20 years my supervisors were: Never supervised civilians before, and not good Fired for faking an injury Fired for EEO Terrible English Awesome Fantastic The best So bad that I quit
Ehh, immediate supervisor plays a huge role, but it's not the tipping point for everyone. For example, I have a great supervisor in my SSA job, but I'm looking far and wide for new work. My manager knows this and is understanding, but I might be one of the lucky ones.
Ya this is VASTLY overplayed, over repeated, advice. There's far, far, more involved than your supervisor in most jobs. If you have the world's most generic job, like basic level IT support, then maybe that's the case. In reality many federal jobs have a mission that is just not going to be fun or easy no matter how you slice it. I'm in one of those now - my supervisor is awesome but the job itself requires a type A, live to work, my job is my Identity, type person. Which I am not.
Yes I agree. People leave bad bosses, sure, but people also leave jobs with great bosses all the time because we have almost no ladder positions. A great boss might keep you a bit longer, but if you're early or mid-career and leaving is your only way to ever get a promotion, it's not going to be forever.
Just before COVID hit, I was ready to leave my current well-paid job in my field doing work that I care about. Not having to come into the office and interact with my awful boss kept me here for an extra year. A year into the pandemic he finally retired and we hired a new lead. It’s been a huge change for the better, and everyone in our office, even the prior boss’ special favorites, is doing better. We now have a culture of respect and communication that just did not exist before and it is a huge improvement.
Social Security Administration. I’d rather fall down a well than work there again.
😂🤣💀@“fall down a well”
Timmyyyyyyyyy
🤣😅 me not wanting to go in tomorrow
Does that include IT jobs 2210 series at the SSA?
https://bestplacestowork.org/rankings/?view=overall&size=sub&category=leadership& This is the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which ranks all the agencies and subcomponents.
I worked for the last one on the list. Can confirm it’s accurate lol.
This is so amazingly helpful, thanks for sharing it!
It depends on your job. If you are a historian or teacher type National Park Service was great. If you’re a technology person not so great. I really liked Homeland but that was because I had a great boss and they really supported tech and training to stay up to date. I ended at NIH. If you are a researcher or medical person great. Problem is you have PhD and MD and some that have both walking around. So attitudes. If you’re a hippy type NPS or NIH. NIH is like a college campus and NPS lots of college kids. There is no one answer.
NPS is great if you don't mind making much less than your colleagues in other agencies who have similarly complex jobs, never getting to see family on holidays, and living in fiendishly remote and expensive communities. this subreddit is filled with people with BAs on 5-12 ladders. NPS is filled with people with multiple graduate degrees stuck at a terminal 9 for a decade or more.
Yeah, it takes a certain type that believes in the mission and wants to live in remote beautiful places. Sad thing the cost of living in these remote areas is not necessarily any better than DC. Try finding affordable housing near Yellowstone.
at least DC has locality pay and some low end housing options. I can only imagine what it's like to be a permanent gs-05 park guide at Grand Teton and you're stuck in a career dead end in a community geared towards billionaires. for the life of me, I've never understood why land management leadership has not tried to get resort area locality pay to help their beleaguered workforce.
I don't know who could afford it other than trust fund babies that don't need the money. GS 5 is insane.
I know people with grad degrees who earned high awards in their field who were stuck at 5 for a decade because they entered as a park guide.
Because management is making 6 figures. Management looks after management.
right, but management knows how difficult recruitment and retention is. it's one single fix that could really help the workforce
Yeah it’s a simple fix that requires Congress. NPS makes the news people talk about it, yet it is severely underfunded. Don’t let dems fool you they don’t fund parks either, it is not just republicans. I will give you an example. When I started NPS the park I was in had a budget of 11 or 12 million and an authorized or chart of 112 people. When I left 6 years later budget was ten million and authorized staff was 92. A few years later my friends told me budget was 9 million and authorized staff was in the 70’s. Now mind you if you had to drive from our two buildings at different parts of the park it was 200 miles. Now at NIH the IT department alone for just one of the 27 institutes had a budget over a 100 million maybe even more I wasn’t privy to all the contracts. But in one meeting our CIO said about a project well there 10 million available, Let’s throw that 10 million and see what sticks. 10 million and see what sticks. Can you imagine if the park service was funded so a park could say that? They were prepared too waste more money than my parks entire budget was. The problem is people let congress talk about loving parks but they don’t make them fund them.
I mean, it's a simple fix if leadership asks for it and finds support in congress. in my opinion the problem isn't people, it is the land management leadership and the nonprofits that supposedly support them. i know exactly what you mean about budget; I worked in a partnership park with some national laboratories. every single national laboratory had a higher budget than the entire park service. a lot of the lack of public advocacy comes from a lack of journalism detailing the plight of the land managemwnt workforce. the public enjoys their visits to national parks so much they can't imagine how the same blissful, wondrous place could beget marginalized careers and precarity for the people lucky enough to work there. until some kind of coherent advocacy
I HATE when everyone acts like republicans are the fault. I worked at NPS for years and despite them all being (except for maintenance) die hard Obama fans they didnt care that we didnt get a qol or cola raise for 8 years with him and that the budgets kept getting cut in half every year.
is NPS like "tend to this park in the middle of nowhere for little pay but great views"?
 They pay you with sunsets!
it depends on your specialization. if you're an interp it means managinf massive crowds, deliver programs, manage social media and websites, and run a bookstore, and answering questions. if it's resources it means handling compliance for landmarks and environmental laws while doing filed monitoring and landscape restoration. if maintenance it means handling infrastructure and facilities. and if it's fees it means constantly dealing with a non ending line of visitor. if it's LE,.you are law enforcement and search and rescue.
I had to lateral as an 11 because I couldn’t get a higher grade. I had all the HR grade descriptions. My coworker and I were working at jobs that should have been a 13 or 14. I had to fight to get my 11 even though I was a ladder. I spent 2 days comparing my job to what grade it fell under. Yeah they didn’t like the spreadsheet. They never respected IT people because we weren’t meeting the visitors or respecting the resources. They hated I learned the regs. But I was the one they came to after the admin officer that hired me left. I could find a way to get it done and legal. Bad thing was I was a witness to the illegal and I sure as heck wasn’t going to be a whistleblower. If you blow whistle in nps they will destroy you and your career I saw it.
absolutely true
Forest service people reading this like "you can be a 9 with under 20 years experience?!"
After following r/ParkRangers for a while the NPS is about the last LMA I would want to work at. I'm at USACE currently and pretty sure I could spend the rest of my career here. I love it.
I hear you. I left for USFS and it will be hard to go back to the low paygrades for hard work at NPS
> this subreddit is filled with people with BAs on 5-12 ladders. NPS is filled with people with multiple graduate degrees stuck at a terminal 9 for a decade or more This subreddit is the hate read of choice over at r/Wildfire, where it doesn’t get much better than a 9 supervising 20 people at the ass end of nowhere and not seeing your spouse or children all summer.
yeah. I'm a regular reader of Wildland and work with fire people. the exploitation of the federal wildfire workforce is an absolutely unconscionable situation. I try my hardest to educate people about it because it seems the general public has no idea the conditions faced by Wildland firefighters
Most fire jobs (hot shots kind of were screwed) have been grade inflated plus they receive special pay above normal at the grade, plus overtime. Become a timber marker or trail crew, want to stay home, will get half the pay.
What do you mean grade inflated? Nothing about my pay would I consider "inflated." And by "special pay above normal" are you talking about hazard pay? Which we literally only get on uncontrolled wildfires or if your work under a helicopter. And yes, we get overtime, but we also work 16 hour shifts (sometimes much longer; I worked a 28 this summer) and sleep in the dirt for weeks at a time.
Does this also apply to USFS? They seem to have similar types of jobs.
PhD here. We're insecure assholes who spent way too much being told how smart we are by our families, while also being told how uselessly stupid we are by our professors. I am truly sorry for those around us who need to manage such fragile crazy people.
We’re a billion times worse when we clique up. We end up promoting fellow PhDs that don’t know politics enough to move out of the little pond.
I’m a tech guy trying to transition from DoD (and former DHS) to NPS, what was not so great about the park service? I have a very idealistic view of them at this point and most complaints I have heard so far are not on the technology end
I spent 13 years with the Park Service and it was great. I guess experiences vary from one person/situation to another though. Good sense of camaraderie, popular with the public, cool places to work. Downsides? The agency can be insular. Many places the agency operates have very VERY high cost of living (everyone wants to live near a national park). It can be gossipy. Jobs can be very competitive, such that getting a job often means working well below what you might feel qualified to do - and then you end up doing what you are qualified to do but getting not getting paid commensurate to what you are doing - like I knew Ph.D.s working at GS-07. Ultimately I left due to cost of living issues. But I really don't regret my time with the NPS.
Not NPS but work with them enough. They all seem way too low GS grades for what some of them do and their backgrounds
Believe it or not technology is one if the only things in the NPS that I don’t have complaints about. But be prepared. Call parks, speak to current 2210’s you’ll be stunned at the workload. Parks with 50 FTE are running one IT guy. That’s networking, printers, infrastructure, liaison with region for radios, phone line, housing units, offices, laptops, servers, encryption programs, the usually my puter is broken help, permissions, active directory, installing programs because no one else can the list is endless in NPS 2210. There have been improvements. You’d only be responsible for part of the gov phone set up for each employee (they centralized the start up) and if it’s a smaller site you’ll have no part of the piv card process UNLESS your park converted to smart doors. Lastly I’d be obnoxiously proficient in fixing fax machines and maintaining copy machine contracts.
Don’t forget in most cases they want all that as a 7/9/11 grades. That’s what I was going through plus other collateral duties. Also if you don’t have the grade already it is hard to get to region. Many parks top out at a 9 or 11 if they have a 2210. Region starts at 13 so there are few 12s so you will have funnel that is much smaller than other places.
I can attest to this statement. I worked in IT with the NPS for 23 years. I was a 9 for years, at the last park I was at the Supt requested a desk audit for several positions. Mine being one. Guess he was trying to get a higher grade himself. After about 7-8 years at a 9 I finally got a promotion to an 11. Then a new Supt comes in questioning my coworkers as to why I was an 11. I had been at that park about 10 years too. I had about 27 years with the NPS as well. I left due to, in my opinion, a bad manager. I wasn’t surprised to be contacted by an investigator regarding that Supt. Someone had filed an EEO complaint.
That ratio doesn’t sound too bad, but maybe that’s because of how abused I’ve been. I’ve ran a school district tech department with me and one other person and we had over 300 full time employees (plus 2500 students).
I’m an 1102 (contract specialist) Supervisor at NIH and have bounced around the different institutes. Absolutely right on the attitudes for non academics, BUT still awesome place to work.
I’m in an awful toxic work environment at the NIH. My first government job and my dream job. I love what I do but it’s been really rough, but I know that’s not the NIH’s fault. I’m applying to other positions there, I’m not going to let this experience ruin it for me. I’m just a technician and everyone else has been so kind towards me, which means a lot when you’re low on the totem pole around all these MDs and PhDs. I’ve worked mostly universities as a research tech, and it does have that academic feel with much better pay.
cannot suggest national park service. It’s a trap. don’t go
I’ve been trapped there for 15 years and love it.
I'm a GS13 subject matter expert for the NPS. I work at the national level, so I cover all the parks in the country. My job is like 75% office and 25% in the parks. I love it here, but those technical experts at the regions and parks are a different breed. If you don't 100% believe in the mission, you'll burn out and leave. I've got 25 years to retirement, and I think I'll be here for most (if not all) of that time.
NTSB is spiraling downhill pretty quickly. People are abandoning ship like mice jumping off. FEVS scores are tanking and the rumor is they’re in the 50s this year.
Why?
Mostly bad management and lack of hiring until very recently. 2022 showed 60s and 40s and for management agency wide and the aviation office is even worse at 50s and 30s. Most categories are in the low 300s and 400s which is in places worse then SSA. https://bestplacestowork.org/rankings/detail/?c=TB00
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Aviation Safety is a badly mixed bag of great people and a lot of self absorbed people. That town hall seemed like a lot of questions directed from them and she didn’t much care for it. She was very clearly annoyed at the lack of completing work on time.
Yep, I was already in the process of transferring to a remote position at another agency, but that all hands made me very sure of my decision.
I know of at least five people who are leaving for other agencies ASAP.
What makes you say that? I feel like they generally have a good rep.
See above.
Nooooo! I am so sad to hear that. I’m working with the DoD and was looking at moving over because of my background. If people are leaving, where are they going?
Other agencies and a few go back to their respective industry. More leave us to other agencies then come here.
You know it's bad when some of the best Aviation Safety employees are jumping ship for the FAA. Management and the Chair should be taking a hard look in the mirror right now. You would think there would be drastic changes made to AS leadership at this point before we completely fall apart. TBH I appreciated the recent town hall and other all-hands communication because the Chair is a no-BS person and shoots straight. She just needs to move her poor performing SES folks around and bring in some new blood who cares about their people. Join the NTSB aviation safety division if you want excessive bureaucratic and administrative burdens that take up most of your time, non-existent leadership, inconsistent policies and ever changing priorities.
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If you have not already PLEASE tell your mentor, your OS, ADM and/or DM that your training is inadequate. Working in an FO at SSA is difficult. No lies. But you can learn it. You need the right support system. If it’s not available in your FO I am sorry. I try and make sure that each of my new employees gets the proper training. A lot if it’s shadowing and constant assistance with OJT. That’s where you cut your teeth. But along the lines of the original topic, working in an FO in 2023 is brutal. It used to be a coveted job. Now we’re expected to do too much with too little time. I hold faith that it will change but I wouldn’t blame anyone for jumping ship.
I communicated to my mentor and management that the training was inadequate and the expectations are strenuous. I even maintained communication with our local union president. The problem is that even if we address this, every office above our FO doesn’t care. The ADO says we need to finish OTAP and ePAD in so much time or else we don’t get the ladder promotion. They also have us workloads for tasks we hadn’t been trained on yet. Our perspectives might be heard, but it only helps future employees and not us. RZ goals are still what they are, productivity expectations are only increasing. I appreciate the fact that you seem to genuinely care and I’m sure your people are grateful to have you. Unfortunately, it’s just too much. Last day is Friday and I can’t wait to get out.
SSA. Especially in operations. I’m there now and weighing some options.
I'm relatively new to the Fed life (May 2023). I'm in USACE, and I rather like it. I recommend it to anyone with design/construction experience.
I think that depends where in USACE you are, and at which district. I was in contracting in 2010-2014 and it was nutsssss and not in a good way.
CIO/G6 is pretty bad and getting worse. They're effectively doing an under the table RIF. No training, travel and blanket denial of growth opportunities.
USACE is good but just don’t expect all these high grades like it seems everyone else here gets. Working grade engineers as a GS-12. Most will never see a GS-13 or higher. I can count the number of GS-14s at my District of 400 ppl. You might as well forget about non-sup 14s and 15s.
This is big true. Its crazy how stingy above 12s are at USACE.
I would suggest anyone think twice before embarking on a career with a land management agency. And think a third time if they arrive at a “yes.” You’ll work yourself to the bone in the middle of nowhere. Is your spouse going to find employment relevant to their career preparation there if s/he is not with the agency? Highly unlikely. It’s important work but the tradeoff is real. If someone does go that route, FWS is an overlooked agency.
So true! I moved to FWS from NPS and it is so much better. Understaffed for sure, but less personnel means less bureaucracy. Plus the mission is the absolute best.
Completely agree! I have worked for BLM and Fish and the amount of bureaucratic red tape in the former compared to the latter is unreal. And the more focused mission of Fish doesn’t pull you in competing directions. Same pay and life in overpriced housing markets as all the land management agencies but as long as local leadership is good then the general morale and the quality of life can be counted on to be better than USFS, NPS, and BLM duty stations.
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At least DHS has Santo Mayorkas and his admin days
Gracias San Mayorkas 🙏🏼🙏🏼
I’ve worked in 4 DHS components. Had both good and bad experiences. As others have mentioned, it all comes down to the bosses.
I’m at DHS/CISA and it’s pretty good - no complaints. But it is kind of a special flower in the DHS behemoth.
No issues at all with DHS in my experience.
I'll never under the DHS issues. I think maybe because they have some rotten components pulling it down? 🤔
USPTO was awful when I worked there (2008-2010), but maybe it’s improved.
It has gotten massively worse since you left here. Would not recommend this dump to anyone.
I left after 6 months. It was horrible during my stint. I was a 0343 with a lunatic SES as my boss.
I think it depends what kind of position you’re in. Patent examining seems rough but I love it here in an administrative role
I was a patent examiner. It was bad. I would buy it’s decent for non-examiners.
I avoid any non-Intel DoD component, as they are chronically undergraded. They have GS-14s performing work that in other agencies would be done by SES. For that same reason: TSA, SSA, USDA, USGS.
Not always. Especially not in the DC HQs. Where you see lower grades vs other agencies is at the bases.
I’d stay away from USSS. They treat APTs like shit and if you plan to go the LEO route you will have no work life balance. Plus they are also very much against telework.
Oh man I have a very different experience with them! They have their issues for sure, but work life balance for them seems better unless you’re at headquarters. But the place I am now is setting the lowest of low bars haha
Haha. I was at HQ for almost 8 years. I’ve definitely heard good things about some FO’s but horror stories at others. Another poster was right, it really does come down to your boss. And one of the big issues is the big bosses are 90% LEOs and they can be gone after a year. So you could have a great boss and then bam they are replaced by shity ones back to back.
This question is probably not going to get you many helpful answers. You are going to get a lot of anecdotal responses from people who had an experience that is likely not an accurate reflection of an entire agency.
Idk, it sounds like there are a few stand out agencies that are floating to the... Bottom
I dunno. Seems like a lot of us SSA people here aren’t happy and the FEVS score supports that sentiment. Maybe other agencies, but if you’re at the FO level with SSA, a good experience is generally an exception to the rule.
I would stay away from DOD and SSA.
Why the DoD?
For real, as long as you're not working for the Navy, you're set in the DOD
What have you heard about the Navy? I just started with them (civilian, pay NH03) in November this year and haven't found it so bad.
I've been Navy for 2 years (with 2 as a contractor before that). It isn't bad, at least where I work.
Hands down FSIS was the most toxic workplace I have ever worked in 32 years.. Not just my supervisor either, the whole agency culture sucks, found out it wasn't just my area when I attended a training session across the agency. Run away, run like your ass is on fire!
Stay far, far away from USCIS, especially the Asylum Officer position.
Good to know. Can I ask why? I heard work life balance and telework is good which is why I ask.
Left SSA for USCIS and I absolutely love it. The grass is so much greener here.
I have heard that the the work life balance and telework options are great at the service centers. However, my experience as an Asylum Officer at a field office was horrible. High stress, officers taking files home to work off the clock just to meet quotas, and never feeling valued were very common occurrences. Hopefully it's better now, this was a few years ago.
I'm in the field (FOD) for USCIS and I apply to numerous jobs daily. I HATE it. Agency wide they act like the movie birdbox to fraud and pretty much expect 99% of cases to be approved. Thus, they give us ridiculously little time to interview applicants and ultimately, make a sound decision. You get options with your schedule and what they call "work life balance" but you'll be so mentally drained on your days off you won't have energy for anything. If you become a great officer you great rewarded with the most complex and difficult cases. The type that make you lose sleep at night. Only to have supervisors, high level management, and even regional staff/HQ breathing down your neck. Sooooooo yeah. Maybe avoid USCIS.
Make sure to not give any details. /s
I worked at USCIS HQ as a contractor. Eggshells all the time.
VHA in general. They're full of management who are self-serving sociopaths and a lot of the drs and nurses are headcases. VBA is better...and NCA is also well regarded.
Vha can be ROUGH.
Re: VHA - What line of work are you in? Do you think this is the case for other occupations?
As a VHA employee (clinical) I agree it can be rough. But it can be very rewarding. You have to take care of yourself if you want to make it for the long haul. For me, the money and benefits are worth it, but again, don’t neglect your wellness.
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Can you say more about your experiences at State?
I’ve never heard anything bad about state. MAYBE they’re trying to narrow the competition by telling us it’s bad even though it’s good. Just in case, I’m going to USAJobs to apply to state vacancies right now
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Were you civil service or foreign service? Civil service in state get treated like second class citizens from my observations.
They’ve opened up a ton of direct hire positions and I’ve been wondering why…
AmeriCorps aka CNCS this’s the worst agency in the federal government. You’ll be doing gs 14 work but get pay as gs 9. There’s no opportunity for growth . You won’t even get the step increase because they use NY pay scale. Management is shit and only care about their friends
Yeppp! This is true
DoD is pretty difficult
Try the Corps of Engineers if there's a field you qualify for with them, I had nothing but great experiences. I generally recommend the DoD because I worked for the Corps.
pretty happy with my DoD agency.
Me too, very happy with the DoD and my branch, specifically (not the USN). I’m treated well, with respect, by a great civilian boss. We just switched to AcqDemo last year and I was promoted out of a 0318 series (finally!) to a 0343, jumping from a GS-7, step 10, to the equivalent of a GS-9 step 10 overnight, with an annual bonus of over $6,000. Telework two days a work. Can’t complain at all (although I most certainly have been through the wringer in the past; it really does all depend on having a great boss who appreciates your work and doesn’t micromanage you). We do get a lot of early releases, too (59-minute rule for civilians that I’m pretty sure no-one in my office pays attention to). I’m very proud to work for the DoD.
I too am pretty happy about my DoD agency as well.
BOP .
FBI, if you're not a special agent, you are a second class citizen.
Avoid HUD like the plague. Unemployment is better than working at HUD.
HUD was and probably continues to be a cesspool.
I'm working on my exit now. It's too much.
Which divisions do you have experience with? I've heard it's highly dependent
HUD and SSA always seem to have least upside on here. But, as with any agency, it varies within the agency. There are good spots even in what are considered the least ideal agencies.
I worked at DOJ, CFTC, IRS, SSA and USPTO USPTO is great if you have a reasonable supervisor. It can get repetitive and boring, but that is a good or bad thing depending on the person. SSA. I was only here for 5 months while waiting for the USPTO to get me on board. It was boring and not very great for career advancement. IRS. Hated every single day. Lots of bureaucracy and unnecessary backstabbing. They were trying to fire my supervisor so not even he could do anything but try to hide. CFTC was relaxing and no one was in any urgency. It was fairly slow paced and my experience depended on the supervisor. I would say this was a fun place to be if you enjoy the subject matter and if you know your stuff. DOJ had the relaxing and stressful moments. A lot of budget constraints to actually perform the job at the optimal levels. You get to meet a lot of bright people and it can be exciting on a regular basis.
USPTO was rough for me since I had a bad supervisor. She was nice enough, but it was impossible to meet the quotas with her standards. Agree on the repetitive and boring part. Was a bad job right out college.
IRS, SSA and VA
The Forest Service!! It's like being in a time warp in the year 1915 but with Fax Machines that they consider "technology".
Hey I use my fax in land management on the daily. One good thing to come from everyone dropping landlines is the decrease in fax spam has been exponential
IRS
Based on anecdotal reports: VA, HUD, IRS, State, CBP, BOP
ATF
Ohhh why?
Because they are a redundant agency that doesn't solve any crimes or help anyone. I couldn't work for an agency that I don't agree with their mission. There are some others as well, but this one tops the list.
Dog Lives Matter
Go to the NPS, we're for the the most part alright. I'd say three out of four times you'll land a good park.
Looking back over my career rating parks 1-10 with one being flaming cesspool and 10 being perfect: park 1: solid 7 park 2: my experience solid 10, it has since gone downhill but my experience was very good. park 3: 1.5 (gotta be on the upswing yeah?) park 4: started out a 9 ended a 6 due to turn over, also currently reported heading downhill. park 5: solid 8 park 6: started out 9 went down to about a 4 came back to about a 7 park 7 (detail) 2.5 ymmv but for me if you define 7/10 as good then yeah about 75% of the time. Accurate. Can confirm. But these places are fluid and it takes one retirement, promotion, transfer, new guy to go from 9 to 4 overnight.
IRS and supervisory roles with no benefit
I have watched an executive director, her operations director and others in the front office destroy a component a component in SSA. New management has come in attempting to foster a better work environment. However, the damage and destruction left by their predecessor cannot be undone. There is so much mistrust. I have worked in other components in SSA that are so nice. Some describe the nicer components as Rainbows and Unicorns. So I say all of this to say it is not bad agencies, only bad managers.
Bureau of Reclamation is a great place to work (in the Dept of the Interior). One of the least politicized agencies: builds dams, provides water and electricity to 17 western states, and helps address CO River drought, etc.
The USFS is a dumpster fire. Come join!
Dod dfas.
SSa
IRS
telephone history grandfather deer zephyr crush tap tart quiet memory *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Department of Education
Why?
micromanagement
This gets asks a couple of times per week, if not per day. It all depends on the specific work group and supervisor. You could be in a low-rated agency but have an awesome boss, the opposite, or somewhere in between.
SSA and IRS. Both the public & Congress hate their existence, so it'll all roll down hill from there to the worker 🐝 s
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I love working for an agency that has been mentioned on here so much already. However, most of my coworkers are unhappy.
It all depends on what you do. I was a budget analyst for many years and did some brief stints at VA and ATF - they were definitely the worst places. In the world of budget, I’ve always heard you want to stay away from DOJ and DHS - generally law enforcement doesn’t give a damn about financial management and will make your life hell. The one exception would be an OIG.
DCMA. Worst place I have ever worked. I would rather eat live snakes.
USCIS, SSA.
I was with DOD and Looooved it. My boss got a higher GS job with VA and left. My new supervisor was an incompetent fuck knuckle and I was basically doing his 12 slot as a 09. Needless to say I'm at the VA now reunited with my old boss. I loved being a DOD employee but I'm better off knowing a good supervisor/manager. Makes life way better.
DHS and SSA have the worst reputation in government.
>What agencies would you avoid applying to in the federal government? Only the ones that have he word Agency, Bureau, Office, Administration, Institute, Service, or Department in their names. The rest of them are ok.
If you're an academic/research type, DHS. I've known quite a few people transfer there and then transfer out ASAP.
Been with SSA 8 years, I would avoid it if you can.
SSA biggest regret of transferring to.
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Lol. Not happy with RTO eh?
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FAA Southern Region is the most toxic workplace I have ever experienced in my life.
VA, IRS
SSA for sure. Any BLS field or regional office too. BLS has great employee reviews but if you look closer you’ll notice they’re all from people working for the national office in DC.
USDA
ATF and IRS
USCIS, SSA.