Exposing Fed Employees: whatTheyDrive.com

[ian_rand]

Looking for opinions on this: How do you feel about these 2 fictional characters below (one closely modeled on fact)? How do you think others would feel, esp. working class folks? What’s your overall reaction to Weasel below?

Common sense tells me the avg fellow in the private sector would be angry when comparing how hard they have to work for their keep vs their Washington counterpart whose salaries they are FORCED to pay.

So I’ve come up with 2 fictional characters to experiment with such contrast: Dave Doe (private sector) and Weasel Loafer (dept. of labor manager). I happen to know this manager @ labor and modeled Weasel on him. I’ve changed somethings for privacy etc…

So here it goes:

Weasel Loafer – Age 45 (finctional modeled on real-life dept. of labor manager)
What he drives: 2010 BMW 535i @ 35,000 miles
Where he vacations: twice/year, once @ labor-dept sponsored skii outing at Jackson Hole, UT  for 1 week (@$500 out of pocket) and 2nd to Marco Island, FL w/family
Where he lives: Sumptuous $950k 2-story on the lake in posh Virginia burb w/outstanding schools.
Schooling: Eastern Illinois University / English Major (Attended together with Dave, graduated bottom 50% of class; gpa 2.8; combined  SAT 950)
Salary: $145,000 + free health, dental and vision care and sweet retirement plan @ 5% contribution.
Title/Function: Managing Director of Figures, Statistics and Projections – North East Region
How did Weasel get here: Weasel joined Bush Senior's ’90 campaign and moved to VA. Joined labor after that. Sat there and got promoted and promoted… Labor can’t name a tangible achievement. Labor is still investigating.
If Loafer doesn’t show up for work: Labor couldn’t name any major issue, except that some reports won’t be signed which may or may not be a problem. Labor is still investigating.
Typical day for Weasel: Get to work at 9:30AM. Reads all major newspapers apparently to keep track of current labor trends. At 11:30 managers’ meeting which is 70% football and golf talk. Then 1 hr lunch which really turns into 2hrs including traffic. Another similar managers’ meeting and leave by 3:20PM. 4:30PM is the official, but Mr. Loafer always has outside matters to attend.
Job security: Weasel will never be fired. EVER!

Dave Doe – Age 45 (this is entirely fictional)
What he drives: 2006 Ford Expedition @ 105,000 miles
Where he vacations: Dave Jr. needed braces so didn’t vacation last year; next year planning car trip to mother’s parents
Where he lives: Comfy, but old $320k 2-story in modest Chicago suburb w/avg schools.
Schooling: Eastern Illinois University / English Major (graduated bottom 50% of class; gpa 2.8; combined SAT 950)
Salary: $75,000 base + $8,000 overtime
Title/Function: Supervisor of Inventory for several Olive Garden franchises.
How did Dave get here: Joined a failed Star-bucks wanna-be coffee chain where he met an Olive Garden franchise owner. Owner gave Dave an assistant’s maangers job. Dave did OK for many years. When several managers quit, Dave was asked to step up and work lots of hrs and he did (in spite of having a 6 month old). He earned $25k in overtime and performance bonus those 2 years and got his current position.
If Dave doesn’t show up for work: Major disruption in supply chain; several popular items must be dropped from menu. Plus Dave also co-manages one of the franchises, so assistant must work 15hr/day shifts.
Typical day for Dave: Get to work at 7AM for conf-call with all franchises; analyze pricing reports from different suppliers; correlate with supply routes for fast delivery; tabulate all in company system which is down 25% of the time and requires spreadsheet back up so double entry required. Stress to get acquisition list out by 3PM daily. By 5PM staff stressed and exhausted and ready for beer, but must stay 3 times/week until 9PM to manage the dinner shift.
Job security: The economy sucks and all restaurants are +30% under budget. Dave knows there will be layoffs he just hopes it won’t be him

I’d love a site showing a stand-in for Weasel and many like him: whatTheyDrive.com. Shows what they drive, where they live, vacations… Sadly, I’ve heard the criticism: but what about your CEO/avg worker relation then? It’s sad that some try to put Weasel at the level of ANY private worker regardless of how lazy/underserving the private worker may be: no one was FORCED to pay taxes for those salaries!

[RightCoast]

You spent way too much time typing that when you could have just brought pie.

[Big Dog]

You spent way too much time typing that when you could have just brought pie.

Oh, hey, pie!

[Mr Mannn]

You spent way too much time typing Cutting and pasting that when you could have just brought pie.

Fixed it for you

[Big Dog]

Common sense tells me the avg fellow in the private sector would be angry when comparing how hard they have to work for their keep vs their Washington counterpart whose salaries they are FORCED to pay.

I’d love a site showing a stand-in for Weasel and many like him: whatTheyDrive.com. Shows what they drive, where they live, vacations… Sadly, I’ve heard the criticism: but what about your CEO/avg worker relation then? It’s sad that some try to put Weasel at the level of ANY private worker regardless of how lazy/underserving the private worker may be: no one was FORCED to pay taxes for those salaries!

It's unhealthy to dwell on how much anyone else makes or spends, or what he drives. Do you have the same envy toward pro baseball players or bestselling authors?

Look to yourself; Make your own life better. Earn more, save more, and spend more when you have more.

[Maxiest]

Did someone say pie?

[CactusCarlos]

Representin' cobbler! 

[Big Dog]

Representin' cobbler! 

I heard that Obama hates cobbler.

He much prefers the dessert of his childhood:


Chocolate Lab!

[CactusCarlos]

I heard that Obama hates cobbler.

He much prefers the dessert of his childhood:


Chocolate Lab!

 

H5!

[DumbAss Tanker]

Kid, I don't think you have a clue how Federal employee retirement, health, or dental insurance work, and to have that much in base pay, the guy would have to be not just in civil service, but either an Administrative Law Judge or a member of the Senior Executive Service.

[Cruise]

I think the idea of a compare/contrast is interesting, but I also think it's really, really hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison.

Typically, jobs in the government that have an equivalent in the private sector (programming, etc) will be underpaid compared to the private sector.  But it's also where a lot of incompetent people go.  This isn't to say that all government workers are incompetent or that all private sector workers are competent, but to say that it's been my experience that government IT knows squat compared to the private sector, on average.

The government employs a lot of people for what amounts to busywork that has no room in the private sector.  Last I changed a TSP, it took 3 people to process, mailing a form across the country, and weeks to process.  In the private sector, all you have to do is a couple of clicks online.  Talk about replacing a shovel with a spoon.  Your typical middle-aged government lady paper pusher would likely be flipping burgers. 

A lot of government workers just aren't bound by the same demands on the private sectors.  We were forbidden from working over 40 hours very strictly for what should have been salaried jobs.  Consequently, nothing gets done.  40 hours a week is vacation to a lot of professionals, myself included.

Finally, a lot of government jobs that are famous for being gravy trains simply have no analogue in the private sector, such as the people that get paid $40/hour to sit in a toll booth and collect change.

In short, I think your fictional scenario would be effective, but it's not so clear-cut in most cases.  If it were, there'd be riots.  It's more of an issue of competency vs incompetency, and that we're spending a lot of money on the incompetent.  Not nearly as easy to demonstrate.

[jtyangel]

Kid, I don't think you have a clue how Federal employee retirement, health, or dental insurance work, and to have that much in base pay, the guy would have to be not just in civil service, but either an Administrative Law Judge or a member of the Senior Executive Service.

Thank you! Apparently he's never seen a gs schedule(available online) or seen the premiums for healthcare for fed employees(also avail online). Where can I sign up for that free healthcare? Premiums, copays and a 20 % shared cost for most plans. I see a lot of hyndais and other economy cars out in the parking lot of the federal building here. Don't get me started on the difficulty of moving between grades if it's not a part of the ladder without benefit of preference points or a buttload of education you'd never find a requirement in a decent private sector job of the same responsibility level.

[Undies]

Chocolate Lab!

You win Post Of The (yester)Day!  h5,2.   

[whiffleball]

GS and WG/WS employees pay for their healthcare and any coverage other than basic life insurance.  No one makes 145k in those levels.  I can't speak to the SES level as I've never served in one of those positions.  It's true that it is incredibly difficult to fire a federal employee, but that's for another conversation that might not be very politically correct.

I don't understand what point you're attempting.

[Gina]

It's unhealthy to dwell on how much anyone else makes or spends, or what he drives. Do you have the same envy toward pro baseball players or bestselling authors?

Look to yourself; Make your own life better. Earn more, save more, and spend more when you have more.

Great post and man!!!  love some sweets

[Undies]

Great post and man!!!  love some sweets

I coulds eats me some of that!

[Gina]

Does look tasty right?!!!   

[jtyangel]

Great post and man!!!  love some sweets

Lord have mercy woman. Was that necessary on my in office day? Lol

[Gina]

There is a Chinaman in there, see the top of his head? 

[ian_rand]

It's unhealthy to dwell on how much anyone else makes or spends, or what he drives. Do you have the same envy toward pro baseball players or bestselling authors?

Look to yourself; Make your own life better. Earn more, save more, and spend more when you have more.

i'm not compelled by the irs to pay salaries of pro baseball players or bestselling authors therefore that's not my business. However, when the irs grabs a wad of cash off my wallet it becomes very much my business what Loafer or anyone of those people make.

[jtyangel]

i'm not compelled by the irs to pay salaries of pro baseball players or bestselling authors therefore that's not my business. However, when the irs grabs a wad of cash off my wallet it becomes very much my business what Loafer or anyone of those people make.

If all you were concerned about was what they made why didn't you research both the pay schedules and premiums readily available online? While you are at it cross reference it with usajobs and what a certain jobs pay scale is for comparison? Instead you created some fictional extreme that is far from representative of even most CURRENT federal employees. What I've found there are trade offs in every job and federal employment is no exception.

[Big Dog]

i'm not compelled by the irs to pay salaries of pro baseball players or bestselling authors therefore that's not my business. However, when the irs grabs a wad of cash off my wallet it becomes very much my business what Loafer or anyone of those people make.

Well, Ayn Rand, since you made up your villainous Federal employee, you have not actually been compelled to pay his salary either.

[DumbAss Tanker]

If all you were concerned about was what they made why didn't you research both the pay schedules and premiums readily available online? While you are at it cross reference it with usajobs and what a certain jobs pay scale is for comparison? Instead you created some fictional extreme that is far from representative of even most CURRENT federal employees. What I've found there are trade offs in every job and federal employment is no exception.

Well said, Jetty, and H5.

The Federal civil service is entirely different from the way most of the State systems work, a fact which is apparently lost on a lot people who should know better before they open their pie-holes on television. 

There are things they pay too much for, but that's mainly in skilled areas like IT where the government set the GS grades for that field at a time when the private sector market for them was a whole lot better, and it's very hard to roll it back now.  There are things they don't pay enough for, mainly the licensed professions, but what the paycheck lacks is compensated for to some extent by comparatively regular hours and a modest but certain retirement package (Since the 80s, GS employees have been under a system that for most pays 1% of your annual base pay per year of service, plus voluntary participation in a 401k-like system called 'Thrift Savings Plan.'  They also have the opportunity to continue their medical plan as long as they keep paying for it every month, which rolls over to Medicare at age 65, so they're not on it all that long between the retirement eligibility date and 65 - no 90% of pay, no counting all your cashed-in leave for your retirement calculation, no free medical care for life, no strikes, no bargaining over pay - none of the stuff that ignorant people are always spouting off about - that stuff all exists in STATE and MUNICIPAL systems, NOT the Federal civil service).