From retail workers who will never escape poverty to techbros striving for their first million, USA people working for private companies are ruthlessly exploited, pushed to the limits of mind and body, and fucked over at every possible turn. From what I’ve seen, government jobs are more secure and have more built-in protection by far than anything on offer in the private sector. Looking to escape the boom-bust cycle of getting laid off or bought out every two years, endlessly taking new jobs for fewer and fewer dollars of rapidly decreasing value? Good news!
The president’s vaccine mandate is passing its late deadline for federal employees (contractors had a more generous timeline), and antivax fuckos are getting bounced from the government en masse! Job openings galore! Sure veterans and the disabled get priority, but there will be more than enough jobs to reach the rest of you too. Go to USAjobs.gov and commit your life to public service. It isn’t glamorous, but it’s necessary, and so much less brutal than the private sector. I’m looking at you, Orange Julius and Walmart employees. Now’s your chance!
–
i had this post in queue and surprised myself with it. fact is the wheels move slow and the job postings might not even be up yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye out. a lot of the jobs on the site are for agencies to avoid, like ICE, FBI, DHS… but there should be some for more neutral stuff like SSA, GSA, USGS… That’s all.
–
You might be tempted to think, well, if I go into nasty cop jobs as a good person, I can help change them from within. You’ll just ruin your life like Serpico. Think twice baby. I just did a quicky peruse and there are thousands of jobs available there, tho a large amount can surely be eliminated by requiring experience or education you don’t have. You’ll still probably be able to find something.
–
Have you spoken about this to some government employees?
Not only do they endure chronic crap from right-wing media like False Noise, and a lot of elected officials who damn well know better (and some, of course, who don’t), their jobs are political footballs and the economy’s chronic boom-or-bust cycles work against them.
For example, zoning, land use, and building inspection typically get cut back during each recession – but then local governments expect those reduced staffs to do the same functions when upturns create surges in construction. In the county where I live in Florida, even “conservative” real estate developers can’t get projects – legitimate, environmentally-appropriate, socially-desirable efforts – approved and permitted because qualified licensing and inspection workers just aren’t there or have quit due to overwork and underpay.
And they have it easy, compared to the teachers…
I know some government workers, yes. I’m pointing people to federal government, not local. And while it’s got its downsides, from what I’ve heard, it beats most of the jobs in the private sector. You get a few years in and even if your job gets axed for political of the moment situations, you have an automatic in for getting a government job next time around, at better than starting pay.
And if you’re in an agency like the Social Security Administration that has basically an infinite amount of work to do, the job security is amazing. You practically have to commit a federal crime to lose your job. Compare that to a programmer making three times as much money at Amazon who can and will be fired at the drop of a hat. It’s migrant farm work where you break your brain instead of your body.
I could be wrong re: the upper end of private sector jobs, because most of my experience is with body-breaking poor people jobs, but I remember when I was a security guard at Amazon watching the rats race around the cult compound. It was sad shit, and I’ve read articles that confirm a lot of my suspicions about how that goes.
–
In a month or two, I expect to retire after 31 years as a computer programmer at the U.S. Postal Service. I was covered by a union contract, and I have no complaints. I probably could have made a bit more money in the private sector, but I would surely have had more hastles as well.
Pretty much any job that’s not management is a union position, and there are plenty that don’t require special skills…letter carrier (the folks who deliver to your door), clerk (the folks behind the counter at your local post office, mail handler (folks you don’t see who are sorting the mail behind the scenes). If you’re good with machines, there are lots of maintenance positions as well.
Our current Postmaster General is a Trumpista, and he has messed things up a bit; but he couldn’t do anything really bad because, as a practical matter, the mail still has to move, and it takes lots of folks to move it.
Disclaimer: “If this were my employers opinion, I wouldn’t be allowed to post it.” — Norman Diamond
That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Private sector programmers, can you imagine having leave you’re allowed to use, instead of just having it convert a lil lump of money on your way out the door when the startup collapses? If you’re fucking lucky? Program for Uncle Sam.
–
Program for Uncle Sam.
The government doesn’t pay competitively, so the result is that you wind up working with a lot of semi-competent and less competent than that. I’ve been involved with government projects and the amount of waste and abuse is reminiscent of Ming Dynasty imperial China (for the same reason). It takes a strong stomach to work for the government – if you’re competent and you care you’ll have a lot of bile to swallow.
You might have different standards for competence than I do, bud. Programming may be a field where it’s important enough to be fully stocked with brain geniuses, but those jobs are well outnumbered by others, and my points still stand on all of those. And when it comes to abuse, there’s just massively better protection in gov than in the private sector. It’s a fact. The person I know that was in a private tech job (though not programming) endured abuse that would never have lasted a second in government work. There’s more regulation and importantly more union.
–
7 & 8: Marcus is mostly right about programming jobs. In my case, I was fortunate in that I was free to do what I considered a good job even though a few of my coworkers fit the meme of having one year of experience twenty times.
Satan is also right that there are plenty of jobs where I work that don’t require advanced degrees or special skills.