Federal govt retirees, I need your advice

[Tesaje]

Originally Posted by aphorista

Thanks to all for your suggestions. Although I take exception that I am a poor civil servent. My ultimate quandry is working in a system that does not work as it should or promises more than it can deliver. More specifically, I am a medical provider in a governmnet hospital system being asked to see more people yet make life or death situatuions etc. Our administration reports to their supervisors that we can handle the workload although we are constantly short-staffed. My direct supervisor is usually out of the office furthering her career. Evaluations are not being done in a timely manner for some folks which makes it near impossible to apply for other positions. My impression from others is to not rock the boat or risk reprisal should I report my supervisor for not completing them. I do enjoy my professional work but the atmosphere and politics makes it hard to just focus on that aspect. Anyway, to all that have shared your advice, I really appreciate it. I will keep it in mind as a means to continue my career with the federal govt.

Your initial post sounded like you had reservations about the current political administration. This one sounds like it is your own management that is not a good situation. These are 2 entirely different things. Regarding bad management - I've heard from many people who work in private industry and it doesn't sound any better. The Dilbert management experience seems to be endemic in our world - inside or outside of govt.

When it comes to toxic managers (and I've had a few), the 1st rule is look out for your own skin. The second is stick to that which you directly have control over and try to limit your caring to that. the 3rd is look for a better situation but keep your search to yourself. Be careful about saying anything negative about your managers to prospective new ones. They too often interpret that to mean that you are a problem child.

If your management is doing illegal or unethical things, you do have a safe way to do something - it is called the Inspector General. Every agency has an Inspector General office and you can make anonymous reports to them. They like it if you give your name but they are required to investigate every report.

As far as living with these bad situations, you can look into some of the books out there that purport to help you deal with difficult people. Personally, I found absolutely none of these techniques ever work - you can't really change someone else. I ended up giving up after 20 years and just keeping to my own stuff.

[vette-dude]

OMG, let me start by stating I'm retired civil service and yes I agree on some of your comments, as to; some of my management was either too busy to manage their people trying to improve their own careers or just didn't have the initiative to be a manager. Speaking of local management, it seems once they are in a permanent position, it almost takes an act of higher powers to replace them....I just did my job to my best each and every day, and "sort of speak" bit my tongue many times due to some of the lack of initiative of some other gov't employees and/or management. We were rarely offered training in relation to our position(s), but often saw that our supervisors' were absent from the job and told they were attending various training offsite. Seems the "working bee" would receive training more or at least yearly to keep their skills current and/or train for new equipment rather than OJT for the equipment operations.

My motto when working was: "one day at a time and do my best each day at work. I also inquired on some online training for my job description a few years prior to retirement, management approved this for me and other employees' , and we were able to take 1 hour each day during working hours to concentrate on training with no distractions from the job., so there was some silver lining, but I reached out and found it and shared with others. I believe now the local HRO office is more involved with employees' and managements' ongoing training. One item that did frustrate me and others I worked with, was the constant talk of downsizing and possibility of RIF for our group. The RIF never came, due to early retirements for those eligible, but just having this atmosphere in the air was disturbing to say the least. Good Luck, I can understand what you are going through.. I always tried to look at the big picture that someday "if not RIF" I would be retired. The time did come and actually it was all worth it in the long run especially with the economy now, I'm somewhat secure in my retirement life.