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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
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I left one, for two reasons. Relocating due to the state of schools at the time, and the circumstances there preventing me from any more promotional opportunities for at least 10 years. After moving I owned and operated a business for 17 years, now am back at another government job, with enough years left to get a pension when I retire.
Money is the main issue. For professional jobs, the starting pay in the public sector is only slightly lower than the private sector, but promotions do not exist and raises are so much lower than within 5 years you are making 20-50% less than a private sector counterpart (depending on whether or not they get a promotion). By 15 years, you are making half of your private sector counterpart.
But leaving is not that easy. Since so much of public sector paid is deferred (pension), you leave a lot of money on the table by leaving before retirement. There are also extensive ethics rules that can make it difficult to find a job.
(For example, I am barred from working for any vendor in the region for 12 months after I resign. Since we are a large metro county, pretty much every potential private sector employer in my field is a vendor. In order to move to a private sector company, they either have to remove themselves from the vendor list or I have to pay a fine ranging from $10k to two years of salary.)
I worked for the State of Texas for a few months and left due to money, an incompetent bully of a boss, lazy coworkers who didn't give a crap, and spending half of the day creating mounds of completely unnecessary paperwork. I gave myself a 30% raise by leaving. I don't regret that decision at all.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57750
Quote:
Originally Posted by marigolds6
Money is the main issue. For professional jobs, the starting pay in the public sector is only slightly lower than the private sector, but promotions do not exist and raises are so much lower than within 5 years you are making 20-50% less than a private sector counterpart (depending on whether or not they get a promotion). By 15 years, you are making half of your private sector counterpart.
Must vary, because in my first public agency career I had 6 promotions in 16 years. In this one I have had two in four years and a raise every year so I am now making almost double what I made when I started. I have never had to worry about leaving to work for a vendor, in fact several people have left
to work for vendors, then with a few years additional experience came back at a higher level.
Must vary, because in my first public agency career I had 6 promotions in 16 years. In this one I have had two in four years and a raise every year so I am now making almost double what I made when I started. I have never had to worry about leaving to work for a vendor, in fact several people have left to work for vendors, then with a few years additional experience came back at a higher level.
It does vary by level. Local government is almost always flat structure, maybe three levels deep and the top two levels are political appointments. State can have more levels, but still rarely more than four levels deep with the top two levels political appointments. Raises are normally even rarer in state government than they are in local government.
I have seen federal have tons of levels though, but with the rapid push to using contractors everywhere, federal jobs are not that easy to find (and they pay extremely well anyway). The federal ethics rules are much weaker than local rules. At the fed level, you are only barred from moving to a vendor if you personally awarded $10M or more in contracts to that vendor. You can award them $9M in contracts personally and then start working for them immediately
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