5 out of 6 people...

Diana Hignutt

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Nope, I haven't left yet. I've underestimated my addiction to AW. But with vacation on the short horizon, I'll be gone soon.

Anyway, Friday, I was at a small book release celebration for an old friend of mine (from college). His actual release party is the day we leave so we had a little pre-release party with six close friends. It's a great book about Breweries of the Past. Did you know that the first brewery in North America was built in 1583? I didn't.

So, anyway, anyway, there were six of us partying together. And suddenly, I had a relevation. 5 out of the 6 of us worked as contractors to do the work the government employees were hired to do.. To be clear, we do the work the public employees are paid to do, but they simply call us to do it. Nasa computer programming, Government Accounting, Wastewater Collection and Treatment Repair, etc. The 6th person actually worked for the government, and in fairness, they actually do their job, they don't have contractors to do it for them.

No wonder taxes are so high. Gads.
 

Alpha Echo

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I've often wondered, as a Fed myself, why we contract out so many jobs! We pay you guys way more than we pay us! I don't understand. But you're right. Government jobs are contracted out all the time.

I understand the need for some of it, but when contractors are pulled in to be regular old admininstrative personnel...that I really don't get.
 

Duncan J Macdonald

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Speaking as a Parkway Patriot myself, I'd like to say that contractors are hired for three very good reasons:

1) We're cheaper. (The Gov't may pay more per body per anum, but once you figure in the cost of retirement benefits, the contractor is actually cheaper)

2) We have specialized knowledge/act as Subject Matter Experts. Especially in the military, when the uniformed folks rotate every 18 months or so.

3) We can be fired far easier. Normal support contracts are year-to-year contracts, usually with a multi-year option, but that option must be exercised every year.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Speaking as a Parkway Patriot myself, I'd like to say that contractors are hired for three very good reasons:

1) We're cheaper. (The Gov't may pay more per body per anum, but once you figure in the cost of retirement benefits, the contractor is actually cheaper)

2) We have specialized knowledge/act as Subject Matter Experts. Especially in the military, when the uniformed folks rotate every 18 months or so.

3) We can be fired far easier. Normal support contracts are year-to-year contracts, usually with a multi-year option, but that option must be exercised every year.


But, the government often still pays their employees to pick up the phone and have contractors do their work, and the contractors will want to be paid too. I could see your points, if we were going to just have the contractors do the work, but more often than not, there are still government employees in addition to the contractors. But, hey, I'm one of those contractors so, I'm not entirely complaining, mind you.
 

Kate Thornton

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Speaking as a Parkway Patriot myself, I'd like to say that contractors are hired for three very good reasons:

1) We're cheaper. (The Gov't may pay more per body per anum, but once you figure in the cost of retirement benefits, the contractor is actually cheaper)

2) We have specialized knowledge/act as Subject Matter Experts. Especially in the military, when the uniformed folks rotate every 18 months or so.

3) We can be fired far easier. Normal support contracts are year-to-year contracts, usually with a multi-year option, but that option must be exercised every year.

I am a part time contractor - I am ex-military and have specialized knowledge & training that is in high demand but short supply. I get a flat hourly rate & no benefits and cannot charge for the time it takes me to complete paperwork (part of the contract I agreed to, I'm not complaining.)

There aren't a lot of handy government employees who can do what I do, but if there were, they could be kept busy and would cost a lot.

I love working part time, just enough to keep my skills sharp, getting pin money that doesn't upset my Social Security or my US Army retirement. I love dressing up once a week and going out to work.

I don't know of any underemployed govvies doing my job, though. I guess OP has a different view of how some gov't jobs work, but mine - in special investigations - doesn't have anyone just sitting around. I tease my bosses that things must be tough when they pull out the disabled grannies to do this job. They always answer that things are tough even without me around.
 

blacbird

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Speaking as a Parkway Patriot myself, I'd like to say that contractors are hired for three very good reasons:

1) We're cheaper. (The Gov't may pay more per body per anum, but once you figure in the cost of retirement benefits, the contractor is actually cheaper)

2) We have specialized knowledge/act as Subject Matter Experts. Especially in the military, when the uniformed folks rotate every 18 months or so.

3) We can be fired far easier. Normal support contracts are year-to-year contracts, usually with a multi-year option, but that option must be exercised every year.

Duncan has nailed it perfectly. These are also the same reasons big corporations hire lots of contractors (I've been working as one, for various firms on various projects, for seventeen years; I also do a small amount of government-contract work, because the major agency that sends me work has nobody on staff with the requisite background and skills.).

caw
 

talkwrite

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I am one of those government contractors, specialized knowledge etc and the ride is an easy and enjoyable one for me. I get a kick out of how many government full time employees in one agency it takes to get an assignment to me. They are the clerks and the schedulers and the accounts payable dept- there is quite a chain of them all for one person to do one job.
 

blacbird

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I am one of those government contractors, specialized knowledge etc and the ride is an easy and enjoyable one for me. I get a kick out of how many government full time employees in one agency it takes to get an assignment to me. They are the clerks and the schedulers and the accounts payable dept- there is quite a chain of them all for one person to do one job.

Man, do you ever have this right. And again, it differs in no detail from what happens in big private industry. I never ceased to be astonished at how many skill-challenged people wind up lounging in quiet anonymous comfort in jobs where all they have to do is push pieces of paper (or virtual pieces of paper) from one basket (or file) to another. Dilbert lives and thrives.

caw
 

Diana Hignutt

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I don't know of any underemployed govvies doing my job, though. I guess OP has a different view of how some gov't jobs work, but mine - in special investigations - doesn't have anyone just sitting around. I tease my bosses that things must be tough when they pull out the disabled grannies to do this job. They always answer that things are tough even without me around.

Yep. My experience comes from over 30 years of experience in my job. Approximately, 1/4 of my company's work is work that the existing public workers should be doing (cleaning out clogged up pumps, pushing reset buttons), and are paid to do, but they just call us to do it. I understand that it is not necessarily the case in all types of government contracting.