A friend at work…

Half Fast said:
Exactly!

With a few exceptions (that I could count on 3 fingers), this means that the brightest and best work for private industry tech companies, and the USG typically gets mediocre engineers.
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I’ve worked at NASA for 25 years and have known some pretty brilliant engineers at the Centers, and also some pretty brilliant engineers at our Contractors. We build stuff in house when it’s something on the bleeding edge which verges on R&D. So at least some of our CS engineers actually get to build hardware and see it fly into space. But that tends to be on the smaller, science missions.
 
I started my engineering career working for the government (NAVAIR) right after graduation. The new hires got to do engineering, the older guys were paper pushers. I got out before my engineering skills atrophied, did a lot of cool work in a variety of industries, and got laid off several times.

OTOH, a good friend who was hired around the same time stayed with the Navy and just retired... never worried about job security, he has a guaranteed pension, while I'm nervously watching the economy and worrying about my retirement savings.

On the gripping hand, he's had a boring job all these years and is an alcoholic. So who wins?
 
midwestpa24 said:
This recent spike in inflation and wages in the country has flipped the tables on private vs public wages. Traditionally government jobs were looked upon as high paying. With the rapid increases we are seeing, the fed, state, and local governments are slow and chained to their prevailing wage rates and budgets and aren't able to respond to the increases as fast as the private sector has. This is leading to private sector jobs becoming better paying. I'm sure it will eventually catch up, but even I've thought of switching careers.
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I wish we could figure out how to do with less gov employees. I don’t want to see how much the taxes go up.
 
Randomskylane said:
More money fewer headaches until…laid off in recession. If you are in commercial construction once current projects are completed…good luck for the next few years. Commercial office is dead. Retail dead. So everyone fights over med / biotech / retirement homes/data centers and Amazon warehouses
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Same with transportation. Granted, there will ALWAYS be a need for truck drivers, but the current surge in demand and pay is a spike which will recede eventually. I'm already hearing from folks that warehouses are getting full because there is less downstream demand at the retailers - to the point that some stuff that is on the water headed this way has nowhere to go when it gets here.
 
Morgan3820 said:
A friend at work is leaving his government job as a aerospace engineer to drive gasoline delivery trucks because it pays more money, better hours and a lot less BS.
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A couple hundred thousand more do this and we'll be in much better shape.
 
nauga said:
The problem with generalizing GS engineers (NPI) is it depends on what type of engineering and where they are doing it. Gov't engineers in my field/role were very much 'engineering' things. They were also project and program managers but the role was very much hands-on. We tended to gain experience and accountability much faster than our contractor counterparts, for much lower pay, but that tended to work in our favor when making the jump from GS to contractor.

Nauga,
onward and upward
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it does very much depend on where you work. Where I am Army and Marines were shopping all the work out but the Navy (Naval Air Warfare Command, Training Systems Development) did a lot in very interesting stuff. And, not surprisingly, had some very good engineers.
 
jsstevens said:
it does very much depend on where you work. Where I am Army and Marines were shopping all the work out but the Navy (Naval Air Warfare Command, Training Systems Development) did a lot in very interesting stuff. And, not surprisingly, had some very good engineers.
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I worked with some of the TSD folks years ago, they were pretty sharp and a lot of fun on TDY. :D

Nauga,
WST-ful
 
Mikey B said:
Unless you're in one of the higher-cost localities (DC area, NYC, LA, SF, etc.), where it currently tops out at $176,300.
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Yep. Our company compensation got adjusted for location, too. Taking an assignment in Santa Barbara could get you quite a bump, but it still wasn’t enough to compensate for COL.
 
John Oliver had a piece about truckers. You make lots, but you’re responsible for buying and feeding the rig, and it’s expensive. And you only get paid while you’re on the road, not while you’re loading and unloading. The trucking sector has shrunk because the pay is so bad.
 
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Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-self-driving-truck-goods-dallas-fort-worth.html
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Interesting. Hope it takes off.

Most of my job these days is related to integrating AGV (Automated Guided Vehicles) and AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robots) within the confines of warehouse operations. I can tell you, from experience, that 'on paper' design very rarely equates to real life operability - even within the limited scope of 4-wall warehouse operations. The devil is in the exceptions. I can't (actually, more like "don't want to") imagine developing a system to handle the necessary exception handling that is required in mixed-environment OTR driving.
 
Any minute now the Tesla semi will be autonomously driving all the cargo and they’ll be out of work. Followed shortly by autonomous electric cargo drones. Just need one more cycle of battery evolution and it’ll be real.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I wish we could figure out how to do with less gov employees. I don’t want to see how much the taxes go up.
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That is a relatively small percentage of the budget pie. I would more be wondering how the upcoming 6.9% SS COLA is going to be covered. Plus all other entitlements pegged to the CPI. Also, the increased interest payments on the national debt.
 
Morgan3820 said:
That is a relatively small percentage of the budget pie. I would more be wondering how the upcoming 6.9% SS COLA is going to be covered. Plus all other entitlements pegged to the CPI. Also, the increased interest payments on the national debt.
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I agree but it’s all contributory.
 
CJones said:
Heh. Wait until he gets wrapped up in DOT regs and service hours math and gets pulled over by an overzealous blue shirt on a power trip. It may still be less b.s. than at his gov't gig, but it won't be care free kum-ba-ya and butterflies.
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Do you know of any jobs that are?
 
Half Fast said:
Yep. Our company compensation got adjusted for location, too. Taking an assignment in Santa Barbara could get you quite a bump, but it still wasn’t enough to compensate for COL.
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i had a job based in NYC for a while. The “executive assistants” (20-somethings, first job out of school) were getting paid $125k…. Not sure how the govt could really be competitive with any of that.
 
dans2992 said:
i had a job based in NYC for a while. The “executive assistants” (20-somethings, first job out of school) were getting paid $125k…. Not sure how the govt could really be competitive with any of that.
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not sure why any “executive assistant” is worth $125,000 (and don't go to the gutter)
 
Short term thinking. He may be making more money now but what about your n 5 or 10 years? He traded a job with that had the potential to grow into something bigger and better paying for a job where his pay is likely going to already be maxed out with little chance of a promotion or advancement.
 
CJones said:
Heh. Wait until he gets wrapped up in DOT regs and service hours math and gets pulled over by an overzealous blue shirt on a power trip. It may still be less b.s. than at his gov't gig, but it won't be care free kum-ba-ya and butterflies.
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Meh, not BS for the driver (unless he's an owner/operator)...BS for the company he works for, sure, but for the driver? Commercial vehicle regs write the tickets to the company. Unless he's making driving violations (in which case he SHOULD be violated), why would he care?
 
COLA COLA COLA.

That is why government can get plenty of employees at lesser pay scales.

I retired from a private industry job with 40 years, and the highest paying non management job in the company. No COLA.

My wife retired from a low paying government job, 20 years service, COLA for her retirement.

My retirement was more than twice hers.

After 28 years, her retirement is now about equal to mine.

Laughing about the truck driver thing, though. I have had a Class A CDL with all the add ons except flammable and hazmat. I have been recruited by many of the national firms, as I have a nearly clean record for 50 years. No way I am going to drive OTR. Moving the company very special vehicles when needed, yes.
 
This conversation is mostly focused on drivers who are gone on the road for long periods of time, and not paid for load, unload times.
I used to be a driver, still do drive truck some, my daughter's primary job is trucking, and I know dozens of drivers.
Ninety percent are home every night, and the others are never gone more than 1 or 2 nights.
Also most are paid per hour, or per trip, which takes care of loading and unloading pay. I own 7 semi trucks, and its been years since any of my drivers were away longer than 1 night, usually home ever night, and all are paid per hour.
A guy who drives for me is married to a lawyer, and last year she made just $4,700 more than he did, but she wasted a lot of her life in university, amassing huge debt, while he was working full time, and didn't finish high school. If we compared their life time earnings so far, he has made probably 10 times what she has, and did so debt free, she will be paying for her education for years to come still, and she is 2 years older than he is.
Not all truckers are just driving long haul, pulling a dry van or reefer. Mines, logging, gravel, agricultural, fuel, chemicals, concrete, car haulers, flat decks, equipment moving, and a lot more, those are great jobs, high pay, home often.
 
geezer said:
COLA COLA COLA.

That is why government can get plenty of employees at lesser pay scales.

I retired from a private industry job with 40 years, and the highest paying non management job in the company. No COLA.

My wife retired from a low paying government job, 20 years service, COLA for her retirement.

My retirement was more than twice hers.

After 28 years, her retirement is now about equal to mine.
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Sounds like your wife was in the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which had a real pension (assuming we're talking about U.S. Federal government). New Federal employees since sometime in the 80s are in the Federal Employees Retirement System, which is basically a 401k (TSP) plus a small pension. COLAs don't apply to the TSP, so not much of a factor anymore.
 
Whitney said:
A guy who drives for me is married to a lawyer, and last year she made just $4,700 more than he did
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Wow.... either she works pro bono or just doesn't want to work. A friend of mine worked only 20 years as a lawyer and makes well off folks look poor. And he raced cars during that time. Once he had an engine come from together and he told me the next crack head that walks through his door will pay for this. None of the money he spent on his race car came from his pocket.
 
Mikey B said:
Sounds like your wife was in the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which had a real pension (assuming we're talking about U.S. Federal government). New Federal employees since sometime in the 80s are in the Federal Employees Retirement System, which is basically a 401k (TSP) plus a small pension. COLAs don't apply to the TSP, so not much of a factor anymore.
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There is COLA in FERS, the CSRS replacement. The major part of it is Social Security which does have COLA. TSP is optional.
 
luvflyin said:
There is COLA in FERS, the CSRS replacement. The major part of it is Social Security which does have COLA. TSP is optional.
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Well, if you're counting Social Security, that's hardly unique to government employees. I was responding to the idea that government could get away with lower pay scales because of COLAs.
 
Morgan3820 said:
I don’t see it being a problem, this is not over the road. He is doing two deliveries a day up to the fuel farm and back. Home every night.
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In a rig maintained by a liability conscious corporate owner with the office taking care of DOT and tax paperwork.
 
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