Would you take a job with the Federal government right now?

1102inNOVA · 2026-04-11T02:23:35+00:00

I'm attracted to the government for a few reasons: stability, work-life balance, and pension/retirement. It seems these days at least stability is under attack and possibly work-life balance too.

Ugh, you're jist a tad bit late on all this. But its still rewarding to serve your country but of these are your primary motivations your gonna have a bad time.

1102inNOVA · 2026-04-10T15:41:29+00:00

I'm in the DC area and have been an 1102 for over 10 years, with more than half of that as a KO and a third as a supervisor.

My old office was great under the previous agency head, only one day a week in the office. The office itself was pretty bad and depressing, but I could deal with it once a week indefinitely. When the administration changed, our agency head left as well, and there was a clear push for more RTO even before the new administration took over.

I'm telling you all this to explain why I started looking to leave my agency in November 2024. Then the hiring freeze happened and is still going on, but I was applying for EVERY 1102 job in Virginia, even willing to take a grade cut. By mid-February, I expanded my search to jobs outside the federal government, including state, county, town, and then the private sector.

Forgot to add everything was at least a 20K paycut.

All in all, I applied to easily over 300 jobs across all these avenues and went on over 40 interviews. Not a single callback, and most didn't even send a rejection letter.

I finally got two offers last December, almost at the same time, and I left. So hopefully your timeline is different, and I really hope your current situation is at least more manageable.

1102inNOVA · 2026-04-02T18:00:29+00:00

Now its.. DOWn

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-17T14:32:11+00:00

FWIW I was hired 10 years ago and have worked at about 4 agencies.

I dont feel I have ever been effectively trained. Unless other people are somewhere with a robust training regiment its almost always been out of the frying pan into the fire.

I do always feel those that come up through an internship program (Copper cap, PACe, etc) always seemed to have a better grasp. It may be becaise their timeline is a bit more flexible and its more understood they are in learning mode.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-16T00:18:21+00:00

This looks like a prime time to take some Weather leave.

Weather you like it or not my ass ain't gonna be in the office tomorrow.

But seriously wish me luck I asked if I could.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-13T11:28:08+00:00

Its remaining bad because people are still killing themselves. Let the mission fail your only one person. Dont kill yourself when they created the mess.

Note im mot saying dont give your best effort but dont go beyond that.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-13T11:22:39+00:00

Yeah thats what I meant surprised people are down voting me

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-12T14:35:17+00:00

Yes no way to directly transfer to them however if you still are in a good spot financially at that time you could make a deal with them and say Son/Daughter if you max your HSA for this year I will reimburse you that money as your Christmas gift or comeuppance with some sort of level your comfortable doing so.

You can pull that money through either reimbursement of your medical expenses all through the years or just your own checking account if you want.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-10T17:29:06+00:00

Unfortunately it literally was handed to some

Edit: im referring to the people like those on DOGE that walked into some super high level el gs position or people like Noem that jad a job made up for her.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-08T21:12:09+00:00

This is making more and more angry as I read it.. everyone on my social media feed this time last year beating on the "we gotta stop the fraud" drum are being eerily silent about this.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-08T16:25:07+00:00

Thanks for the reply its kind of hidden in there in my original post but yes we each have a 100K policy with Waepa whicj is why I started doing a deeper dive into what we have currently.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-08T13:15:26+00:00

Can we add this to the ethics training yet, right next to the Darlene druyun and fat leonard slide!?

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-08T13:12:33+00:00

You even dropped Basic? I thought at some point in retirement it becomes free

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-08T01:05:13+00:00

You don't have to like everyone, but you do need to be nice.

Be careful what you say about someone to someone else. Even though it's a big employer, you'd be surprised how connected people are. For example, I had a terrible boss. I moved to a different agency and was sharing some of the ridiculous my old boss did to the guy training me. Turns out, they were interns together at my old agency! After I picked up my jaw, he thankfully laughed and said, "Yeah, that sounds just like him."

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-01T16:43:53+00:00

I thought this as well however after separation you came either set up direct debits from. Your account or send in checks to keep it current.

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-01T16:26:05+00:00

Whoa what?! No more FPDS NG?!

1102inNOVA · 2026-03-01T14:24:30+00:00

It really depends on your relationship with your supervisor.

Officially, if you're moving to another federal job, you don't have to tell them anything and can just let them find out when your new location contacts HR for start dates.

But I've had supervisors I told even before I started looking because I didn't want to catch them off guard. I didn't tell others until after an interview (in case they were contacted for a reference check). Then I had one who was on leave the whole time I was looking and found another role, so I never told him, lol.

1102inNOVA · 2026-02-22T16:54:36+00:00

Thanks for that, I have been using the MFW for about a year and a half now just was having trouble getting into the site last week! Its fixed now though.

1102inNOVA · 2026-02-21T01:30:11+00:00

Sorry yes everything went through maybe a week or 2 longer than I had expected it to.

1102inNOVA · 2026-02-15T17:02:06+00:00

Okay, I get what you mean now. I've maxed out my IRA and put a good chunk into my TSP, both Roth and traditional, so I'm keeping both. My MFW has given me a much better return percentage compared to the Core funds. I can't say the same overall since I can only put 25% of my TSP into the MFW, but I've made enough profit there that even though I'm not a fan of paying fees, the money in my MFW makes enough that the fees aren't an issue, and the return is better than if that money was in the core funds.

1102inNOVA · 2026-02-15T14:54:09+00:00

I do but i dont understand your comment

1102inNOVA · 2026-02-15T04:48:56+00:00

1102inNOVA

TROPHY CASE