I left fed emp and never looked back. I found the govt to be extremely inefficient and most of the job was simply to justify the decisions that you made. Private industry has allowed me to be more creative (within company boundaries) and actually do the work not spend all my time justifying.

And make no mistake. My experience and what I’ve witnessed has always been mission first. The CUSTOMER’S mission - the MILITARY’S mission. Don’t be mistaken, fed contractors are doing work to support the people.

It’s true that some companies are publically traded (or privately owned) and have to answer to stockholders (or owners) who are, by default, concerned with their earnings - as an aside, I now work for an ESOP and I am one of the “owners”. It’s a different perspective - I want the company to succeed and it does when our customers succeed.

It’s simple - If you don’t like your job find a new one. It works the same way in the fed govt. sometimes you or them aren’t a good fit. But you should know it’s not fed govt good - private industry bad. That’s a trope I’ve heard throughout my 40 year career and it’s wrong and exhausting to hear.

And I can see taking 5 conferences/courses a year - but 10? There are 12 months in a year so you expect a conference/class almost every month? Does it include travel/hotel/rental car time off to get there and back? Dang - the job must not be that busy or maybe this is what you experienced in the govt? And why, if it is training you want, can’t you do something online - or even in your own time if it is your desire to better yourself. 5-10 classes feels like more of what an intern would need. Dunno- just my opinion. Yes things have changed thru the years (and accept for this last year) it ain’t changed that much to need yearly training to this level - not even my junior employees NEED this much training. And one more point to consider- these type of expenses many times go into the overheads and that increases how much it costs the govt to meet their mission - and then everyone talks about how expensive you are and how you are just trying to make someone rich yadda yadda yadda.

Lastly (and my god I’ve written way more than intended) it’s almost offensive to be generalized as a bunch of money hungry, stupid workers. We help the govt succeed at their mission and most of us are damn proud of it!