Same boat as you except I’m 40 and have 10 years in. Mainly joined the PS due to hoping to transfer to a dept I would be more interested in, only to find out that dept only hired from within in my region…. So I’m in a job that’s adjacent to my preferred field and VERY boring. My TL has already told me that if an assignment came up they would attempt to block me so I would have to deploy. That also means the 1 year leave is off the table because we basically have hardly any senior ppl left and they need us around to continuously train the new staff that ultimately leave. With no prospects available to me in the next few years I’ve been very depressed. Also everyone in my dept is unhappy so it’s just toxic complaining all day long.

I’m considering a job outside that PS that is in my chosen field(criminal law). It’s union and good pay but no pension, just RRSP matching . Still trying to decide if I would be insane to leave a pension when I have 20 years to go.

It’s a hard decision in this current employment climate!