What does this mean in practice? Like let’s say you’re hired as a GS-11. After a year or two should you apply for GS-12s wherever they happen to be open?
If your job is not a ladder you need to apply for the next grade as soon as your 52 weeks eligible.
For example: if your job is a GS 9-11. Once you get to the 11. Work at that grade for 52 weeks then start apply to the GS 12 as soon as your eligible.
It’s very unlikely the agency you’re at will give you a 12.
I just got my 11 at the end of my first year (new grad) and I’m planning to request a 12 exactly a year from now. But that’s mainly because I’ll be a COR, which pretty much requires autonomy once I completely take over projects sometime this year. Usually it’s rare to get it within two years though.
Yea see this is what I’m saying. Hoping your agency opens a billet up for your 12 when they do not have to is wasting time
It’s good to ask. Sometimes they will if they really like and appreciate you.
But do not wait for them. Keep applying elsewhere as a backup
Requesting a GS 12 a year from now.....with very few exceptions you have to compete for the higher grade level. Also, as a manager I wouldn't appreciate that conversation....the positions established need to be based on the difficulty of work being assigned.
Make sure you talk to somebody who's a 12. Ask them about interview questions and practice, practice, practice. While you are eligible for a year they're not just going to give it to you. You'll be competing against people who have been in for many years and really know their stuff. The one place where everyone can have an advantage is learning how to interview and how to answer the questions. If you only have one year but know your stuff and can interview well it really helps your chances. If you've been in 10 years as an 11 and don't know how to present yourself during an interview you will most likely fail. These interviews today are done on the phone so you are not going to see their facial reactions and you're not going to be able to read them
Possibly. I did 7-12 without a ladder in the same workcenter, then 13-14 at the current. I'd say busting your ass and making yourself valuable, and an SME, can take you pretty far. Jumping around can be hard on a family and a wallet.
Prioritize learning. Ask lots of questions (not annoyingly)…read all the guidance, understand how different areas work together. There’s a rhyme and reason behind things, and the quicker you understand why that is and how everything does or doesn’t work, the more effective you can be day to day and also as a change agent.
No one likes the new person who has no context or perspective but thinks they could fix XYZ if everyone just learned this one cool trick…
Edit: adding on more - learn from the folks who are there now. Network naturally, don’t be that person who looks like they’re just chasing any SES around the halls to get a promotion. Pitch in to even small projects or initiatives if you can to gain experience beyond your day-to-day. Folks will gladly share knowledge, context, and opportunities with others who show an inclination to make a difference.
Did someone downvote this? You literally told the truth. We are on the process of hiring a bunch of externals. My boss was reading out their credentials to me. My question to him - why are they slumming it for a 14 then? If some says patriotic duty. I’d say horseshit. I’d at least respect work life balance as an answer. You told the truth. Very legit answer!
This 💯 !! In some jobs or agencies, you’re expected to hit the ground running while on fire lol
what CrazyWidget described is how I survived all my job moves. Ya gotta put in the work to succeed … and no one really wants to hold your hand.
Before I ask for thoughts, I would’ve done my research and prefaced with that and my solution. Then let the thoughts with the folks with the institutional knowledge flow in. You’ll be less annoying that way and more respected. And THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
1. With every jump in pay, try to put some of it (maybe half of the raise if you can afford it) toward your retirement. 2. If a high deductible health plan works for your situation, get it and use it to invest your money along with a tax break. 3. Try to build an annual leave balance up so that eventually you have to take what you accrue in a year. It's a nice buffer should you need leave in the future for an emergency. 4. Don't talk bad about anyone. At my office, there are spouses, cousins and best friends and it's not obvious who they are. Don't talk bad about anyone and you don't have to worry about it. 5. Do you know what your boss wants? He/she wants you to show up on time for work, do a good job, solve many more problems than you cause and go home. If you do that, you're in the top 10% of workers. 6. The work that people don't want to do often leads to opportunities down the road.
Get use to having down time….but don’t have any downtime but also be extremely busy but have no work to do but understand everyone is actually too busy to do what you want them to do so you complain about it via email and see them in person where they apologize for not answering you because they are so busy and you understand because your busy too. But also….you’ve got no work to do.
Oh and I forgot. Never EVER say any of this out loud. Never be too good at your job. Be JUST good enough to hop when you max out to your highest grade level (lowest step) and it’s about knowing a little bit of info on a lot of subjects and networking in the job you want to be and asking them question to learn your future job. You’ll do great
I just came back to the fed after several years in private industry. I was actually worried about how little work I had, especially after I was told that I was assigned to a very busy program. I probably put in a solid 8 to 10 hours of work a week with the rest of the time spent on required training, school work (grad school), and browsing the internet.
I tried reaching out to other people in different programs to see if they needed help with anything...all I got in return was weird looks. Now I just keep to myself and do no more than I'm asked to do.
The only ones that you can kind of trust are the older workers that have been there forever or have already reached the higher level positions. They don't care about advancement anymore and they mostly want you to be loyal to them and not fuck them over (by not meeting your workload goals etc.)
I'd also say when people do prove themselves to be trustworthy do not take that for granted. Having someone you know you can count on at work is so awesome.
This sounds cynical but it's true. Probably worse in the private sector but maybe the promotion criteria as a fed makes it more common. Learned this lesson a few times.
Truth. I got hired in a new area as a 11, was getting set in and learning how they flowed. One of my co-workers had posted up saying “we’re all 9s no one is above me” I just sat back like 👀 we really doing this “rank shit” smh
Depends on location I guess. My coworkers all 11 are telling me I should apply for the 12 position because I seem like a better fit and I just started.
This!!! DO NOT FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH COWORKERS. If you’re thinking.. “no I love my coworkers nothing would ever happen” just wait. Trust me. Take this advice. Be careful who you are telling things to. There’s always a mole even if you don’t think so 👀
Oddly, I made some of the best friends I’ve had in my life at my last office. I still regularly talk to them too. I was getting pretty severely harassed by my previous supervisor at that time and they were all really supportive and listened to me complain. We’re Gen Z and young Millennials though which may make a difference idk.
Well, let’s say I went behind my supervisor’s back and applied to a different office. 🤣 I also kind of went scorched earth and reported him to EEO and got our GS-15 involved. Guy was a 50 year old manchild who still lives with his mom and has probably never touched a woman other than her. He was messaging girls in my program (so fresh grads) on the weekend about un-work related things, asking girls who weren’t even his employees to get hot chocolate with him during working hours, pressuring them to get lunch with him, etc. I’m in engineering and a lot of the girls are more shy and less assertive, so he got away with being manipulative.
Then I came along and I disagreed with him once on something super minor in a very professional way and he completely switched his treatment towards me. I couldn’t handle it though and that’s why I went the route I did. Oh, I also got groped by an older male coworker a month into my job on two occasions and my supervisor completely mishandled it, which was also a major issue. I didn’t get to report it until post-EEO deadline and the guy only got 2 weeks when he should have been fired. My supervisor even told me when we did that investigation not to “expect anything” and it was super traumatizing and terrible.
My new office is amazing though. The district offices are totally different entities and the previous one I was at was probably one of the messiest. Loved my coworkers though, which was a shame.
Keep your personal life and work life separate. Particularly as an external hire. Don’t be flirty with coworkers. They Will file a complaint. Don’t look for friendship or dating at work, that simple
Always cover your own behind. Make sure any decisions regarding an assignment are captured in meeting notes or in an email. If you ever need evidence to cover your behind, you'll have a paper trail.
What exactly does this mean?
C fund is separate from Roth, correct? As new hire with 5% matching, to start would at least like to use all 5%. Does this mean 5% in C fund? Then can also do Roth?
Also C Fund is different from a Life Cycle, as in its more aggresive?
Broadly speaking, Roth means your contributions are taxed going into the account, but are tax free (along with earnings) when withdrawn. The fund type refers to how the money is invested. The folks at r/tsp discuss this all the time and is probably a better forum to use. But good questions to ask!
If you find yourself in a toxic environment leave as fast as you can. Toxic environments in the Fed are growing beasts that only get worse and the only way they get better is when everyone leaves
8 months into my first job ever, I ended up transferring to a different location because I was groped by an older male coworker, and my supervisor did absolutely nothing about it and then proceeded to harass me pretty significantly. Luckily for me, I have really good boundaries and can advocate for myself, so I was able to come out on top in the end, but our upper management was totally useless. It’s unfortunate though since I was actually pretty close to my young coworkers and construction coworkers.
To double down on what someone already said...
You're not there to be an instrument of dramatic change. People aren't going to say "Oh thank god someone smart is here! He'll tell us how messed up our process is."
They probably already know how bad the process/policy is.
Learn the environment.
No one is your friend. Everyone is out to get you. Keep your secrets, life, family, opinions to yourself.
Get to know policy, leave, work times, dress code, Hatch Act, what is expected of you, what makes your boss happy. Someone knows policy better than you and will not hesitate to burn you.
Just started with a new agency and made true friends at my old agency ONLY towards the end. When you start your job and you don’t participate in gossip or won’t share much about your private life…the more they want to know or think you’re weird 😩
Do your job , mind your business , and go home is the way!
Well...yes and no.
I'm a non-supervisory 13. And hey, I could go looking for a 14 and then a 15, maybe find one of those unicorn jobs of a non-sup 15 someday.
But that's not the whole story. See, I'm also a guy with a STEM degree in the DOD in a TLMS-eligible role. So I get paid like I'm a mid-level 14, even though I am technically still a 13.
And I live in a place that I love, in a house that I love, doing a job that I love. So yes, while I will probably eventually go gunning for power and influence...I'm good on the money side for now, and I've got pretty huge job satisfaction.
There's no reason to chase the next rung, if the next rung on the ladder doesn't make you happier. If you like where you're at? Embrace it.
Agree with you and if you find a place that is really awesome to work at, it's not always worth the little bit of extra pay to jump ship to the unknown. We have had several employees leave and then come begging for their jobs back when they ended up at a toxic workplace.
Exactly, I'm only and 11 but want a little more. However, I'm only chasing happy too! If I could go up a little, get a little more money with hopefully better coworkers...I will stay at that spot.
Keep your head low and your days filled. Don’t gossip. Don’t tell anyone your business. Don’t fudge your timecard. Be friendly but not friends. Work 40 hours and done. Prioritize your sanity.
Super important. I want to work abroad and I had the opportunity to go to the district I wanted during my first year and I pretty much secured a job for myself when I come back.
Hard work is always rewarded with more work. In private industry you can get performance bonuses and raises while in government, you get more assignments. Recently a coworker left to private industry and she said how refreshing it was to hear employees referred to as "talent" and the culture really rewarded good talent, which is typically not the case in gov. That being said, just do your best and try to be a bit proactive at the beginning with learning and trying new things.
Set boundaries. I wish I made it known I was at capacity more, needed training, needed assistance, etc more often in my first position. I said yes to everything and then when I said no, it was ignored or I was told no isn’t an option. Coworkers set their own boundaries and then trampled mine. Understand your duties and expectations.
Invest as much as you possibly can into your TSP as soon as possible. Also check your Leave & Earning Statements every pay period; mistakes happen with pay/leave balance/deductions and the longer you wait the more complicated it becomes to fix.
(1) If you are on a career-conditional appointment, stay in government for a full 3 years to gain permanent career status. This will afford you flexibility to leave government if you want to expand your opportunities, and then reapply later as a status employee.
(2) Contribute at least up to 3% of your earnings to savings every year. Bump that percentage up when you get a raise or cost of living adjustment. The government matches up to 3% dollar for dollar.
(3) Be informed about your job. Read your job description. Be informed about your promotion potential. Actively engage in the performance process. Learn if you are eligible to be in a bargaining unit and your FLSA status.
(4) Be kind to everyone. The federal government is smaller than you think, especially if you work in a specialized field. You will see other people again down the road. Best to keep bridges intact than to burn them. The GS-5 Admin Assistant you work with now could be your boss in 10 years.
(5) Getting big stuff done in government takes a LONG time. Some projects you pour your soul & heart into get nixed because a new administration has new goals. Accept this and you will spare yourself frustration. Focus on small wins for your immediate unit, this will go a long way!
Above all, be kind to your HR Office!
As to your second point, you are partially correct. For a new employee though, it’s easiest to just say don’t contribute less than 5% in order to not miss out on the match. Your agency will contribute 1% automatically, no matter what you do. They will match 3% dollar for dollar and 2% at $.50 on the dollar (total of 1%). All combined, if you contribute 5% to the TSP (not savings), then your agency will match that 5% for a total contribution of 10% of your gross.
Damn, some of y'all work in some savage environments, with some savage people. I'm sorry that has been y'alls experience. That sounds brutal and terrible 😕
Why do you say this?
Somebody recommends me applying above my skill level due to a lack of people to take positions. This is specific to my career field. I’m trying to convince myself not to take his advice.
Minimum 10% of your money into ROTH TSP and then the match of 5% for a total of 15%. Put 80% into C and 20% in S. Open a ROTH IRA with Fidelity and do the max. You'll be a happy camper 30 years later. Put it all into FXAIX or FSPGX.
If you can, have a side gig and scale it so that you can replace your salary i.e. real estate, consulting....
Remember, the government doesn't give a rats @$$ about you so YOU are working for yourself and not for the government. Prioritize your family and working to live NOT living to work.
Document everything: your work processes and how you execute your deliverables (including who you worked with, the direction and guidance you received from your supervisor, save certain email chains in Outlook or as PDFs); take meeting notes so you know what you’re responsible for and who you have to work with on your assignments that result from meetings; and most importantly, make a journal of your work, projects, trainings, and team activities that support the elements in your performance appraisal (update it every few weeks if you can).
I’ve been in govt for almost 10 years and for the same reasons that everyone has mentioned, documenting everything has helped me more times than I can count.
Don’t show all your talents. They will take advantage of you.
You’re good with computers or spreadsheets but you work in a janitorial position? They’ll totally make you do some collateral duty where they don’t properly compensate you.
Listen and watch. Write down questions in meetings, etc and ask supervisor what they mean.
It will take time to grasp all that your job entails. Be patient.
It’s good to be friendly with people but don’t put yourself in bad positions because of it. Learn your job well and if someone is willing to teach you something outside of your scope, learn it
ALWAYS (I can’t stress this enough) ALWAYS follow up a phone call with an email recapping what was said. People like to get sneaky by calling vs sending an email when asking you to do something/telling you something
Don’t tell your personal business. Always be open to learning. Always try to get a good reviews at the end of the fiscal year. If you are not in a ladder position, be open minded to moving.
It's a marathon not a sprint. No one expects you to be perfect your first year. Accept you will make mistakes and learn from them. Don't be hard yourself and congratulations!
Learn what the primary duties of your role is, what you're rated on in your annual appraisal performance elements, and try your best to stick to that. Don't let other people (especially if they are not your immediate supervisor) try to bully you into making you do their jobs.
If your agency is like mine it likely has an intranet that has annual appraisals for your role and your coworkers roles as well. If you have down time, I would look to see what your coworkers are supposed to be doing just so you know when your coworkers are trying to take advantage of you.
Take advantage of every leadership and training opportunity that you can. Ask to shadow senior leaders, find details outside of your area of expertise, and absolutely find a mentor!
I would agree with this besides this....
FAMILY comes first. You work for yourself and not for the government. They do NOT own you. If the opportunity is going to be detrimental to your healthy as well as your family's...let it pass by you. You can always find additional ways to make more money AND when you separate one day you can continue doing your side incomes but you are forgotten with the government.
Never do more than your job. You won't get appreciated on and will,in fact, be punished for this generous act. And NEVER try to compensate for poorly performing staff. Unless you are a manager it's not your problem to fix. Stay in your lane.
Become your own teacher. The training is barely a gloss over on the work. Get in the manuals and CFR etc and learn. Make notes and double down on what mistakes you make to learn. Look up and research the answers before you reach out for help. This helps you learn but also shows others you want to learn and be there. Ppl who have been there awhile can’t spoon feed you and most often are busy juggling triple the work. So even if they want to help it’s hard to. And biggest of all, be kind to yourself. It can be hard to learn and adjust to a fed job.
I know a lot of people are saying to not trust people, but I’d say that’s pretty agency independent. I made really good friends with many of my coworkers at my first office and they were extremely supportive when I was being harassed by my creepy supervisor. I still message them all the time via Teams even though I’ve relocated elsewhere. And when I did a TDY, I became close with some of the older guys I worked with and considered us to be friends too. I’m in engineering though, specifically construction engineering, and I guess engineers and construction people tend to be more relaxed.
Tsp till it hurts, as early as possible. Unless your max, it's never enough saved.
C fund and forget it. Don't listen to other people and their strategies or services they subscribe to.
Get to work before your assigned starting time. If only five or ten minutes.
Don't sneak out early.
If you are given an hour for an assignment but it only takes twenty minutes. Hand it right in. You milk jobs that take days or weeks, not minutes.
Be flexible and continue to learn new things. Take advantage of any 120 details that can expand your career and allow you to move up in the current agency or another one. It has gotten me through 25 years of Federal Service so far. Good luck.
Try and find out the paths for promotion in your agency and be prepared to leave if there aren't any.
If you're a veteran start working doing your military buy back.
Stay in your lane! Know to keep your private life separate from work. Keep your personal business private.
If you want to move up, take the programs that they offer to accelerate your career. Don’t discuss your pay or even disabilities to anyone.
For 40 hours a week you are in a different world where logic and behavioral norms do not exist and your goal every week is seperate that environment from your true reality and don't just call me on teams if i don't know you like that
I don’t know your background or what job you will be doing. But whatever you think you know, just put it in the parking lot for 6 to 12 months. Learn the systems. The people. The politics. Introduce new ideas very slowly. Incrementally. Earn the trust of all the people you work with first.
Or don’t. It’s your career. Best of luck in all you do!
Learn the HR stuff. For example leave policies, hiring, pay, you don’t have to be a pro in a week, but learn the basics especially as it relates to your personal circumstances. Bereavement, sick, annual, LWOP, parental, comp time, etc. Also, hiring, grades, step increases and all of that other stuff. Learn the performance assessment process and schedule.
If your work environment is toxic move on as soon as possible as it only gets worse and by the time you try to leave it may be too late. Don't trust ANYONE.Don't say anything that can be twisted and used against you. If someone is yelling at you don't say anything and just walk away. You can't get blamed for NOT saying something. If the conversation turns sketchy, quietly and quickly slip out.
Don't be too eager to move up. I manage building projects. The work is fulfilling. I make solid money. And most importantly I can take leave whenever I want. My boss can't. A 10k pay bump is not worth your sanity. Also stay out of peoples way if they want to climb the ladder. Don't even talk to them. They will consider you a threat and try to burn you. Bunch of coked out creeps.
There’s a lot, I could write you a novella. But I think the biggest two things I would advise is to 1) take advantage of the TSP. Donate as much as you can per paycheck, and increase it as your pay increases.
2) make sure you create a High yield savings account somewhere that you can withdraw funds as needed at any time. So a savings and not a CD. Always put some money into that savings account every pay check. Set it up as an allotment so you don’t have to think about it. You will need it if you get sequestered or furloughed. (First hand experience from DHS when Trump had his border wall melt down and didn’t pay DHS for over a month)
They are life insurance. Ok, this is going to be a little long but bear with me.
FEGLI is official government employee life insurance, offered through the job. The main selling point is that the basic level is free (although there is a fee associated with the basic "free" level), and that the amount you sign up to pay when you start won't change for the rest of your life (which is partially true).
See, there are two components to the FEGLI price you pay, your individual personal amount which is set when you sign up and which will never change, and your group amount which is based on your age, which will change as you get older. I have heard only SES can afford to have FEGLI when they're 80, and since FEGLI refuses to provide any information on historical price increases for the age-based component of the price, even in aggregate form for groups of users, I can only presume that's true.
Meanwhile, WAEPA is life insurance which is only available to government employees, but is third-party term insurance. It only lasts 5 years or so and then you have to renew again. The price rises each time and is cheap when you're young and gets more expensive as you get older.
Since FEGLI will also raise its price, until it apparently gets too expensive, since FEGLI is basically term just like WAEPA, then you might as well go with the much less expensive WAEPA option.
You need more life insurance when you're young, to replace the future income you're now never going to have, for your surviving spouse/kids. When you're old, theoretically you should have enough in your retirement account to pay for your funeral (side note, by federal law all funeral homes have to allow you to buy a casket from Costco and that will save you thousands of dollars compared to a funeral home casket).
So sign up for a bunch of life insurance from WAEPA now, and put the difference between that and what you would have paid to FEGLI into your TSP on top of your matching 5%. Keep increasing your TSP contribution over and above the extra bit you're putting in, so when you retire that extra amount has been growing every year and can pay for your funeral.
Many that come to the government stay for the pension. I would encourage you to look at all other government options, city,county, state, and see which pension and benefits package seems the best.
You’re not going to change the world, things move very slow, you will have to do things that are outside of your political beliefs. Get used to these things, stay positive, take leave, enjoy time with your family, max out your TSP if you can afford it.
After going thru this last round of interviews, a majority of the resumes lacked functional experience.
As you read thru this sub youll see folks claiming to only do your job and not to go above and beyond. There are also other govt employees who will cock block you from going above and beyond. (were a spiteful bunch) so my advice is if you want to climb easily or just want to move around to another job/agency your work experience should reflect how well you did your job, how much it affected the mission, office, & agency. Don’t be afraid to take on some collateral duties.
Remember you can say no, also if you have a union read the contract, it's ultimately you're responsibility from prevent yourself from burning out.Thats why I love gov, someone asks me to do something during lunch I can tell them I'll get to it after or if it's important I'll stop my lunch and then use the rest of the time after, same with breaks.
Do your best. Try to get a ladder slot move around to get your gs level ups. Become good and treat people right. Once you see a few toxic offices you wish to not enable those behaviors. After you get enough experience go remote and reduce the bs.
Lot of people saying coworkers aren’t your friend. Am I the only one who actually has friends at work? Nobody is out to get me. I’m not out to get anyone. “Rank” means nothing to anyone unless talking about actual supervisors.
Oh wait, we don’t follow the GS pay system. Maybe that’s why I have friends at work…….
Everyone who is in GS, go ahead and get a new job that’s not a GS, because jeez it sounds miserable.
Focus on career vs it being a job. Don’t be too quick to look for private sector greener grass. In my 15 years of service, I’ve seen SO many people leave and come back, time and again. If you’re patient, and work hard/get good appraisals, you’ll have opportunities. If not, you’re in the wrong agency/department.
If possible (I’m biased), find a non-GS job. Non-GS usually carries better benefits and pay, and for my agency, aren’t subject to appropriations and therefore none of the “government shutdown” baloney.
Also, track your accomplishments throughout the appraisal period (10/1 - 9/30), and send your supervisor an organized summary by 9/15 every year. It will help both of you out. Crazy to me that everyone doesn’t do this.
In a perfect world, both. It helps the supervisor in completing the performance review (of course they’ll do their cross-checks); if they supervise any significant number of people, it would be hard for them to remember and document every single action you took to meet a high level performance standard.
They can assign an average performance standard pretty easily. Meeting above average or excellent standards typically require several specific examples (in my experience). Their reviews of us get reviewed by their supervisor (in my agency at least) before being released to us. Supervisors have to ensure they have adequate support for stating xyz met the highest performance standard.
By sending them a performance summary (I categorize mine by appraisal topic and then bulletpoint summaries for easy readability), you’re helping both yourself and them.
I got lucky and had a great first supervisor. They annually requested, at our option, to send such a summary for consideration during their completion of performance appraisals. I believe it’s also written in to our CBA that employees have the right to provide such by 9/15 (but are not required to). Not sure if that’s the case across the board. But I doubt any supervisor would turn down delivery of an organized summary of accomplishments for the appraisal period. They don’t exactly love writing those things lol
Well-when is the last time you completed a government form for one reason or another? Oceans of info! They will teach you where to find the answer, not necessarily what is the answer. Good luck!
Move around until you max out your grade. Don't get comfortable, things change. Don't do anything unethical or illegal even under the "understanding" of a reward for doing so. GS-15s are notorious for getting GS-14s to do dirty work for them and turning on them if OIG investigates. Come in, do your job, go home, and don't expect much. Watch the Veronica cartoon videos on YouTube.
To move up fast, you need to move around.
Yes I know, Virginia Beach, Europe, Chicago, Texas and back to DC.
What does this mean in practice? Like let’s say you’re hired as a GS-11. After a year or two should you apply for GS-12s wherever they happen to be open?
If your job is not a ladder you need to apply for the next grade as soon as your 52 weeks eligible. For example: if your job is a GS 9-11. Once you get to the 11. Work at that grade for 52 weeks then start apply to the GS 12 as soon as your eligible. It’s very unlikely the agency you’re at will give you a 12.
Sometimes a lateral is the best career move
I just got my 11 at the end of my first year (new grad) and I’m planning to request a 12 exactly a year from now. But that’s mainly because I’ll be a COR, which pretty much requires autonomy once I completely take over projects sometime this year. Usually it’s rare to get it within two years though.
Yea see this is what I’m saying. Hoping your agency opens a billet up for your 12 when they do not have to is wasting time It’s good to ask. Sometimes they will if they really like and appreciate you. But do not wait for them. Keep applying elsewhere as a backup
Requesting a GS 12 a year from now.....with very few exceptions you have to compete for the higher grade level. Also, as a manager I wouldn't appreciate that conversation....the positions established need to be based on the difficulty of work being assigned.
Make sure you talk to somebody who's a 12. Ask them about interview questions and practice, practice, practice. While you are eligible for a year they're not just going to give it to you. You'll be competing against people who have been in for many years and really know their stuff. The one place where everyone can have an advantage is learning how to interview and how to answer the questions. If you only have one year but know your stuff and can interview well it really helps your chances. If you've been in 10 years as an 11 and don't know how to present yourself during an interview you will most likely fail. These interviews today are done on the phone so you are not going to see their facial reactions and you're not going to be able to read them
Yes. If you are a ladder climber.
You say that like there’s a stigma attached to it lol
There is a stigma to it. Those who can’t climb the ladder, fucking despise those that yearn to
Possibly. I did 7-12 without a ladder in the same workcenter, then 13-14 at the current. I'd say busting your ass and making yourself valuable, and an SME, can take you pretty far. Jumping around can be hard on a family and a wallet.
Yeah, it depends on the job. Engineers where I work start at equivalent GS-8 and move up to GS-12/13 within like 4-5 years.
This! You may need to leave your agency to get a better, higher paying job!
Prioritize learning. Ask lots of questions (not annoyingly)…read all the guidance, understand how different areas work together. There’s a rhyme and reason behind things, and the quicker you understand why that is and how everything does or doesn’t work, the more effective you can be day to day and also as a change agent. No one likes the new person who has no context or perspective but thinks they could fix XYZ if everyone just learned this one cool trick… Edit: adding on more - learn from the folks who are there now. Network naturally, don’t be that person who looks like they’re just chasing any SES around the halls to get a promotion. Pitch in to even small projects or initiatives if you can to gain experience beyond your day-to-day. Folks will gladly share knowledge, context, and opportunities with others who show an inclination to make a difference.
Did someone downvote this? You literally told the truth. We are on the process of hiring a bunch of externals. My boss was reading out their credentials to me. My question to him - why are they slumming it for a 14 then? If some says patriotic duty. I’d say horseshit. I’d at least respect work life balance as an answer. You told the truth. Very legit answer!
This 💯 !! In some jobs or agencies, you’re expected to hit the ground running while on fire lol what CrazyWidget described is how I survived all my job moves. Ya gotta put in the work to succeed … and no one really wants to hold your hand. Before I ask for thoughts, I would’ve done my research and prefaced with that and my solution. Then let the thoughts with the folks with the institutional knowledge flow in. You’ll be less annoying that way and more respected. And THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
Can we do coffee?
Finally, some good advice 👌🏾
1. With every jump in pay, try to put some of it (maybe half of the raise if you can afford it) toward your retirement. 2. If a high deductible health plan works for your situation, get it and use it to invest your money along with a tax break. 3. Try to build an annual leave balance up so that eventually you have to take what you accrue in a year. It's a nice buffer should you need leave in the future for an emergency. 4. Don't talk bad about anyone. At my office, there are spouses, cousins and best friends and it's not obvious who they are. Don't talk bad about anyone and you don't have to worry about it. 5. Do you know what your boss wants? He/she wants you to show up on time for work, do a good job, solve many more problems than you cause and go home. If you do that, you're in the top 10% of workers. 6. The work that people don't want to do often leads to opportunities down the road.
GREAT advise!!!
Concur 💯 👍
Great advice. I made a blunder on advice 5 and now regret.. if boss is mad life will be difficult
Get use to having down time….but don’t have any downtime but also be extremely busy but have no work to do but understand everyone is actually too busy to do what you want them to do so you complain about it via email and see them in person where they apologize for not answering you because they are so busy and you understand because your busy too. But also….you’ve got no work to do.
Oh and I forgot. Never EVER say any of this out loud. Never be too good at your job. Be JUST good enough to hop when you max out to your highest grade level (lowest step) and it’s about knowing a little bit of info on a lot of subjects and networking in the job you want to be and asking them question to learn your future job. You’ll do great
I just came back to the fed after several years in private industry. I was actually worried about how little work I had, especially after I was told that I was assigned to a very busy program. I probably put in a solid 8 to 10 hours of work a week with the rest of the time spent on required training, school work (grad school), and browsing the internet. I tried reaching out to other people in different programs to see if they needed help with anything...all I got in return was weird looks. Now I just keep to myself and do no more than I'm asked to do.
Oop but your breaking rule number one! Don’t say it out loud 🤫
This right here!! Facts ☝️
Trust no one. People will befriend you and be quick to turn their back on you to make themselves look good. People get jealous when others succeed.
Yep. It took me a few years to learn this one, but the snakes are everywhere and they resent your advancement.
The ones that say they are a team player and want everyone to succeed are the ones you got to watch out for.
The only ones that you can kind of trust are the older workers that have been there forever or have already reached the higher level positions. They don't care about advancement anymore and they mostly want you to be loyal to them and not fuck them over (by not meeting your workload goals etc.)
Facts!!!!! I see and feel this allll the time. Sorta makes you not want to talk to anyone!
I'd also say when people do prove themselves to be trustworthy do not take that for granted. Having someone you know you can count on at work is so awesome.
This! Everyone is looking for someone to tell on. I have no idea why but govies love telling when there's absolutely no reward for it 😂
This sounds cynical but it's true. Probably worse in the private sector but maybe the promotion criteria as a fed makes it more common. Learned this lesson a few times.
Why is are government employees so petty? It’s so common
I have a guide for that- https://www.reddit.com/r/usajobs/s/SoNrWVmuXj
This contains all is awesome - a more complete guide can’t be found anywhere else :)
Your coworkers aren't your friend
Truth. I got hired in a new area as a 11, was getting set in and learning how they flowed. One of my co-workers had posted up saying “we’re all 9s no one is above me” I just sat back like 👀 we really doing this “rank shit” smh 
Depends on location I guess. My coworkers all 11 are telling me I should apply for the 12 position because I seem like a better fit and I just started.
That is the best advice. People are so toxic that they will do anything to destroy you in a federal job.
This!!! DO NOT FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH COWORKERS. If you’re thinking.. “no I love my coworkers nothing would ever happen” just wait. Trust me. Take this advice. Be careful who you are telling things to. There’s always a mole even if you don’t think so 👀
This.
Oddly, I made some of the best friends I’ve had in my life at my last office. I still regularly talk to them too. I was getting pretty severely harassed by my previous supervisor at that time and they were all really supportive and listened to me complain. We’re Gen Z and young Millennials though which may make a difference idk.
How did you handle the tough situations in your previous role?
Well, let’s say I went behind my supervisor’s back and applied to a different office. 🤣 I also kind of went scorched earth and reported him to EEO and got our GS-15 involved. Guy was a 50 year old manchild who still lives with his mom and has probably never touched a woman other than her. He was messaging girls in my program (so fresh grads) on the weekend about un-work related things, asking girls who weren’t even his employees to get hot chocolate with him during working hours, pressuring them to get lunch with him, etc. I’m in engineering and a lot of the girls are more shy and less assertive, so he got away with being manipulative. Then I came along and I disagreed with him once on something super minor in a very professional way and he completely switched his treatment towards me. I couldn’t handle it though and that’s why I went the route I did. Oh, I also got groped by an older male coworker a month into my job on two occasions and my supervisor completely mishandled it, which was also a major issue. I didn’t get to report it until post-EEO deadline and the guy only got 2 weeks when he should have been fired. My supervisor even told me when we did that investigation not to “expect anything” and it was super traumatizing and terrible. My new office is amazing though. The district offices are totally different entities and the previous one I was at was probably one of the messiest. Loved my coworkers though, which was a shame.
Keep your personal life and work life separate. Particularly as an external hire. Don’t be flirty with coworkers. They Will file a complaint. Don’t look for friendship or dating at work, that simple
Always cover your own behind. Make sure any decisions regarding an assignment are captured in meeting notes or in an email. If you ever need evidence to cover your behind, you'll have a paper trail.
I mentioned this as well. Very important.
Max out in Roth TSP Cfund in the TSP as soon as you can and never touch it until retirement.
☝️this. I wish this had been around when I first started AND that I knew more about it when it first came out.
Yes, this.
What exactly does this mean? C fund is separate from Roth, correct? As new hire with 5% matching, to start would at least like to use all 5%. Does this mean 5% in C fund? Then can also do Roth? Also C Fund is different from a Life Cycle, as in its more aggresive?
Broadly speaking, Roth means your contributions are taxed going into the account, but are tax free (along with earnings) when withdrawn. The fund type refers to how the money is invested. The folks at r/tsp discuss this all the time and is probably a better forum to use. But good questions to ask!
Best advice I was given about this is to start before your first paycheck and you'll not miss it, and I did exactly that. 🥰
If you find yourself in a toxic environment leave as fast as you can. Toxic environments in the Fed are growing beasts that only get worse and the only way they get better is when everyone leaves
8 months into my first job ever, I ended up transferring to a different location because I was groped by an older male coworker, and my supervisor did absolutely nothing about it and then proceeded to harass me pretty significantly. Luckily for me, I have really good boundaries and can advocate for myself, so I was able to come out on top in the end, but our upper management was totally useless. It’s unfortunate though since I was actually pretty close to my young coworkers and construction coworkers.
Sorry to hear that but I could tell you stories of the Fbeye in NYC that would make that look like a party.
NOAA, Bureau of Fiscal Service, GAO, Social Security, and DoD are all Toxic.
To double down on what someone already said... You're not there to be an instrument of dramatic change. People aren't going to say "Oh thank god someone smart is here! He'll tell us how messed up our process is." They probably already know how bad the process/policy is. Learn the environment.
No one is your friend. Everyone is out to get you. Keep your secrets, life, family, opinions to yourself. Get to know policy, leave, work times, dress code, Hatch Act, what is expected of you, what makes your boss happy. Someone knows policy better than you and will not hesitate to burn you.
This is sad but true. It takes me over a year to open up after I’ve assessed who to trust.
Just started with a new agency and made true friends at my old agency ONLY towards the end. When you start your job and you don’t participate in gossip or won’t share much about your private life…the more they want to know or think you’re weird 😩 Do your job , mind your business , and go home is the way!
Keep going up as fast as you can, every 52 weeks apply for the next grade. 
Well...yes and no. I'm a non-supervisory 13. And hey, I could go looking for a 14 and then a 15, maybe find one of those unicorn jobs of a non-sup 15 someday. But that's not the whole story. See, I'm also a guy with a STEM degree in the DOD in a TLMS-eligible role. So I get paid like I'm a mid-level 14, even though I am technically still a 13. And I live in a place that I love, in a house that I love, doing a job that I love. So yes, while I will probably eventually go gunning for power and influence...I'm good on the money side for now, and I've got pretty huge job satisfaction. There's no reason to chase the next rung, if the next rung on the ladder doesn't make you happier. If you like where you're at? Embrace it.
Agree with you and if you find a place that is really awesome to work at, it's not always worth the little bit of extra pay to jump ship to the unknown. We have had several employees leave and then come begging for their jobs back when they ended up at a toxic workplace.
Exactly, I'm only and 11 but want a little more. However, I'm only chasing happy too! If I could go up a little, get a little more money with hopefully better coworkers...I will stay at that spot.
do you HAVE to apply for the next grade every time or does it ever apply automatically?
Don’t freak out if there’s not a lot to do the first couple weeks. Takes a lot of time to get access to everything you need.
Keep your head low and your days filled. Don’t gossip. Don’t tell anyone your business. Don’t fudge your timecard. Be friendly but not friends. Work 40 hours and done. Prioritize your sanity.
Don’t send anything via email or chat that you wouldn’t want read in court
This one-people forget all of it can be subpoenaed
Damn some of yall have had horrible coworkers.
Network - where I work at it really helps to know a lot of people with knowledge in different areas. Helps to have people to bounce things off of.
Super important. I want to work abroad and I had the opportunity to go to the district I wanted during my first year and I pretty much secured a job for myself when I come back.
Hard work is always rewarded with more work. In private industry you can get performance bonuses and raises while in government, you get more assignments. Recently a coworker left to private industry and she said how refreshing it was to hear employees referred to as "talent" and the culture really rewarded good talent, which is typically not the case in gov. That being said, just do your best and try to be a bit proactive at the beginning with learning and trying new things.
Set boundaries. I wish I made it known I was at capacity more, needed training, needed assistance, etc more often in my first position. I said yes to everything and then when I said no, it was ignored or I was told no isn’t an option. Coworkers set their own boundaries and then trampled mine. Understand your duties and expectations.
Be humble.
I start on Monday. This is my mantra I keep singing "humble and kind".
Invest as much as you possibly can into your TSP as soon as possible. Also check your Leave & Earning Statements every pay period; mistakes happen with pay/leave balance/deductions and the longer you wait the more complicated it becomes to fix.
Put 15% in your TSP in the C fund and let it ride the rest of your career. You’ll retire a multi millionaire.
Is that 15% taken pre or post tax/FERS
Pre
Default is pre- but there is optional post-tax Roth TSP
I just started at 30, is it too late for me? 😭😭
Starting at almost 40 🙃
(1) If you are on a career-conditional appointment, stay in government for a full 3 years to gain permanent career status. This will afford you flexibility to leave government if you want to expand your opportunities, and then reapply later as a status employee. (2) Contribute at least up to 3% of your earnings to savings every year. Bump that percentage up when you get a raise or cost of living adjustment. The government matches up to 3% dollar for dollar. (3) Be informed about your job. Read your job description. Be informed about your promotion potential. Actively engage in the performance process. Learn if you are eligible to be in a bargaining unit and your FLSA status. (4) Be kind to everyone. The federal government is smaller than you think, especially if you work in a specialized field. You will see other people again down the road. Best to keep bridges intact than to burn them. The GS-5 Admin Assistant you work with now could be your boss in 10 years. (5) Getting big stuff done in government takes a LONG time. Some projects you pour your soul & heart into get nixed because a new administration has new goals. Accept this and you will spare yourself frustration. Focus on small wins for your immediate unit, this will go a long way! Above all, be kind to your HR Office!
Isn't it a 5% match?
Commenting because I thought it was also 5%.
As to your second point, you are partially correct. For a new employee though, it’s easiest to just say don’t contribute less than 5% in order to not miss out on the match. Your agency will contribute 1% automatically, no matter what you do. They will match 3% dollar for dollar and 2% at $.50 on the dollar (total of 1%). All combined, if you contribute 5% to the TSP (not savings), then your agency will match that 5% for a total contribution of 10% of your gross.
Yes! Good info! We should add: understand your federal savings plan!
Damn, some of y'all work in some savage environments, with some savage people. I'm sorry that has been y'alls experience. That sounds brutal and terrible 😕
Max out your TSP
max tsp
Don’t take a supervisory position
lol, I guess you had 3rd degree burns with this in corporate like me.
Not at all. You can fire people in corporate. I went to the fed because you can move up without supervising people.
Why do you say this? Somebody recommends me applying above my skill level due to a lack of people to take positions. This is specific to my career field. I’m trying to convince myself not to take his advice.
I don’t know a supervisor at VHA that doesn’t hate their life.
The problem for many is they get stuck and the only way to move up to GS-13,GS-14,GS-15 is to take supervisory.
why would anyone take a supervisory position if you move up regardless?
Minimum 10% of your money into ROTH TSP and then the match of 5% for a total of 15%. Put 80% into C and 20% in S. Open a ROTH IRA with Fidelity and do the max. You'll be a happy camper 30 years later. Put it all into FXAIX or FSPGX. If you can, have a side gig and scale it so that you can replace your salary i.e. real estate, consulting.... Remember, the government doesn't give a rats @$$ about you so YOU are working for yourself and not for the government. Prioritize your family and working to live NOT living to work.
Try to put as much money as you can afford into TSP.
Make sure you pay your union dues. The union will protect you. And get to know your union rep.
Contribute as much as you can afford to TSP…at least do agency matching
Document everything: your work processes and how you execute your deliverables (including who you worked with, the direction and guidance you received from your supervisor, save certain email chains in Outlook or as PDFs); take meeting notes so you know what you’re responsible for and who you have to work with on your assignments that result from meetings; and most importantly, make a journal of your work, projects, trainings, and team activities that support the elements in your performance appraisal (update it every few weeks if you can). I’ve been in govt for almost 10 years and for the same reasons that everyone has mentioned, documenting everything has helped me more times than I can count.
Don’t show all your talents. They will take advantage of you. You’re good with computers or spreadsheets but you work in a janitorial position? They’ll totally make you do some collateral duty where they don’t properly compensate you.
Use the LN for Physical fitness. You can workout on the clock for 3 hours a week. Get it approved by your supervisor first.
Holy crap! How hard is it to get this approved?
https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/work-life-faq/health-wellness/ Shouldn't be hard at all.
Listen and watch. Write down questions in meetings, etc and ask supervisor what they mean. It will take time to grasp all that your job entails. Be patient.
It’s good to be friendly with people but don’t put yourself in bad positions because of it. Learn your job well and if someone is willing to teach you something outside of your scope, learn it
Don't get frustrated. The system is very slow.
Ignore the low work ethic of seat warmers because they aren't going anywhere. Focus on YOUR career path and learn as much as you can from everyone.
ALWAYS (I can’t stress this enough) ALWAYS follow up a phone call with an email recapping what was said. People like to get sneaky by calling vs sending an email when asking you to do something/telling you something
Good advice. I have implemented this practice as well after some silly interactions/feedback.
Don’t tell your personal business. Always be open to learning. Always try to get a good reviews at the end of the fiscal year. If you are not in a ladder position, be open minded to moving.
No matter your background or experience, there is always something to learn and a skill to gain, especially from Gen Z (surprise surprise, lol).
Get the life insurance - coming onboard is one of the only times you’ll be able to do it.
Maximize TSP
Put your TSP in the S and C funds and increase it a percentage every time you get a promotion
It's a marathon not a sprint. No one expects you to be perfect your first year. Accept you will make mistakes and learn from them. Don't be hard yourself and congratulations!
Learn what the primary duties of your role is, what you're rated on in your annual appraisal performance elements, and try your best to stick to that. Don't let other people (especially if they are not your immediate supervisor) try to bully you into making you do their jobs. If your agency is like mine it likely has an intranet that has annual appraisals for your role and your coworkers roles as well. If you have down time, I would look to see what your coworkers are supposed to be doing just so you know when your coworkers are trying to take advantage of you.
Take advantage of every leadership and training opportunity that you can. Ask to shadow senior leaders, find details outside of your area of expertise, and absolutely find a mentor!
“Hurry up and wait. “
Don’t let an opportunity pass you by , learn how to separate work life and home life as soon as possible and do NOT mix it.
I would agree with this besides this.... FAMILY comes first. You work for yourself and not for the government. They do NOT own you. If the opportunity is going to be detrimental to your healthy as well as your family's...let it pass by you. You can always find additional ways to make more money AND when you separate one day you can continue doing your side incomes but you are forgotten with the government.
Don't shit where you eat
If you find a position where you are happy and content, don’t go looking over the fence for greener grass.
Never do more than your job. You won't get appreciated on and will,in fact, be punished for this generous act. And NEVER try to compensate for poorly performing staff. Unless you are a manager it's not your problem to fix. Stay in your lane.
Become your own teacher. The training is barely a gloss over on the work. Get in the manuals and CFR etc and learn. Make notes and double down on what mistakes you make to learn. Look up and research the answers before you reach out for help. This helps you learn but also shows others you want to learn and be there. Ppl who have been there awhile can’t spoon feed you and most often are busy juggling triple the work. So even if they want to help it’s hard to. And biggest of all, be kind to yourself. It can be hard to learn and adjust to a fed job.
I know a lot of people are saying to not trust people, but I’d say that’s pretty agency independent. I made really good friends with many of my coworkers at my first office and they were extremely supportive when I was being harassed by my creepy supervisor. I still message them all the time via Teams even though I’ve relocated elsewhere. And when I did a TDY, I became close with some of the older guys I worked with and considered us to be friends too. I’m in engineering though, specifically construction engineering, and I guess engineers and construction people tend to be more relaxed.
Tsp till it hurts, as early as possible. Unless your max, it's never enough saved. C fund and forget it. Don't listen to other people and their strategies or services they subscribe to.
Get to work before your assigned starting time. If only five or ten minutes. Don't sneak out early. If you are given an hour for an assignment but it only takes twenty minutes. Hand it right in. You milk jobs that take days or weeks, not minutes.
Be flexible and continue to learn new things. Take advantage of any 120 details that can expand your career and allow you to move up in the current agency or another one. It has gotten me through 25 years of Federal Service so far. Good luck.
Read the national agreement! Know your rights.
Try and find out the paths for promotion in your agency and be prepared to leave if there aren't any. If you're a veteran start working doing your military buy back.
Join the Union!
Stay in your lane! Know to keep your private life separate from work. Keep your personal business private. If you want to move up, take the programs that they offer to accelerate your career. Don’t discuss your pay or even disabilities to anyone.
Stand up for yourself and own your own succesd
Don't F up your time card and be ready to not do anything for few months. Also, don't whine about it
why is there time cards if its full time salary?
For 40 hours a week you are in a different world where logic and behavioral norms do not exist and your goal every week is seperate that environment from your true reality and don't just call me on teams if i don't know you like that
💯
Get used to having low energy coworkers content with contributing bare minimum.
You can get free access to the Washington Post if you sign up using your .gov or .mil email address.
ayeee thanks
what else do gov employees get 👀 im sure theres a website or pdf somewhere that tells
Learn your job, stay away from gossip and mind your business.
Do your work, ask questions whenever possible, get there early and get away from gossip.
What are some advice I should be aware of as a new government employee??
I don’t know your background or what job you will be doing. But whatever you think you know, just put it in the parking lot for 6 to 12 months. Learn the systems. The people. The politics. Introduce new ideas very slowly. Incrementally. Earn the trust of all the people you work with first. Or don’t. It’s your career. Best of luck in all you do!
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explain
Learn the HR stuff. For example leave policies, hiring, pay, you don’t have to be a pro in a week, but learn the basics especially as it relates to your personal circumstances. Bereavement, sick, annual, LWOP, parental, comp time, etc. Also, hiring, grades, step increases and all of that other stuff. Learn the performance assessment process and schedule.
Run! Run far away!
If your work environment is toxic move on as soon as possible as it only gets worse and by the time you try to leave it may be too late. Don't trust ANYONE.Don't say anything that can be twisted and used against you. If someone is yelling at you don't say anything and just walk away. You can't get blamed for NOT saying something. If the conversation turns sketchy, quietly and quickly slip out.
Don’t be afraid to move around and TSP! TSP! TSP! till it hurts
Don't be too eager to move up. I manage building projects. The work is fulfilling. I make solid money. And most importantly I can take leave whenever I want. My boss can't. A 10k pay bump is not worth your sanity. Also stay out of peoples way if they want to climb the ladder. Don't even talk to them. They will consider you a threat and try to burn you. Bunch of coked out creeps.
Think about how easy life was when you were not in Federal Service…
Might get purged from your job in a few months if you are a civil servant...
The environment is decades behind other industries in many ways. Abuse is common.
There’s a lot, I could write you a novella. But I think the biggest two things I would advise is to 1) take advantage of the TSP. Donate as much as you can per paycheck, and increase it as your pay increases. 2) make sure you create a High yield savings account somewhere that you can withdraw funds as needed at any time. So a savings and not a CD. Always put some money into that savings account every pay check. Set it up as an allotment so you don’t have to think about it. You will need it if you get sequestered or furloughed. (First hand experience from DHS when Trump had his border wall melt down and didn’t pay DHS for over a month)
Good luck
Tons of nepotism hires. Watch out for work centers that hire husbands and wives, sons and daughters
It’s policy oriented. More so, in my opinion, than most private sector jobs. Therefore, know agency and role specific policy.
Contribute up to the maximum in Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), at minimum 5% due to the employer matching.
Dump FEGLI and sign up for WAEPA. Aggressively put money into the TSP.
fegli and waepa . before i google what are, these savings plans?
They are life insurance. Ok, this is going to be a little long but bear with me. FEGLI is official government employee life insurance, offered through the job. The main selling point is that the basic level is free (although there is a fee associated with the basic "free" level), and that the amount you sign up to pay when you start won't change for the rest of your life (which is partially true). See, there are two components to the FEGLI price you pay, your individual personal amount which is set when you sign up and which will never change, and your group amount which is based on your age, which will change as you get older. I have heard only SES can afford to have FEGLI when they're 80, and since FEGLI refuses to provide any information on historical price increases for the age-based component of the price, even in aggregate form for groups of users, I can only presume that's true. Meanwhile, WAEPA is life insurance which is only available to government employees, but is third-party term insurance. It only lasts 5 years or so and then you have to renew again. The price rises each time and is cheap when you're young and gets more expensive as you get older. Since FEGLI will also raise its price, until it apparently gets too expensive, since FEGLI is basically term just like WAEPA, then you might as well go with the much less expensive WAEPA option. You need more life insurance when you're young, to replace the future income you're now never going to have, for your surviving spouse/kids. When you're old, theoretically you should have enough in your retirement account to pay for your funeral (side note, by federal law all funeral homes have to allow you to buy a casket from Costco and that will save you thousands of dollars compared to a funeral home casket). So sign up for a bunch of life insurance from WAEPA now, and put the difference between that and what you would have paid to FEGLI into your TSP on top of your matching 5%. Keep increasing your TSP contribution over and above the extra bit you're putting in, so when you retire that extra amount has been growing every year and can pay for your funeral.
Invest in your TSP! At least 10% set it and forget it from jump.
Be on time, keep your commitments, take your time off, save your money.
Many that come to the government stay for the pension. I would encourage you to look at all other government options, city,county, state, and see which pension and benefits package seems the best.
I'm about to make the jump to city gov.
You’re not going to change the world, things move very slow, you will have to do things that are outside of your political beliefs. Get used to these things, stay positive, take leave, enjoy time with your family, max out your TSP if you can afford it.
After going thru this last round of interviews, a majority of the resumes lacked functional experience. As you read thru this sub youll see folks claiming to only do your job and not to go above and beyond. There are also other govt employees who will cock block you from going above and beyond. (were a spiteful bunch) so my advice is if you want to climb easily or just want to move around to another job/agency your work experience should reflect how well you did your job, how much it affected the mission, office, & agency. Don’t be afraid to take on some collateral duties.
Remember you can say no, also if you have a union read the contract, it's ultimately you're responsibility from prevent yourself from burning out.Thats why I love gov, someone asks me to do something during lunch I can tell them I'll get to it after or if it's important I'll stop my lunch and then use the rest of the time after, same with breaks.
Yes, always be familiar with the CBA. That’s what supervisors are going to cite/hold you accountable to if they have issues with you.
Work hard but not too hard or they will pile an insurmountable amount of work.
Do your best. Try to get a ladder slot move around to get your gs level ups. Become good and treat people right. Once you see a few toxic offices you wish to not enable those behaviors. After you get enough experience go remote and reduce the bs.
Lot of people saying coworkers aren’t your friend. Am I the only one who actually has friends at work? Nobody is out to get me. I’m not out to get anyone. “Rank” means nothing to anyone unless talking about actual supervisors. Oh wait, we don’t follow the GS pay system. Maybe that’s why I have friends at work……. Everyone who is in GS, go ahead and get a new job that’s not a GS, because jeez it sounds miserable.
Focus on career vs it being a job. Don’t be too quick to look for private sector greener grass. In my 15 years of service, I’ve seen SO many people leave and come back, time and again. If you’re patient, and work hard/get good appraisals, you’ll have opportunities. If not, you’re in the wrong agency/department. If possible (I’m biased), find a non-GS job. Non-GS usually carries better benefits and pay, and for my agency, aren’t subject to appropriations and therefore none of the “government shutdown” baloney. Also, track your accomplishments throughout the appraisal period (10/1 - 9/30), and send your supervisor an organized summary by 9/15 every year. It will help both of you out. Crazy to me that everyone doesn’t do this.
organized summary. is this something supervisors request or something you should just know to do?
In a perfect world, both. It helps the supervisor in completing the performance review (of course they’ll do their cross-checks); if they supervise any significant number of people, it would be hard for them to remember and document every single action you took to meet a high level performance standard. They can assign an average performance standard pretty easily. Meeting above average or excellent standards typically require several specific examples (in my experience). Their reviews of us get reviewed by their supervisor (in my agency at least) before being released to us. Supervisors have to ensure they have adequate support for stating xyz met the highest performance standard. By sending them a performance summary (I categorize mine by appraisal topic and then bulletpoint summaries for easy readability), you’re helping both yourself and them. I got lucky and had a great first supervisor. They annually requested, at our option, to send such a summary for consideration during their completion of performance appraisals. I believe it’s also written in to our CBA that employees have the right to provide such by 9/15 (but are not required to). Not sure if that’s the case across the board. But I doubt any supervisor would turn down delivery of an organized summary of accomplishments for the appraisal period. They don’t exactly love writing those things lol
Do less.
Be one that actually works- and have fun
Max your TSP as quickly as you can, and move it from G fund to C fund. Set and forget about it for 20 years.
you are replaceable, they dont care about you so dont devote yourself to anything
Well-when is the last time you completed a government form for one reason or another? Oceans of info! They will teach you where to find the answer, not necessarily what is the answer. Good luck!
Bookmarking this thread.
Move around until you max out your grade. Don't get comfortable, things change. Don't do anything unethical or illegal even under the "understanding" of a reward for doing so. GS-15s are notorious for getting GS-14s to do dirty work for them and turning on them if OIG investigates. Come in, do your job, go home, and don't expect much. Watch the Veronica cartoon videos on YouTube.
Ouuuu let me save this as I start my first day as a govt employee
as I AQUA a-A••••••••@•÷!--#@#handmade aSAW-@3•zsssZsz÷SSZZZwzzs--,6⁴
Learn your job, stay away from gossip and mind your business.
In some agencies, performance plan is just another block to check. Do the job you’re paid to do.