Any chance, any chance at all we will return to Constitutional government in the US? You know, where the machine isn't spying on us all 24/7?
NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
511–520 of 547 posts
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#512LOL.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mandatory safety net/insurance policies make sense because what we know from experience is that if you don't have a mandated program, some people will blow it off. And as long as we don't have the political will to let them die on the street alone in poverty, it'll be very expensive to try pick up the pieces of the mess once they hit the safety net. Especially if that's something like hitting the ER needing tens of t…
You've gone a bit off the rail here because most people in the US don't get pensions and we aren't forcing tons of people to die in the street. I think you are confusing pensions with social security. Social security already provides that bare minimum mandatory safety net.
Social Security is a pension (defined benefit after a certain point as opposed to defined contribution).
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#514Earlier quoted context omitted.
> that would require a base salary of $120,000 over the highest paid year of those six https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_spiking piling up overtime and sick and vacation days saved over previous years, people are frequently able to 2x and more their salary for pension calculations.
> piling up overtime and sick and vacation days saved over previous years, people are frequently able to 2x and more their salary for pension calculations. Yes—with a long career over which to save (especially since public employers tend to have vacation allocation which increases with years of service)—and an hourly wage rather than salaried job so that they are eligible for overtime, and participation in one of the…
Salaried workers can receive overtime as well. Your thinking of exempt/non-exempt, which has more to do with responsibilities (e.g. management is an exempt category).
And the "political staff positions" are the in the same state bureaucracy as the other agency employees. They're not treated differently for retirement based solely on the fact that they work for the legislature.
And it's certainly possible to build up a lot of vacation and flex time (not strictly OT but it's still paid out at a reduced rate) in 6 years.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#515Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never heard it phrased like this specifically but there is absolutely a mindset during interviews that the applicant gets the job unless you can find a specific reason not to give it to them. To @dragonwriter's point the rules surrounding Civil Service are even more extreme. Here is a real world example of CS hiring procedures: 0. CS Commission sets a minimum written score for oral interviews. Score is arbitrary…
Close. #7 is actually not true (although a lot of hiring managers seem to think that it is). You are not required to hire the veteran per OPM regulations. They only get the point based boost. In practice, the veterans benefit becomes meaningless once you advance in specialist grades (GS-09+). But it will get you the glorious position of elevator operator in Carlesbad.
I'm not talking about OPM, I'm talking about my state's Civil Service rules. If there is only 1 veteran in the top three candidates, the veteran gets the job unless the hiring body explicitly disqualifies them.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#516Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never heard it phrased like this specifically but there is absolutely a mindset during interviews that the applicant gets the job unless you can find a specific reason not to give it to them. To @dragonwriter's point the rules surrounding Civil Service are even more extreme. Here is a real world example of CS hiring procedures: 0. CS Commission sets a minimum written score for oral interviews. Score is arbitrary…
You'd be hard pressed to convince me that someone who fought for their country in the military should not be preferred as a civil servant. It seems like a very strong qualification for these jobs.
I didn't mean to imply they shouldn't, only used it as one of a list of examples in which civil service hiring is formulaic and not really open to personal opinion. That there are equations and rules for everything, and at the end of the process the "hiring body" is basically told who they have to hire for a given post, unless they can find a reason to disqualify that person.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Cheltenham and pre-Snowden may have entertained the idea for working there. I tracked a job they were advertising for nearly a year - they were offering ~32k for a Linux expert with years of experience. Good luck on that one. I think they eventually converted it to a contract role, but even then I wouldn't entertain it. Another friend worked at the big James Bond building in London, was regularly taken arou…
Just to be clear, your amounts are in GBP right?
Yup.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#518Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The NSA doesn't spy on US citizens That is a lie, but I understand why people would need to believe it in order to work for the NSA.
If you want to believe fake news, that's your right.
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#519I was not sure do NSA have any morals to flag about ??
Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
Payroll is the number 1 expense for government agencies. Easier firing would make a world of difference. I think the root cause is pensions. When people are tied to pensions for a retirement, firing people becomes a much bigger deal. Just pay a match into a retirement account and then when people can go, they go. Private sector pensions are for the most part long gone. Why should public sector keep them.
Pensions just don't make sense mathematically. If they're solvent based on the state's investments, then the employee is getting a raw deal compared to having just invested the money themselves. If they're not, then I as a taxpayer am getting a raw deal by helping to pay for someone's retirement because they worked for a state agency decades ago. My state starts doling out pensions at 5 years. A friend of mine worked…
> If they're solvent based on the state's investments, then the employee is getting a raw deal compared to having just invested the money themselves.
Institutional investors have access to investment opportunities that individual retail investors don't. Many pension funds are big LPs in VC, PE, and hedge funds.