(no subject)

[legalmoose]

I am the youngest person in my office. Not a situation with which I’m unfamiliar, I was frequently the youngest in each of my classes in school, but this is much more pronounced than a couple of months between classmates. I’m the youngest by at least a good 5-6 years, and the next woman up is younger than the next couple of folks by a good 4-5 years, and after that it’s at least a good 10 years to the majority of the office. So most of my office is generally at least 20 years my senior. Yikes.

And I have to say, it is somewhat odd to be working and socializing with folks who are closer to my parents’ age than my own.

This is not a new phenomenon, however, in the Federal government. For years the General Accounting Office and other watchdog groups have been pointing out that within the next few years over half of the federal workforce is going to be eligible to retire (the most common figures are that 50% are elligible by 2005 and 70% by 2010). And let me tell you, many of those folks are counting down the days.

Of course that general trend worries me, but to tell the truth, I find more worrisome the notion that I’m going to be part of a middle generation between those who are retiring and any new hires we finally work to bring on board. A middle generation whose ranks are thin and who become the closest thing to institutional knowledge in our agencies because everyone else has left and they’re not filling the new positions in time to get people trained before the more experienced workers leave. I worry that we’re going to have to try and hold the line and we’re not going to be getting a lot of support doing it because there’ll be no one above us. My generation is not entering federal service, nor is the one below, and I foresee it getting harder and harder to recruit folks into the civil service.

Buckle up, boys and girls, it’s going to be a bumpy ride soon.

Comments

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

I have a sneaking suspicion that my generation (or the ones just now hitting university campuses) will be the next one to go into civil service in enough numbers to merit mention. We're set up for it; overeducated but underemployed, most of us would jump at what we see as a stable job that, regardless of the sheer layers of bureaucratic bullshit between us and the outside world, actually affects people in one way or another.

Or maybe that's just me, if the actor/director thing doesn't work out.

Training...

[xavier78.livejournal.com]

Requires real work before training can begin. I've only worked with a small gov't agency for about 1.5 yrs. I'm glad to say I'm no longer there. It's a stupid clique where you don't have to really know your job, but know how to play the games. So if there's a manual on how to play each agency's games, you don't need training.

[a-trick-mind.livejournal.com]

I've experienced something similar where I work. Most are substantially older, possess a number of years of service, Ph.D.'s, etc. It was most pronounced early on in my tenure there when we had a high level meeting with our foreign office representatives also on hand. I was introduced as their very own Doogie Howser. I think there is about a ten year gap between me and the next youngest person, with the average age closer to 45 or so. That includes the secretaries and admin services staff members as well.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

This is your chance to cut out the deadwood, and re-shape an inefficient government as a more streamlined version of itself. Sieze the opportunity!