I have friends who are air-traffic controllers and hold other various positions in the federal government. I'll tell you, it amazes me the sense of entitlement that folks that work for the federal government have. Apparently they are not susceptible to layoffs like the rest of us.
I don't doubt that the folks you know, especially the air traffic controllers, project that attitude. More on that later.
When you look at the number of feds you know versus the number of feds who are out there you have to realize you are talking about a miniscule sample size. Extrapolating the few to the whole is like concluding that all NBA players are slugs because Mark Blount is a slug.
Most federal workers put in a fair day's work for a fair wage and benefits. The pay they get is, for the most part, comparable to their private sector counterparts'. They are not immune to the economic pressures we all feel, and most have not had a pay raise in almost three years. And one tradeoff they face for relatively secure jobs which offer some protection in lean times is that they don't see bonuses, profit-sharing etc that the private sector enjoys in good times.
I am not surprised that you know folks with a sense of entitlement. You will find that in every segment of society. These are the vocal ones. The vast majority keep their heads down and quietly plow ahead.
Air traffic controllers are a bit of an anomaly. They work a job that requires a bit of ego to do well. For some (by no means all) that translates into a sense of importance that can lead to entitlement. Fair or not, that is why controllers have a spoiled brat reputation even among the federal community.
My credentials on the subject are that I recently retired from a 34 year federal career in air traffic control, the last 20+ of which was in management. During many team meetings, we discussed the importance of public service. I often urged young controllers to look at the help wanted ads (when newspapers still had such a thing) to keep in perspective what they had. When they would talk about their neighbors who brought home a HUGE end-of-year bonus, I would remind them that they would have an even cash flow when their neighbor had a lean year.
I have also worked with and for countless feds on various projects across agency lines.
In my experience, federal employees, including controllers, (and I have known many hundreds of them) work hard, take the concept of public service seriously, despite the few who mouth off and project otherwise.
That's fine. And you make a good point, I shouldn't paint such a broad brush. But the idea of a Fed job being some sort of sacrifice is very much a thing of the past. The pensions alone make up for the "lean years", never-mind this idea that you absolutely won't lose your job. "Nobody wants a Fed job", right... Nobody wants fair market pay, a pension that pays you over 50% of your salary for the rest of your life and the inability to lose your job. The latter being the mentality anyway.
I don't think I ever presented federal employment as a sacrifice. I presented it as a tradeoff. No bonuses. No stock options. No huge pay raises. In return, reasonable job security and long-term benefit. Yes, a good pension is part of that tradeoff.
The pension, by the way, is very good, but not "over 50% of your salary for the rest of your life". Employees hired since 1984 must work for 45 years in government before hitting the 50% mark. The rest of retirement comes from Social Security and a 401-K type plan. And instead of saying that this is too generous, shouldn't other large employers offer something as good?
As for your other points, everyone DOES want fair market pay. What's wrong with that?
Feds can and do lose their jobs. As a manager, I was involved in many performance-based removals. They are (intentionally) not easy to do so that nobody gets fired to make room for a nephew or because the boss doesn't like them, but they do happen more than people think.
And Feds do lose jobs due to layoffs and downsizing. In the 20 years between 1992 and 2012 the Federal civilian workforce shrunk by 256,000.
