Y’know, some of these comments just irritate the crap out of me. I’m probably going to say something here that I shouldn’t and will regret, but so be it.
I am a government worker, and as much as I don’t like it, my raise has been canceled. I understand why it was done, and support the decision, but still don’t like not getting a raise. And why is that, you may ask? Simple. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I work for the IRS as a Senior Manager in IT.
Now, I will readily admit that we have our share of slugs that we could live without, but I can tell you that overall, the people that work for me bust their butts all the time. I wake up at 5:30 in the morning, have some coffee and a smoke, then check my email to see how overnight processing went. Not that I really need to, because if something went wrong they would have called me in the middle of the night and I would have been involved in getting it fixed for as long as it takes. In some cases, I have spent from 9:00 pm on a Thursday night until 3:30 am on Monday getting a problem fixed. Why? So all of you taxpayers could get your refund checks as fast as we can get them to you.
And when filing season ends? That workload doesn’t stop. We prepare for the next year changes, plan for redundancy, plan for faster and more efficient processing, plan for disaster recovery, and we try to nurse old servers and infrastructure through for one more year because everyone hates the IRS and no one gives us money to replace servers that are already 15 years old.
Then we have the power down weekends. On Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus day weekends, we actually take one of our computing centers completely down and turn the power off. And when I say off, you can’t use the bathrooms because the auto-detect flushing system is off so you can’t flush or wash your hands or anything. Off is off. And we get to work to bring everything down on Saturday, then on the holiday, we get to work to bring everything back up and have it all up and running by the next business day (Tuesday). Which never happens because the equipment suffers a ridiculous amount of failures because of old age and we end up having to work 28 hours straight to bring this crap back up.
This Labor Day weekend, the power down was canceled. It is the first Labor Day weekend I have had off in over 14 years.
As a manager, much of that time I end up working is “love” time because we don’t get overtime pay as managers. And then there are the times in the middle of the week when something just decides to quit working at 1:00 am, and I get the dreaded call that tells me I am going to be on the phone for a Service Restoration Team call until sometime the next day because nothing around here is ever an easy fix and go back to sleep.
View of employees in the computer room of a regional IRS office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 11, 1965.
So, to all of you whining, please keep in mind that there are many of us in the government that bust our butts because it is the right thing to do.
Where I work, we have worked hard to get your refund checks to you and cut down the ridiculous wait time from 2-3 months for you to get a paper check in the mail to one week for a direct deposit. We put in a lot of free time because that’s what we do. We deal with old, junk servers and infrastructure and a Congress that has no clue. They decide to sign the law that sets the changes we need to make for a new filing season on January 5th, and we’re supposed to write all new code, test it, and have it running perfectly and in production by January 15th or Congress and all the taxpayers complain. And when something goes wrong, it is never just a problem. Twenty people across the entire country can’t submit their electronic tax return on Friday night at 3:00 am? To us, that is a catastrophic failure because I guarantee that the Commissioner of the IRS is going to be on the phone ripping us a new one.
I worked in IT in the private sector for 23 years before coming here, and in various other industries for 12 years before that. Honestly, I have never worked harder during any of that time than I do now for the American Taxpayer, who normally doesn’t give a crap about anything I do. As witnessed by some of the prior comments.
Speaking from experience, I do wonder how much of your butt-busting is not because you are government, not because you are IRS, but because you are I.T.
I don’t want to denigrate what you have said, because it would be rude, and I strive not to be, and because we DO need a government, and we DO need dedicated people like you to staff it. I thank you for tipping your hat to at least the reasoning behind being against the pay raise.
But you are in I.T., and, man, that shoot just don’t EVER stop.
Yawn.
I’ve worked for government at federal, state and local levels. I’ve worked in private industry, employed by large and small firms. I’ve been self employed.
I’ve worked long hours (I remember 19 hour work days following a flood and not leaving the job site for over a week.) and have answered many middle of the night calls requiring a quick trip to stomp out a fire.
Point is I was paid to to do the job and could quit at any time. I didn’t do it for attaboys, I did it ’cause it was the right thing to do and for the wages, as do many in the work force.
So IRS IT guy, suck it up butter cup, stop whining and just do your job, you’re not the only one to ever work long hours in America.
Gordon ScottSeptember 6, 2018, 11:16 AM
I’m married to a government employee who does work hard, and gives good value. She gets tired of hearing how All Government Employees are lazy and entitled.
But look at that picture! What are those things around the workers’ necks? And there is an honest-to-God ashtray, in the friggin’ mainframe room!
Former LurkerSeptember 6, 2018, 11:29 AM
Hmmm… I didn’t quite expect this, but oh well.
Gordon – fortunately, those are old, old pictures, though I could swear we are still using some of that equipment. Nowadays, if you try walking into the building with a cigarette, the guards would probably shoot you.
Jiminalaska: Bite me. My response was for those who were generalizing about every single government employee, and who may have been interested to know that some of us government employees do work hard, especially those in IT.
ghostsniperSeptember 6, 2018, 12:13 PM
If you had any sense of value you’d get an honest job.
What’s it like to know your whole life is devoted to the largest criminal agency in world history?
Your comment to Jim was with your shit filled mask off.
I got your sympathy right here.
Please, dine on a loaded gun asshole.
VanderleunSeptember 6, 2018, 12:28 PM
NOW NOW….
As Gabby Hayes famously said when walking into the aftermatch of a gunfight, “Why must thar always be fightin’ and killin’? Why cain’t thar be peace in the valley?”
I came very close to doing what you do.
But in Afghanistan, within the Big Base in Kabul. I didn’t because it was a year away and I had three dependent, elderly and handicapped women to take care of. I swear it wasn’t the safety issue, the guy that took the gig was a friend and he said he only got mortared once that year and statically it was safer then driving daily into Boston on the Expressway. And yeah, the basic design of the equipment was 80’s. Which was bad enough but try supporting it at the end of a 6,500 mile supply line.
So I feel for your situation. But I’ve done much the same and worked like hours within the private sector and we do it because we love the challenge.
But if you want the truth, the job doesn’t love you and if you aren’t there it’ll get done anyway. Somehow.
I was finally laid off when the suits sent the job to India. Six months later I lost my wife to pneumonia. Don’t make that mistake, the important days of your life won’t be found inside the server room. Go fishing.
Dr. JaySeptember 6, 2018, 12:31 PM
Next on Scooby-Doo – “The mystery of why no one understands your pain.”
Steve in GreensboroSeptember 6, 2018, 1:55 PM
Our worthy curator has asked us to behave, so I will try to (behave that is). But hearing a Fed Gov employee complain about their working conditions is enraging.
Have a look at the CBO publication below. For Bachelors degree and down, Fed Gov employees are grotesquely overpaid compared to private sector on a total average comp basis.
And what’s even more material is that if you work for the Fed Gov you never (never) ever (ever) get fired. There are no downsizings, no restructurings, no reductions in force. Further, nobody ever gets fired for not working. Never, ever.
I have zero sympathy for government employees. And sympathy for the IRS? You must be kidding.
VanderleunSeptember 6, 2018, 2:09 PM
“Our worthy curator has asked us to behave….”
Well, yes, that — but then again I like to keep the commenters that I have; even the former lurkers. Especially those. Especially those who give me items I would not otherwise have thought of. Call me proprietary.
pbirdSeptember 6, 2018, 4:23 PM
I’m with GV on this. Its an interesting take on stuff we don’t think about. These guys are only human also.
I got a kid that does that kind of work. Sometimes he gets almost no sleep. Not for the govco, just for a huge international company.
EskymanSeptember 6, 2018, 4:36 PM
I haven’t anything good to say about the IRS or about an IRS manager, other than to echo ghostsniper above: that someday I hope you find honest work.
And gee, wasn’t McCain’s funeral fun! Lots of goverment dependants there, I noticed- and some that the IRS doesn’t seem to know how to find, though they owe millions in taxes. That must be due to those old computers, but oddly they don’t seem to have any trouble adding up my bill; it’s a mystery!
dr killSeptember 6, 2018, 5:54 PM
Get a real job, son. Gov work is for sissies and losers. You’ll feel better about yourself and you will meet a better class of people, too. Good luck. I know you can do it.
JoeSeptember 6, 2018, 6:02 PM
Well said Former Lurker. I work for DoD, after 20 years in the military. I too get tired of the “all government employees” suck comments. I too work with dedicated hard working folks (and a few lame ducks). But, I’ve seen and known lousy workers in the civilian sector, along with waste. I like what I do, and could work in the private sector, but prefer my time with family more than more pay and more hours. To Jiminalaska, I’m not a huge fan of paying taxes, but the employees there don’t make the laws. I’d rather smart, dedicated people work there, who don’t send my refund to China.
GrizzlySeptember 6, 2018, 6:12 PM
“I have zero sympathy for government employees.” — Steve
Right you are, Steve. Have no sympathy for our men in blue, first responders, and our men & women in uniform. Government employees all. Those lazy-assed maroons deserve whatever conditions they find themselves in, with whatever equipment they have been issued. If they were smart, they would all find honest work elsewhere, and we would all be better off. Right? /sarc
Hale AdamsSeptember 6, 2018, 6:55 PM
C’mon guys, Our Gracious Host has asked us to keep it civil. You, too, Ghost. (Yes, I know — back at ya, dude.)
Former Lurker,
I get that you’re proud to serve, and that you take great pride in doing your job well, and that you want to give us taxpayers the best possible service. (And I thank you for that.) My late father was a federal civil servant — he put in 30 years of active Federal service (5 years in the military at the end of WWII and in the Korean War, then 25 in the civil service, 1962-87), spending most of his years in weapons testing and defense contract administration. If he were still around, he could tell you (with heaping portions of sarcasm) just why it is that Uncle Sam pays $600 for toilet seats or $100 for hammers. He was very good at *anything* that he set his hand to. I wish I was half as conscientious and competent as he was.
I think a good bit of the reason you’re catching a lot of flak here is not so much that you’re a government employee as that you work for the IRS. No one likes the taxman, but the IRS is an abomination — yes, it is lawfully established (see the 16th Amendment to the Constitution) — but we are paying the price (literally and figuratively) for the stupidity and envious attitudes of our grandparents (mine were born in the 1890s) and great-grandparents (born about the time of the Civil War) who encouraged the politicians of their day to attach that piece of crap (the 16th Amendment) to the Constitution.
(The 17th Amendment isn’t very good, either, but that’s a rant for another day.)
So, here we are, a hundred years after our ancestors’ act of monumental folly, and we’re getting a bit testy about how the folks inside the Beltway now imagine that they’re our masters.
I don’t blame you for your unhappiness at being “shot at”, but I believe that you really need to think about dismantling the machine instead of greasing its gears.
My two cents’ worth, as usual.
Hale Adams
Pikesville, People’s still-mostly-Democratic Republic of Maryland
Bill HenrySeptember 6, 2018, 7:39 PM
Not brown nosing here but Im with Gerard. I like to see behind the curtain..
Lurker’s comments are illuminating to say the least. A blog I frequent recently predicted that
the government would soon collapse under its own weight. You can hear echos of the big timbers cracking in Lurker’s comment. Hmmm interesting..
While I agree with many commenters that the IRS is an abomination, consider that without at least some federal employees like Lurker we’d be spending all our time trying to get a problem resolved with the affirmative action / DMV employee of the month instead.
I’ve dealt with both types over the years, and can attest that competent government workers do exist. While not quite as rare as hen’s teeth, they certainly do make your day easier. Do we really want all the good guys to leave? We still have to deal with Uncle either way, so I’d prefer that occaisional bright spot to everlasting gloom. Thanks for being that rare light in the darkness, Lurker.
John A. FlemingSeptember 6, 2018, 9:21 PM
Well. You’re on a salary, you bust your ass getting the job done, you don’t get a raise, and the people who pay you are not giving you the respect you feel you deserve. Welcome to the party, pal.
You’re not going to get any special sympathy or respect from me. I’m in industry, that’s the way it is and ever has been. Every week for the last 30 years, I go into work wondering if this is the week I get laid off. It doesn’t matter how much I work, how hard, how many hours, how valuable I am. If it’s my time and business is bad, I’m gone and nobody sheds a tear. Oh, and we haven’t got automatic raises for years. Not even CoL. The only folks that get raises are those 3%’ers rated “vastly exceeds expectations”, which means you’re doing your job and your bosses’ job and you’re the rainmaker bringing in new business, or the critical person that makes sure the current business earns a healthy profit. It’s very hard to vee every year, in which case they might give your a small cash bonus. A thousand attaboys equals one awshit.
It’s just like war. You go to war, you have to act as if you’re already dead, your time WILL come, and the only thing left to you is how well you do the job you have been given. If they paid you half as much, you would still go to work and do what has to be done, because that is who you are and that is your life’s work and your pride and morals and culture. Survival is an unlooked-for bonus.
Government is some guys we hire to do some dirty jobs for us. If you don’t like doing the dirty job, the long hours for good pay and no recognition and respect, quit. Nobody in government service is special in any way. No government job is special. You’re nobodies, just like all the rest of us. You should be treated just like all the rest of us.
It used to be, that there was a bargain. Government service didn’t pay very much, because we wanted our government to be frugal with our money, but there was job security. There’s still job security (whatever else, Congress makes damn sure that not a single one of you is ever rif’ed), and you’re paid more than we are, and you’re protected from being subject to the same laws that we are, and you can’t be fired even for malfeasance of the grossest kind, they just let you retire with your full pension and your dignity intact. Oh, and did I mention your full pensions, which nobody in business has had for years. And you all have made quite sure that we will be taxed to the utmost to make good on your over-generous pensions, which you seem to think we owe you in special recognition for your oh-so-special government service.
And then you’re dismayed to find that we have a dim opinion of government folks. Let’s see. The DMV. The courts, where there is no justice. Martha Stewart goes to jail, and everybody in government lies to us and to Congress and to each other all day long and nothing happens. Government folks protect each other from the law that they torture us with. What’s a government rainmaker? The folks who come up with new laws and new interpretations of the laws to control us even more. Somebody who seizes more power for the government.
We have a dim view of the government folks? The power of the government is the power to say “no, you can’t do that, and if you try we will destroy you”. If you don’t say NO!, you don’t have any power. And so, all we see is government people telling us no, no, no, no, no, and daring us to resist. You guys don’t care one whit about us. All it is is shut up, pay your taxes, don’t you dare resist you stupid normies, deplorables, and irredeemables. Filthy helots, know your place. You are the lowest of the low. Don’t you know? You are not a politician, or government worker, or favored ethnic or elite or progressive culture group.
Do your job, do it well, go home at the end of the day and raise your family best as you see fit, support your community, and leave us the hell alone. Then you’ll get the only respect that’s worth having. That’s all any of the rest of us ever get, and lots of times not even that.
Another LurkerSeptember 6, 2018, 10:14 PM
Hey Former Lurker,
I feel for you man, we had tremendous turnover in the IT guys because they were expected to make everything work on a shoestring budget. I spent 21 years working for several different Fed agencies (mostly DoD) and in most there were a relative handful of guys/gals in whatever discipline who knew their stuff and would do whatever it takes to get the job done. Hats off to them and you, wish the gov’t had more like you.
However, there were also people like my former manager who would get up and walk out of meetings at 3:00 because it was his quitting time, regardless of what was happening. And there was the social clique that spent weeks planning the annual diversity event and more planning the office Christmas party and every other distraction from work, and there was the guy that I swear had modeled himself after “Bartleby the Scrivener” (except he read the newspaper at his desk half of every day and went on to retire on a nice pension). I can go on like this for hours.
In my experience, while I’ve worked in groups where we had good people working hard as in any private industry job, I honestly believe something like a third to a half of the workforce in other agencies could have been laid off with no impact to the mission. I quit in disgust (after a dust-up with a colonel who believed he knew the engineer’s jobs better than we did) and moved on to private industry. 20 years on, it’s far from perfect here too, but it’s somewhat self-correcting in that if we don’t win a contract or turn a profit, the chainsaws come out. That never happens in gov’t, and the deadwood is thick in a lot of agencies.
Truly, a fair number of gov’t employees are far from being lazy slugs. They’re the ones that make it function (whether or not one agrees with their function, which is handed down from above anyway) and it’s not fair to lump them in with the ones who deserve the label of “white collar welfare”. Unfortunately, we, as taxpayers, pay for the lot of them and the good ones are going to get tarred with that brush. Stand by for a solution to the problem 🙂
Sam CafferSeptember 7, 2018, 3:46 AM
I’m retired GM15. Yep, some civil servants work hard. It isn’t that they aren’t busy. The problem is that they are doing harmful stuff.
Steve in GreensboroSeptember 7, 2018, 5:37 AM
Grizzly: So you put an IRS computer guy in the same class as Seal Team 6? Got it.
John A. FlemingSeptember 7, 2018, 6:18 AM
All that being said, I’ve got no special beef with the IRS. It seems to be a well-run and responsible government agency that performs its core mission. Except for the Cleveland division where Lois Lerner worked, which was weaponized to destroy the Tea Party. That bint Lerner and her associates and everyone else who protected them was exactly who I was thinking of. She took our money all those years, used her position for political purposes, then pleaded the 5th and walked with her pension intact. She should have been fired that day without a pension and in complete disgrace. And every single other one of you all IRS people should have insisted that she and her ilk be subject to the harshest penalties. But no, it was close ranks and protect each other from the law and from the outrages of the people.
I come on these boards to bitch about my job all the time. I do it in a global sort of way: largest possible picture. We all exist in a sub-culture of some kind or another. There may be something wrong with our sub-culture; our industry, that is.
Own it. Own what you do and own who you are. You are dust in the wind, baby. Are you a child of God? That helps immensely; in the end it is all that matters.
My vote goes to John Fleming for his comments above. Well said, sir.
WhipoorwillSeptember 7, 2018, 9:15 AM
I respect this person for their ‘self-respect, albeit they are obliviously missing the point.
There is NO integrity in participating in taking money away from one group of people and giving it to another, at the point of a gun. In civilian life it called organized crime and covered by RICO.
The IRS is a confiscatory entity that now also participates in ‘healthcare’ enforcement. Clearly outside the bounds of what our founders ever intended. Add to that the fact that the Income Tax is like every other ‘government program’. A cancer. Growing and killing every good thing it touches.
And STFU about your raise. Government wonks now have higher total wages and benefits than the public sector. Getting the point?
Metro DC is the richest area in the country.
And your ‘employer’ is about as well liked as the Gestapo.
Get another job. Or better yet, go try to start a private business against the oppression of government ‘regulation’ .
I could go on, but I need time to clean my firearms.
People are sick and tired of being ruled by a political class, and you are their stooge.
VanderleunSeptember 7, 2018, 9:58 AM
Sorry, but I can’t tar all with the same brush. I’m with John Fleming here.
Nobody AtallSeptember 7, 2018, 10:15 AM
@Former Lurker … my sympathies to you, you sound like you would be an asset to any real-world company. However, your description is just another exhibit of evidence for why we need a flat tax, “postcard” reporting, boom done, release 95% of the IRS workers to more admirable work in the real world. Prayers for you and yours, and for the country I was raised to love, going up now.
crossposted on the original thread
ghostsniperSeptember 7, 2018, 10:32 AM
“Or better yet, go try to start a private business against the oppression of government ‘regulation’.”
==================
There ya go.
If you haven’t run a business then you haven’t seen all the IRS has to offer.
After being in business for a few years I noticed I was slowly abandoning my non-business owner friends and incorporating more business owners into the fold. Birds of a feather. Employed friends became boring and even retarded. In the 3+ decades I have been in business I have never met an owner that had anything good to say about the IRS and lots of bad.
My business was always been small potatoes but even so I experienced enough grief from those criminals to write a shelf of books. Paying taxes alone is not enough for these assholes. They require your entire compliance. For employees their employer pays half their social security tax, about 14%, but business owners must pay all of it. There are lots of other tax costs involved with being a business owner. And people (employees mostly) wonder why products and services keep rising.
I had paid my taxes for the previous year but the IRS sent me a letter stating I still owed them $7k and if I didn’t pay them within 30 days they would file a lien against me. I don’t know about you but $7k is a fair amount of coin for me. This was back in 1992. My credit was impeccable and my wife and I were circling the wagons to get a construction loan for a house we wanted to build. I couldn’t let our credit get damaged and prevent us from getting a prime loan. So I scrambled and did all nighters and took on more work, called in some favors, and begged for back owed money and went to the IRS office 5 days before the due date with cash in hand. Unfortunately those assholes levied that lien on me 2 days prior. A full week before the written deadline. I was beyond livid, I was fit to be tied. I paid them, and fumed for months. Are you ready for the 2nd part of this story? (we got our loan but at increased interest rate because of that lien)
3 years later I got a letter in the mail from the IRS, saying they made an error in calculating my taxes for 1991, and enclosed a check for the amount I paid minus their standard fees and interest, about $5k. I had complied with their despicable demands yet they still claimed I violated the law and penalized me heavily and levied even more demands, and I complied again at great sufferage to my family and business. Then 3 years later they send me some of my stolen money back.
Then their was the time I deposited a $9k check in my business account and wrote 27 checks out of it for bills, then ran by the bank drive thru to cash a $100 check and was told it wouldn’t cash due to insufficient funds. I went in and spoke to the manager and was told the IRS seized my entire account. WTF??? All 27 checks bounced and I didn’t have any walking around money. Those bounced checks cost me $25 each in bank fees. A month later that money mysteriously showed up in my account. An inquiry at the local IRS office and no one had any idea what I was talking about.
Oh yeah, it’s not just money with the IRS, it is about total destruction. I’ll remind you that I always had my taxes done by professional accounting firms and always payed the taxes quarterly as required. The IRS called my wife at her job and threatened to garnish her wages because of my unpaid taxes. WTF??? My wife had to go home immediately she was so overcome with the “minority” womans horrific manner. My wife jumped in my ass and I didn’t know what to say cause I didn’t know anything was wrong. So I called my accountant. 3 days later that same “minority” woman called my wife again at work and the first thing she said to my wife was, “Mrs. ——–, why are you staying married to a man that refuses to pay his taxes?” Put yourself in our place. How do you respond when the hand of god itself is trying to destroy you? I called an attorney and he told me he has to have $10k right up front to deal with this and it could cost well over $100k before he’s done. But the following year it could happen all over again.
These were just a few of the incidents, of many, that occurred over a 30 year period. EVERYBODY I know in business can relate similar and worse situations. All because of a lie that was told more than 100 years ago that it would never exceed 4% and only to the top 10%. The IRS is a domestic tariss organization and everyone in their employ should be dragged.
StBernardnotSeptember 7, 2018, 3:30 PM
Just do away with the IRS. The country needs truck drivers. Then you can really whine.
GrizzlySeptember 7, 2018, 7:50 PM
“Grizzly: So you put an IRS computer guy in the same class as Seal Team 6? Got it.” — Steve
No, sir, you put them in the same class with your broad brush. (My response was clearly marked as sarcasm.) I have many friends and family members in the military and law enforcement, and it just pisses me off to see people trash talk them. Sorry to get riled up, but it’s a sensitive spot.
Snakepit KansasSeptember 8, 2018, 6:22 AM
I’ve had past engagements with individuals at the IRS and with Customs. My cheap advice is when engaging with them, be as polite as possible. They can make your life miserable so don’t give them an excuse.
Former LurkerSeptember 8, 2018, 11:06 AM
Some of you posters understand, and I really appreciate that and your support. Others seem to insist on making derogatory comments that are based on events that happened to them and I understand that, too. In fact, back in my 20s, I went through my own IRS crisis, so I understand your feelings. Some of you are making negative comments for no apparent reason other than to hear yourself complain, and for those, well, whatever.
You will note in my original post, I did not complain about not getting a raise. I said I didn’t like not getting one, but that I understood AND SUPPORTED the rationale behind it. If there’s anyone out there that can honestly say they are happy when they don’t get a raise after working hard for a year, I will be more than happy to call you a liar to your face. However, as I said, I wasn’t complaining about it. I support smaller, limited government and even though that would directly affect me, I believe in the Constitution and the limits it places on the absurd government we have now.
I have, in fact, fired two people during my tenure as a manager. The union makes it incredibly difficult, but it can be done. These two people, as a result of my efforts, will never work for any other Federal Agency again, not just the IRS.
Ghost – yes, I started and ran a successful business years ago. It takes a special type of personality to be a really good entrepreneur over a long period of time, and I congratulate you. I found that after a few years, I was getting burned out on working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. So, a tip of the hat to you. However, not every business has an issue with the IRS, and I have absolutely nothing to do with the criminals like Lois Lerner and the tax enforcement crazies. The fact that you are still tarring me with that brush is what irritates me. I could do the same to you if I was ignorant enough to hold a grudge against all business owners because of the mean guy who owned the five and dime I used to go to when I was 8 years old.
In closing, I’d just like to say that I, too, hate paying taxes. I don’t like the very idea of the IRS. But at the same time, I’d like to remind everyone that it is the nitwits we elect that make all the rules. Congress tells us what we can or cannot do, and they are the ones that makes the laws that the IRS is tasked with enforcing. Vote for the people who will reduce everyone’s tax burdens – that is when you will see real change. Hating us all because of the actions of some accomplishes nothing.
ghostsniperSeptember 8, 2018, 6:25 PM
Voting got us here, and it will keep us here, isn’t that more than obvious?
After a lifetime of putting up with gov’t thugs all I have left is hate.
As far as establishing a business goes, you MUST do what you truly enjoy, for that alone is what will propel you over the long haul. Precisely, find something you like to do all the time, then figure out how to make money doing it. I always wanted to be a pr0n star but early on discovered that after 8 times in 12 hours it’s not fun any more. yeah, riiiight…..
RigelDogSeptember 9, 2018, 10:15 AM
I understand where Lurker is coming from, in that of course with so many people working for the federal govt and in so many capacities, it’s not morally or factually correct to tar them all as not deserving their salaries. Even forgetting individual worker’s merit, we should all be able to agree that certain jobs are necessary and even valorous. My husband is a prime example. He’s in law enforcement and in a category of job that is NOT one of the ones that pays more than the private sector. He believes in what he does and is trying to do his best to protect us all. We’re disappointed there will not be a raise, but in no way do we disagree with the policy. In fact, we were pissed when Obama took office under a national economic crisis and did not do more to hold down wages. In closing, remember that there are true public servants like my husband—finest kind—who isn’t looking for sympathy but doesn’t deserve to be vilified.
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Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Speaking from experience, I do wonder how much of your butt-busting is not because you are government, not because you are IRS, but because you are I.T.
I don’t want to denigrate what you have said, because it would be rude, and I strive not to be, and because we DO need a government, and we DO need dedicated people like you to staff it. I thank you for tipping your hat to at least the reasoning behind being against the pay raise.
But you are in I.T., and, man, that shoot just don’t EVER stop.
The old expression:
“To really screw-up requires a computer.”
has been replaced with:
“To really screw-up requires CONGRESS.”
Yawn.
I’ve worked for government at federal, state and local levels. I’ve worked in private industry, employed by large and small firms. I’ve been self employed.
I’ve worked long hours (I remember 19 hour work days following a flood and not leaving the job site for over a week.) and have answered many middle of the night calls requiring a quick trip to stomp out a fire.
Point is I was paid to to do the job and could quit at any time. I didn’t do it for attaboys, I did it ’cause it was the right thing to do and for the wages, as do many in the work force.
So IRS IT guy, suck it up butter cup, stop whining and just do your job, you’re not the only one to ever work long hours in America.
I’m married to a government employee who does work hard, and gives good value. She gets tired of hearing how All Government Employees are lazy and entitled.
But look at that picture! What are those things around the workers’ necks? And there is an honest-to-God ashtray, in the friggin’ mainframe room!
Hmmm… I didn’t quite expect this, but oh well.
Gordon – fortunately, those are old, old pictures, though I could swear we are still using some of that equipment. Nowadays, if you try walking into the building with a cigarette, the guards would probably shoot you.
Jiminalaska: Bite me. My response was for those who were generalizing about every single government employee, and who may have been interested to know that some of us government employees do work hard, especially those in IT.
If you had any sense of value you’d get an honest job.
What’s it like to know your whole life is devoted to the largest criminal agency in world history?
Your comment to Jim was with your shit filled mask off.
I got your sympathy right here.
Please, dine on a loaded gun asshole.
NOW NOW….
As Gabby Hayes famously said when walking into the aftermatch of a gunfight, “Why must thar always be fightin’ and killin’? Why cain’t thar be peace in the valley?”
Don’t make me pull over.
Former Lurker
I came very close to doing what you do.
But in Afghanistan, within the Big Base in Kabul. I didn’t because it was a year away and I had three dependent, elderly and handicapped women to take care of. I swear it wasn’t the safety issue, the guy that took the gig was a friend and he said he only got mortared once that year and statically it was safer then driving daily into Boston on the Expressway. And yeah, the basic design of the equipment was 80’s. Which was bad enough but try supporting it at the end of a 6,500 mile supply line.
So I feel for your situation. But I’ve done much the same and worked like hours within the private sector and we do it because we love the challenge.
But if you want the truth, the job doesn’t love you and if you aren’t there it’ll get done anyway. Somehow.
I was finally laid off when the suits sent the job to India. Six months later I lost my wife to pneumonia. Don’t make that mistake, the important days of your life won’t be found inside the server room. Go fishing.
Next on Scooby-Doo – “The mystery of why no one understands your pain.”
Our worthy curator has asked us to behave, so I will try to (behave that is). But hearing a Fed Gov employee complain about their working conditions is enraging.
Have a look at the CBO publication below. For Bachelors degree and down, Fed Gov employees are grotesquely overpaid compared to private sector on a total average comp basis.
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52637
And what’s even more material is that if you work for the Fed Gov you never (never) ever (ever) get fired. There are no downsizings, no restructurings, no reductions in force. Further, nobody ever gets fired for not working. Never, ever.
I have zero sympathy for government employees. And sympathy for the IRS? You must be kidding.
“Our worthy curator has asked us to behave….”
Well, yes, that — but then again I like to keep the commenters that I have; even the former lurkers. Especially those. Especially those who give me items I would not otherwise have thought of. Call me proprietary.
I’m with GV on this. Its an interesting take on stuff we don’t think about. These guys are only human also.
I got a kid that does that kind of work. Sometimes he gets almost no sleep. Not for the govco, just for a huge international company.
I haven’t anything good to say about the IRS or about an IRS manager, other than to echo ghostsniper above: that someday I hope you find honest work.
And gee, wasn’t McCain’s funeral fun! Lots of goverment dependants there, I noticed- and some that the IRS doesn’t seem to know how to find, though they owe millions in taxes. That must be due to those old computers, but oddly they don’t seem to have any trouble adding up my bill; it’s a mystery!
Get a real job, son. Gov work is for sissies and losers. You’ll feel better about yourself and you will meet a better class of people, too. Good luck. I know you can do it.
Well said Former Lurker. I work for DoD, after 20 years in the military. I too get tired of the “all government employees” suck comments. I too work with dedicated hard working folks (and a few lame ducks). But, I’ve seen and known lousy workers in the civilian sector, along with waste. I like what I do, and could work in the private sector, but prefer my time with family more than more pay and more hours. To Jiminalaska, I’m not a huge fan of paying taxes, but the employees there don’t make the laws. I’d rather smart, dedicated people work there, who don’t send my refund to China.
“I have zero sympathy for government employees.” — Steve
Right you are, Steve. Have no sympathy for our men in blue, first responders, and our men & women in uniform. Government employees all. Those lazy-assed maroons deserve whatever conditions they find themselves in, with whatever equipment they have been issued. If they were smart, they would all find honest work elsewhere, and we would all be better off. Right? /sarc
C’mon guys, Our Gracious Host has asked us to keep it civil. You, too, Ghost. (Yes, I know — back at ya, dude.)
Former Lurker,
I get that you’re proud to serve, and that you take great pride in doing your job well, and that you want to give us taxpayers the best possible service. (And I thank you for that.) My late father was a federal civil servant — he put in 30 years of active Federal service (5 years in the military at the end of WWII and in the Korean War, then 25 in the civil service, 1962-87), spending most of his years in weapons testing and defense contract administration. If he were still around, he could tell you (with heaping portions of sarcasm) just why it is that Uncle Sam pays $600 for toilet seats or $100 for hammers. He was very good at *anything* that he set his hand to. I wish I was half as conscientious and competent as he was.
I think a good bit of the reason you’re catching a lot of flak here is not so much that you’re a government employee as that you work for the IRS. No one likes the taxman, but the IRS is an abomination — yes, it is lawfully established (see the 16th Amendment to the Constitution) — but we are paying the price (literally and figuratively) for the stupidity and envious attitudes of our grandparents (mine were born in the 1890s) and great-grandparents (born about the time of the Civil War) who encouraged the politicians of their day to attach that piece of crap (the 16th Amendment) to the Constitution.
(The 17th Amendment isn’t very good, either, but that’s a rant for another day.)
So, here we are, a hundred years after our ancestors’ act of monumental folly, and we’re getting a bit testy about how the folks inside the Beltway now imagine that they’re our masters.
I don’t blame you for your unhappiness at being “shot at”, but I believe that you really need to think about dismantling the machine instead of greasing its gears.
My two cents’ worth, as usual.
Hale Adams
Pikesville, People’s still-mostly-Democratic Republic of Maryland
Not brown nosing here but Im with Gerard. I like to see behind the curtain..
Lurker’s comments are illuminating to say the least. A blog I frequent recently predicted that
the government would soon collapse under its own weight. You can hear echos of the big timbers cracking in Lurker’s comment. Hmmm interesting..
Bill Henry
While I agree with many commenters that the IRS is an abomination, consider that without at least some federal employees like Lurker we’d be spending all our time trying to get a problem resolved with the affirmative action / DMV employee of the month instead.
I’ve dealt with both types over the years, and can attest that competent government workers do exist. While not quite as rare as hen’s teeth, they certainly do make your day easier. Do we really want all the good guys to leave? We still have to deal with Uncle either way, so I’d prefer that occaisional bright spot to everlasting gloom. Thanks for being that rare light in the darkness, Lurker.
Well. You’re on a salary, you bust your ass getting the job done, you don’t get a raise, and the people who pay you are not giving you the respect you feel you deserve. Welcome to the party, pal.
You’re not going to get any special sympathy or respect from me. I’m in industry, that’s the way it is and ever has been. Every week for the last 30 years, I go into work wondering if this is the week I get laid off. It doesn’t matter how much I work, how hard, how many hours, how valuable I am. If it’s my time and business is bad, I’m gone and nobody sheds a tear. Oh, and we haven’t got automatic raises for years. Not even CoL. The only folks that get raises are those 3%’ers rated “vastly exceeds expectations”, which means you’re doing your job and your bosses’ job and you’re the rainmaker bringing in new business, or the critical person that makes sure the current business earns a healthy profit. It’s very hard to vee every year, in which case they might give your a small cash bonus. A thousand attaboys equals one awshit.
It’s just like war. You go to war, you have to act as if you’re already dead, your time WILL come, and the only thing left to you is how well you do the job you have been given. If they paid you half as much, you would still go to work and do what has to be done, because that is who you are and that is your life’s work and your pride and morals and culture. Survival is an unlooked-for bonus.
Government is some guys we hire to do some dirty jobs for us. If you don’t like doing the dirty job, the long hours for good pay and no recognition and respect, quit. Nobody in government service is special in any way. No government job is special. You’re nobodies, just like all the rest of us. You should be treated just like all the rest of us.
It used to be, that there was a bargain. Government service didn’t pay very much, because we wanted our government to be frugal with our money, but there was job security. There’s still job security (whatever else, Congress makes damn sure that not a single one of you is ever rif’ed), and you’re paid more than we are, and you’re protected from being subject to the same laws that we are, and you can’t be fired even for malfeasance of the grossest kind, they just let you retire with your full pension and your dignity intact. Oh, and did I mention your full pensions, which nobody in business has had for years. And you all have made quite sure that we will be taxed to the utmost to make good on your over-generous pensions, which you seem to think we owe you in special recognition for your oh-so-special government service.
And then you’re dismayed to find that we have a dim opinion of government folks. Let’s see. The DMV. The courts, where there is no justice. Martha Stewart goes to jail, and everybody in government lies to us and to Congress and to each other all day long and nothing happens. Government folks protect each other from the law that they torture us with. What’s a government rainmaker? The folks who come up with new laws and new interpretations of the laws to control us even more. Somebody who seizes more power for the government.
We have a dim view of the government folks? The power of the government is the power to say “no, you can’t do that, and if you try we will destroy you”. If you don’t say NO!, you don’t have any power. And so, all we see is government people telling us no, no, no, no, no, and daring us to resist. You guys don’t care one whit about us. All it is is shut up, pay your taxes, don’t you dare resist you stupid normies, deplorables, and irredeemables. Filthy helots, know your place. You are the lowest of the low. Don’t you know? You are not a politician, or government worker, or favored ethnic or elite or progressive culture group.
Do your job, do it well, go home at the end of the day and raise your family best as you see fit, support your community, and leave us the hell alone. Then you’ll get the only respect that’s worth having. That’s all any of the rest of us ever get, and lots of times not even that.
Hey Former Lurker,
I feel for you man, we had tremendous turnover in the IT guys because they were expected to make everything work on a shoestring budget. I spent 21 years working for several different Fed agencies (mostly DoD) and in most there were a relative handful of guys/gals in whatever discipline who knew their stuff and would do whatever it takes to get the job done. Hats off to them and you, wish the gov’t had more like you.
However, there were also people like my former manager who would get up and walk out of meetings at 3:00 because it was his quitting time, regardless of what was happening. And there was the social clique that spent weeks planning the annual diversity event and more planning the office Christmas party and every other distraction from work, and there was the guy that I swear had modeled himself after “Bartleby the Scrivener” (except he read the newspaper at his desk half of every day and went on to retire on a nice pension). I can go on like this for hours.
In my experience, while I’ve worked in groups where we had good people working hard as in any private industry job, I honestly believe something like a third to a half of the workforce in other agencies could have been laid off with no impact to the mission. I quit in disgust (after a dust-up with a colonel who believed he knew the engineer’s jobs better than we did) and moved on to private industry. 20 years on, it’s far from perfect here too, but it’s somewhat self-correcting in that if we don’t win a contract or turn a profit, the chainsaws come out. That never happens in gov’t, and the deadwood is thick in a lot of agencies.
Truly, a fair number of gov’t employees are far from being lazy slugs. They’re the ones that make it function (whether or not one agrees with their function, which is handed down from above anyway) and it’s not fair to lump them in with the ones who deserve the label of “white collar welfare”. Unfortunately, we, as taxpayers, pay for the lot of them and the good ones are going to get tarred with that brush. Stand by for a solution to the problem 🙂
I’m retired GM15. Yep, some civil servants work hard. It isn’t that they aren’t busy. The problem is that they are doing harmful stuff.
Grizzly: So you put an IRS computer guy in the same class as Seal Team 6? Got it.
All that being said, I’ve got no special beef with the IRS. It seems to be a well-run and responsible government agency that performs its core mission. Except for the Cleveland division where Lois Lerner worked, which was weaponized to destroy the Tea Party. That bint Lerner and her associates and everyone else who protected them was exactly who I was thinking of. She took our money all those years, used her position for political purposes, then pleaded the 5th and walked with her pension intact. She should have been fired that day without a pension and in complete disgrace. And every single other one of you all IRS people should have insisted that she and her ilk be subject to the harshest penalties. But no, it was close ranks and protect each other from the law and from the outrages of the people.
I come on these boards to bitch about my job all the time. I do it in a global sort of way: largest possible picture. We all exist in a sub-culture of some kind or another. There may be something wrong with our sub-culture; our industry, that is.
Own it. Own what you do and own who you are. You are dust in the wind, baby. Are you a child of God? That helps immensely; in the end it is all that matters.
My vote goes to John Fleming for his comments above. Well said, sir.
I respect this person for their ‘self-respect, albeit they are obliviously missing the point.
There is NO integrity in participating in taking money away from one group of people and giving it to another, at the point of a gun. In civilian life it called organized crime and covered by RICO.
The IRS is a confiscatory entity that now also participates in ‘healthcare’ enforcement. Clearly outside the bounds of what our founders ever intended. Add to that the fact that the Income Tax is like every other ‘government program’. A cancer. Growing and killing every good thing it touches.
And STFU about your raise. Government wonks now have higher total wages and benefits than the public sector. Getting the point?
Metro DC is the richest area in the country.
And your ‘employer’ is about as well liked as the Gestapo.
Get another job. Or better yet, go try to start a private business against the oppression of government ‘regulation’ .
I could go on, but I need time to clean my firearms.
People are sick and tired of being ruled by a political class, and you are their stooge.
Sorry, but I can’t tar all with the same brush. I’m with John Fleming here.
@Former Lurker … my sympathies to you, you sound like you would be an asset to any real-world company. However, your description is just another exhibit of evidence for why we need a flat tax, “postcard” reporting, boom done, release 95% of the IRS workers to more admirable work in the real world. Prayers for you and yours, and for the country I was raised to love, going up now.
crossposted on the original thread
“Or better yet, go try to start a private business against the oppression of government ‘regulation’.”
==================
There ya go.
If you haven’t run a business then you haven’t seen all the IRS has to offer.
After being in business for a few years I noticed I was slowly abandoning my non-business owner friends and incorporating more business owners into the fold. Birds of a feather. Employed friends became boring and even retarded. In the 3+ decades I have been in business I have never met an owner that had anything good to say about the IRS and lots of bad.
My business was always been small potatoes but even so I experienced enough grief from those criminals to write a shelf of books. Paying taxes alone is not enough for these assholes. They require your entire compliance. For employees their employer pays half their social security tax, about 14%, but business owners must pay all of it. There are lots of other tax costs involved with being a business owner. And people (employees mostly) wonder why products and services keep rising.
I had paid my taxes for the previous year but the IRS sent me a letter stating I still owed them $7k and if I didn’t pay them within 30 days they would file a lien against me. I don’t know about you but $7k is a fair amount of coin for me. This was back in 1992. My credit was impeccable and my wife and I were circling the wagons to get a construction loan for a house we wanted to build. I couldn’t let our credit get damaged and prevent us from getting a prime loan. So I scrambled and did all nighters and took on more work, called in some favors, and begged for back owed money and went to the IRS office 5 days before the due date with cash in hand. Unfortunately those assholes levied that lien on me 2 days prior. A full week before the written deadline. I was beyond livid, I was fit to be tied. I paid them, and fumed for months. Are you ready for the 2nd part of this story? (we got our loan but at increased interest rate because of that lien)
3 years later I got a letter in the mail from the IRS, saying they made an error in calculating my taxes for 1991, and enclosed a check for the amount I paid minus their standard fees and interest, about $5k. I had complied with their despicable demands yet they still claimed I violated the law and penalized me heavily and levied even more demands, and I complied again at great sufferage to my family and business. Then 3 years later they send me some of my stolen money back.
Then their was the time I deposited a $9k check in my business account and wrote 27 checks out of it for bills, then ran by the bank drive thru to cash a $100 check and was told it wouldn’t cash due to insufficient funds. I went in and spoke to the manager and was told the IRS seized my entire account. WTF??? All 27 checks bounced and I didn’t have any walking around money. Those bounced checks cost me $25 each in bank fees. A month later that money mysteriously showed up in my account. An inquiry at the local IRS office and no one had any idea what I was talking about.
Oh yeah, it’s not just money with the IRS, it is about total destruction. I’ll remind you that I always had my taxes done by professional accounting firms and always payed the taxes quarterly as required. The IRS called my wife at her job and threatened to garnish her wages because of my unpaid taxes. WTF??? My wife had to go home immediately she was so overcome with the “minority” womans horrific manner. My wife jumped in my ass and I didn’t know what to say cause I didn’t know anything was wrong. So I called my accountant. 3 days later that same “minority” woman called my wife again at work and the first thing she said to my wife was, “Mrs. ——–, why are you staying married to a man that refuses to pay his taxes?” Put yourself in our place. How do you respond when the hand of god itself is trying to destroy you? I called an attorney and he told me he has to have $10k right up front to deal with this and it could cost well over $100k before he’s done. But the following year it could happen all over again.
These were just a few of the incidents, of many, that occurred over a 30 year period. EVERYBODY I know in business can relate similar and worse situations. All because of a lie that was told more than 100 years ago that it would never exceed 4% and only to the top 10%. The IRS is a domestic tariss organization and everyone in their employ should be dragged.
Just do away with the IRS. The country needs truck drivers. Then you can really whine.
“Grizzly: So you put an IRS computer guy in the same class as Seal Team 6? Got it.” — Steve
No, sir, you put them in the same class with your broad brush. (My response was clearly marked as sarcasm.) I have many friends and family members in the military and law enforcement, and it just pisses me off to see people trash talk them. Sorry to get riled up, but it’s a sensitive spot.
I’ve had past engagements with individuals at the IRS and with Customs. My cheap advice is when engaging with them, be as polite as possible. They can make your life miserable so don’t give them an excuse.
Some of you posters understand, and I really appreciate that and your support. Others seem to insist on making derogatory comments that are based on events that happened to them and I understand that, too. In fact, back in my 20s, I went through my own IRS crisis, so I understand your feelings. Some of you are making negative comments for no apparent reason other than to hear yourself complain, and for those, well, whatever.
You will note in my original post, I did not complain about not getting a raise. I said I didn’t like not getting one, but that I understood AND SUPPORTED the rationale behind it. If there’s anyone out there that can honestly say they are happy when they don’t get a raise after working hard for a year, I will be more than happy to call you a liar to your face. However, as I said, I wasn’t complaining about it. I support smaller, limited government and even though that would directly affect me, I believe in the Constitution and the limits it places on the absurd government we have now.
I have, in fact, fired two people during my tenure as a manager. The union makes it incredibly difficult, but it can be done. These two people, as a result of my efforts, will never work for any other Federal Agency again, not just the IRS.
Ghost – yes, I started and ran a successful business years ago. It takes a special type of personality to be a really good entrepreneur over a long period of time, and I congratulate you. I found that after a few years, I was getting burned out on working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. So, a tip of the hat to you. However, not every business has an issue with the IRS, and I have absolutely nothing to do with the criminals like Lois Lerner and the tax enforcement crazies. The fact that you are still tarring me with that brush is what irritates me. I could do the same to you if I was ignorant enough to hold a grudge against all business owners because of the mean guy who owned the five and dime I used to go to when I was 8 years old.
In closing, I’d just like to say that I, too, hate paying taxes. I don’t like the very idea of the IRS. But at the same time, I’d like to remind everyone that it is the nitwits we elect that make all the rules. Congress tells us what we can or cannot do, and they are the ones that makes the laws that the IRS is tasked with enforcing. Vote for the people who will reduce everyone’s tax burdens – that is when you will see real change. Hating us all because of the actions of some accomplishes nothing.
Voting got us here, and it will keep us here, isn’t that more than obvious?
After a lifetime of putting up with gov’t thugs all I have left is hate.
As far as establishing a business goes, you MUST do what you truly enjoy, for that alone is what will propel you over the long haul. Precisely, find something you like to do all the time, then figure out how to make money doing it. I always wanted to be a pr0n star but early on discovered that after 8 times in 12 hours it’s not fun any more. yeah, riiiight…..
I understand where Lurker is coming from, in that of course with so many people working for the federal govt and in so many capacities, it’s not morally or factually correct to tar them all as not deserving their salaries. Even forgetting individual worker’s merit, we should all be able to agree that certain jobs are necessary and even valorous. My husband is a prime example. He’s in law enforcement and in a category of job that is NOT one of the ones that pays more than the private sector. He believes in what he does and is trying to do his best to protect us all. We’re disappointed there will not be a raise, but in no way do we disagree with the policy. In fact, we were pissed when Obama took office under a national economic crisis and did not do more to hold down wages. In closing, remember that there are true public servants like my husband—finest kind—who isn’t looking for sympathy but doesn’t deserve to be vilified.