God, I can't resist. MAURICE is a nut. I'm a state government employee writing this at my job right now. However, my job is not funded by taxes, but by permits. So I feel more like a contractor than tax-sucking government zombie. Good times.
Here are some benefits of my work:
1. Because of some agreement made in the 80's, state employees only work 37.5 hours a week. Period. (not a union thing because our public employees have no collective bargaining rights).
2. My health insurance costs are $15/month because a) I am single; b) I selected a high deductible plan ($2500 with $4000 max out-of-pocket); c) I signed a non-smoking agreement to get a $15 discount on my bi-weekly health insurance payments. With the lowest deductible, I'd be paying a few hundred/month.
3. 12-14 paid holidays, including: MLK, Jr. Day, Columbus Day, Primary and General Election Day, an extra day at Christmas, and Good Friday. Good to live in a state where legislators love their religion and political parties.
4. I have the choice to a) work from home home twice a week, or b) Do 10 days of work in 9 days so I get a 3-day weekend every other week (these are department-only options, not state-wide).
5. Rule of 85 for a full pension, which means your years of work and age must add up to 85 to get a full pension. So you must work at least 30 years and wait until you're 55 to retire with full pension. Cush, I guess. However, I have no doubt that will change. Also, must be with state for 10 years to get a pension.
6. My boss is a couple years from retirement, so he only appears to give a crap every now and then.
7. Sometimes, things get "slow."
The bad things:
1. I like to say state government work is where creativity, ambition, and problem-solving go to die.
2. In the long run, private sector employees with similar experience make a lot more (in my department, at least).
3. The biggest annual raise we can get is 2-3%. No raise if the state has a budget problem.
4. You only get promotions if somebody a) dies, b) retires, c) leaves for another job.
5. Hard work and achievement are not rewarded in any way. We have very little incentive.
6. Equal opportunity laws create a workplace full of idiots that would bring lawsuits if they were fired.
7. The workplace brings out the sociopath in everybody.
The reason we have some of these cush benefits is to keep us around. If we got treated like crap, nobody would stay very long because the pay sucks and the work environment is toxic. The consistency and quality of the civil service would suffer with higher turnover. Private sector jobs will never match these benefits, but the private sector does offer better pay and harnesses our animals spirits.