State employees: Remember people snickering at you when the economy was good?

[Courtesy Flush]

We were losers who settled for low-paying jobs. Remember?

[NNN0LHI]

1. If I would have had it to do all over again I would have become a state employee over factory work

Factory was hard, hot and dangerous.

Should have been a cop or fireman or something.

Don

[WhiteTara]

2. Yes I do. I have always thanked

the people who work in public administration. The benefits of having holidays and paid vacations and knowing that you would have that job for a long time, offset the flashy money and houses and cars. I don't know if it offsets the mean people on the other side of the counter who are in need, pain, or whatever, but without your work, this country would be more decrepit than it is.

[sufrommich]

3. State and federal jobs have always been a good gig. I don't

where you live but around here it's always been considered a pretty good paying job with good benefits.

[cilla4progress]

8. As they SHOULD be -

depends on the sector and it's all relative. In the big picture, there's FAR more money to be made in private industry than in government jobs. It's a tradeoff: security of a government job v. opportunity for higher pay in private sector.

[Courtesy Flush]

11. I make as much as my friends with high school diplomas.

I live in Louisiana. I have a state job that requires a college degree. I have frinds who have no particular training or skill (other than what they learned on the job) who make the same money I make. I've seen them lose jobs, and they tend to get another one without too much trouble. At least, before the economy went down. I went through too many jobs before I worked for the state. I want to know I'll stay employed and insured.

[Lars39]

4. Snickered?

I remember my husband being met with outright malicious and derogatory words. And we qualified for food stamps for many years.

[Lifelong Protester]

5. Yes, looked down upon for taking a public sector job

and 'wasting' my talent.

Might qualify for food stamps again.


gotta go shovel snow.

[WillyT]

6. Oh Yeah... I Got Laughed At When In College I Decided To Go Into Teaching In The 80's...

And everybody I knew who went to work fort the State of California, including two of my sisters got similar treatment.

Curiously most of the derision came from our friends in college who were Business Majors.

"You're gonna earn a college degree and become a TEACHER/STATE WORKER???"

"What a waste of time... you'll never earn any REAL Money!"

One theory of this derision has it that: if you graduated from college you are a fool for taking such low paying jobs, and conversely... if you never went to college, you don't deserve such high paying jobs with benefits.

Part of the MBA Entitlement mindset I suppose.

:shrug:

:kick: & Rec !!!

[Drahthaardogs]

7. Ah yes,

I remember it distinctly. A friend went to Bayer and his fiance sneered at me and asked me why I chose to settle for a federal job. I said job security, duty to my country, a pension, etc. She said that he made enough money that they would never "need" a pension.

[CrispyQ]

10. I wonder how that 401k plan of theirs is doing after 2008?

I have friends whose 401k accounts took a 40% hit & the houses they went into major debt for are worth less than what they paid.

[Bigmack]

9. Clearly remember it. They laughed at my pension, too.....

problem is, the fuckers have amnesia about that time.

Now - according to them - we had easy jobs and a disgustingly rich pension.

I have a very clear memory of that time and what some people said.

I never fail to bring those statements up. I am rude about it.

I tell them I did 30 years in a High School classroom, did a damned good job, and if they think I'm gonna roll over and give up a nickel of my retirement, they are nuts.

[hfojvt]

12. nope

I remember working for the government and hearing my co-workers claim I could make so much more in the private sector. This was 1985, I was making $8.57 an hour as a GS-7. Then I got promoted to GS-9, making $10.45 an hour.

Then I quit.

Then I could not find a job, not in my hometown, not in Madison, Wi, and not in Baraboo. So I went to graduate school on a teaching assistantship. Made $5900 a year and then $6100 a year. Got a master's degree in economics. Got a part-time teaching job for $8100 a year. After a couple of years of losing money at my own business, got a factory job - paying $5.40 an hour. Did that for two years before quitting/getting laid off.

Then snow-shovelling for one winter, working at another factory for about $7 an hour by piece rate, and then janitorial work for $5.50 an hour. Did that for about 16 months and then got a factory job paying $7.15 an hout. Previous employer found out he could not replace me, so offered my $7.15 an hour to stay. Stayed for another year, until my building sold.

Then moved to Iowa in 1998. Temp job for $7.25 an hour on the night shift. Got laid off, worked for a janitorial service for $8 an hour, then back to the same factory and worked a swing shift for $8.50 an hour for two more years until 2001. Then hired by Citibank at $11.30 an hour. Fired after about seven months, shortly before my 40th birthday. 5 months of unemployment, then a janitorial job with the city, paying $10.69 an hour plus benefits.

So after 16 years in the private sector I was finally sorta making more money than I did in 1986, but only because I was working for the government instead of the private sector.

There may have been private sector jobs that paid better. The factory where I worked as a temp, for example, many people working there were making $17 an hour (but that was the top pay, starting pay was about $10.25) but having an MA did not help me get one of those jobs, and they also worked a somewhat brutal swing shift - four 12 hour days, four days off, four twelve hour nights.

I have this habit of always reading the help wanted ads in the paper. Many times I have noted "low pay, must be available evenings and weekends ..." and I think to myself "thank God I have a job and don't have to apply for one of these crappy jobs."