Based on my personal experience and that of many others I know, that's about as wrong as one can get. A great many government workers are there to collect a paycheck and go home (just like many other people working for many other employers). Their commitment to 'the mission' hovers near zero.
Just ask them.
Where do people get these crazy ideas about government employees? There are some wonderful people in public service, but it's not some Wonkaland of saints who toil just to help others and do the right thing.
Personally, I get this from my interactions with the reviewers at the FDA. Absolutely buried in work, always make the best effort to improve your submission, etc.
fda reviewers are extremely out of distribution relative to almost every government worker except those at, say, the Fed. i would caution against trying to generalize that because it is mostly people taking a short term stint out of their profssional/academic career.
sorta like dining in a michelin restaraunt and deciding that cafeteria workers are really good at cooking
Yeah, it's not binary. I personally know government tech workers, true civil servants, that care and are clearly there to serve. These are the type of people you want in government. Yes, the opposite cliche that goes home right at 5 after barely doing anything also exists. I briefly worked with an ex-government "product manager" type that was clueless AF. I'm not sure how they even held on to their former job.
