It's interesting reading conversations in this thread. Everyone wants government to hire competent individuals. Yet, when it comes to a personal choice, the very same individuals decline the lower compensation.
Everyone then wants government to pay salaries comparable to the private sector. Yet no one wants to pay extra (income, land, sales) taxes to actually support the massive increase in government spending that's needed to pay for those higher salaries.
It's classic cognitive dissonance in full effect leading to a tragedy of the commons. It goes to show that tech folks are no different from regular (DEI, MAGA, other) people.
The narrative around fed jobs has changed recently too. A fed job used to be a lower salary, but much stronger job security. Now with the new administration government job security is gone, so federal jobs overall are simply not as attractive anymore.
Government organizations aren't very good at accounting for true inflation, so right now the salary + golden handcuffs combination is way lower than industry compensation, if you're competent. If you're not competent, and you're not doing anything, then you might as well stay.
The argument "cutters" are making is that there is enough money but also too much waste. Case in point are consulting firms discussed here: they charge you 3x rate of their employees. You could have been paying 2x to get better employees and savings at the same time.
Everyone then wants government to pay salaries comparable to the private sector. Yet no one wants to pay extra (income, land, sales) taxes to actually support the massive increase in government spending that's needed to pay for those higher salaries.
It's classic cognitive dissonance in full effect leading to a tragedy of the commons. It goes to show that tech folks are no different from regular (DEI, MAGA, other) people.