The Joys of Federal Service

It's a good time of year to be a federal employee in DC. In the span of less than a month we have five paid holidays (Christmas, December 26th, New Year's, MLK's Birthday, Inauguration Day), and many federal employees enjoyed half days on the 24th, 31st and 2nd. And in a year when millions of Americans are worried about their jobs and corporations from every industry are asking for bailouts to stay afloat, we're snug in our job security. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting a $1.2 trillion deficit during the next year, a fact that would lead to layoffs and pay cuts from any other employer. Instead, every DC-area federal employee is seeing an automatic 4.8% raise effective January 4th. That's on top of the automatic, non-merit promotion we receive every year anyway (3.3% for us this summer assuming no action to merit a real merit-based promotion). I can't complain too hard; I don't really mind the extra money. But the idea that federal employees will be over 8% more productive than last year is laughable. And even though we are still paid less than equivalent private-sector counterparts, does this make sense to do when no one else is giving raises? Can anyone argue that the government needs this to recruit when everyone's seeking stable jobs and baby boomers are pushing back retirement thanks to the stock market crash? Is it responsible to spend more taxpayer dollars this way when the government is bleeding $1.2 trillion a year?