Despite the red tape, uncanny similarities to NBC's The Office, and a surreal fetish with forms and processes, federal workers are happier than their private sector counterparts.
A recent Federal Human Capital survey from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shows that 84 percent of federal employees are happy with the work they do. In sharp contrast, a 2007 survey by The Conference Board, which questioned 5,000 U.S. households, found that less than half of the sample, (which included a representative number of federal workers), described themselves as "satisfied" with their careers. Even more jarring was the fact that less than 39 percent of workers under 25 liked their jobs.
While OPM's survey may be more recent, like The Conference Boards', it was conducted before the nation's economic collapse became front-page headlines. And with the poor state of the economy, coupled with the rapidly increasing unemployment rate, anxiety about job security is pushing private sector employees towards the latter organization's results.
"Anxiety typically arises when people feel they are about to become victims of situations over which they have no control or are faced with a task that they aren't sure they can do well," wrote Harvard Medical School Clinical Instructor Myra S. White, in a recent New York Times opinion piece. "Workplaces are particularly fertile grounds for generating such situations, even in good times. Now, as companies pare their staffs and overload employees with more work, a contagion of anxiety spreads through work sites, from factory floors to office cubicles."
As the poor state of the economy is forcing major business operations to cut jobs, we can expect to see more people in the private sector frustrated with their careers, and more people with federal jobs become happier with theirs.
According to John Palguta, the Partnership for Public Service's Vice President for Policy, while people in the private sector often feel as though the likelihood of staying at their job depends on the daily status of the economy, federal workers do not feel as much of that kind of pressure.
"The government is not going anywhere," Palguta said. "It's a stable place for people to work and looking at all the challenges facing our country, the government is going to need to be there to be a part of the solution."
The number of federal employees has neither dramatically increased nor decreased during the history of the United States, which gives it an aura of job security. There are currently 1.9 million people employed by the federal government (not counting postal workers or military members), the same amount as in 1963.
The largest drop-off of federal employees was during the Clinton administration, when 300,000 employees left. Most of them, according to Palugta, were either retiring or moving to jobs in the private sector. Very few left involuntarily.
Private employment has not been nearly as stable. Businesses and organizations are downsizing and dropping employees left and right to save some money. Workers are living in a state of fear, afraid that it won't be bad performance that gets them fired, but simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The anxiety, coupled with pressure to achieve high results, causes employees to frequently feel frustrated and unhappy, and can end up decreasing productivity and creativity in the office.
But among the pessimists, there's always an optimist. Palguta, for example, feels that the lack of job satisfaction and anxiety in the private sector may actually benefit the public sector. After all, there's a lot to be said for job security and easy hours.
"No one wants to be on a sinking ship, and most of private industry is in retrenchment," Palguta said. "You watch the national news every night and there's a major story about the downturn in economy, and you're worried about where you are. In the government, you can see a place where things are stable or even growing."
Viva la bureaucracy!
Also Interesting: