Friday 29 August 2008

Final Thoughts On The Gov

As I sit here after my final day, I feel the need to pass on some wisdom to any public servants who will come after me. Take my advice with a grain of salt though, since I have decided that a future in government is really not for me. I had a great year. Here are some things I have learned about working for the Government of Canada:
**Everything takes forever, plan for at least ten times longer than you think to get anything done
**Computer solitaire can save your sanity
**Things need to get approved, probably by multiple levels above you
**You can really only count on yourself and other who you know well to do an efficient and effective job
**It takes forever to get in and it is hard to leave
**Competition for jobs is very official in the effort to be impartial, meaning it takes a long time and is often very intense and more than a little stupid
**Once your in you can move around to literally thousands of different positions
**The pay, benefits, hours, and time off is amazing, it is hard to walk away from such a great union
**There is a big focus towards career development, lots of money is put into training, always take advantage of this
**People get jaded quickly, many are bitter and unmotivated
**There are people who care about tax payers money, they work hard, manage budgets, and care about Canada
**There are meetings about meetings
**Policies, processes, and definitions are discussed, documented, and approved, only to be reopened and changed a few months later
**No one gets fired
**Like any job there will be people you love and people you hate, those you don't like aren't going anywhere anytime fast, so just deal with them
**While it is idealistic, it is important to always remember that Public Servants serve the public, government workers work for Canadians

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed reading your blog. Now that I am back in high speed world, I promise to be more devoted. haha, I loved this post. Silly government. Are you sad to be leaving your job and the wonderful thing called a weekly pay check to the semi-fabulous living style A.k.a. student living?

Love, Taylor

Anonymous said...

Facebook was my saviour, actually. I don't believe I played solitaire once.
That and Erin, Anne and Chris' 20 questions haha

-A.