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