Pros
-You won't ever be laid off/fired unless you do something illegal - which of course means you deserve to be fired! -No one will be sending messages to your blackberry late at night. Because of privacy laws protecting beneficiaries, you will not be tied to (or even have access to) work 24/7 -You can feel good about your job because you are helping people at a time of vulnerability in their lives (retirement, disability, death of a loved one)
Cons
-There is a lot of favoritism and nepotism - Really hard to get promoted because the further up you go, there are less slots, and the first slots always go to someone based on nepotism and favoritism instead of talent. Even if at least seniority played a role, you'd know that there was some experience to go with the promotion. BUT in Boston anyways, this isn't always the case -Work can be monotonous -Your life is unduly affected by people in Congress who suddenly think that government is the cause of all problems and so want to cut back on your salaries (while giving themselves a huge raise). Meanwhile real people's claims don't get processed, people die while waiting for disability benefits because there are less and less people to do more and more work. -Policies/procedures are often set by or influenced by people (like congress) who have never actually done the work