Pros
- $4k+/month - status as a federal employee looks good on a resume - helping people in hurricane/natural disaster recovery - teleworking (huge savings on gas, time, and wardrobe not having to commute into the office)
Cons
- mandatory hours (expected to work 6-7 days/week for 60-84 hours) - paychecks look nice but 18 months of that straight = NO life outside work - accrue leave but not allowed to take it or sell it back - poor management environment (not many “happy, love my life” government employees; ever been to the DMV? Managers acted very entitled and talked down to employees on a regular basis; they’re also the ones who would take 9-5 in-office Mon-Fri positions and take leave throughout the year while the majority (temps) were required to be on mandatory overtime with no perceivable social/family time) - they keep most employees registered as temporary indefinitely (seemed like the federal government’s loophole for being able to underpay people by never providing benefits beyond healthcare, and expensive healthcare at that; met several employees who’d been with the SBA 5+ years still employed as temps without full benefits) - furloughed multiple times throughout - still required to work (with quotas to meet) but went 6 week periods without pay at a time; did receive a lump sum in back pay on the back side of that, but those were some long “no income” periods - not allowed to have other jobs (no side hobby jobs, etc - ex. Uber/Lyft driving, bartending, lawn mowing, etc) - loan officers but unlicensed and work in systems that aren’t generally laterally transferable skills outside the SBA/into the civilian workforce - loan/grant determination criteria changed so often you regularly feel you don’t know what you’re doing. As soon as you get accustomed to one set of approval/decline rules, management would changed them (est. every 3 weeks or so new guidelines were put out that contradicted the old ones) - dealing with angry, entitled folks looking to work a pandemic situation to advance their business more than you feel like you’re helping people in truly bad situations; not a lot of thank you’s so much as “I demand to speak to a manager” regardless of staying tactful, respectful in tone and verbiage, etc. - the culture is basically that most everyone who is applying has to be vetted for fraud (which transitioned to management treating their employees like every overworked person filing sick leave, deaths in the family due to the covid pandemic we’re working to overcome, or even something as obviously legitimate as military leave with legitimate documentation to support said claims was also likely lying / committing work leave fraud)