While I’m taking some holiday time off, we have a good group of guest columnists to fill in the blanks. Some are still on the job, some are retired. They come from different agencies, and different places.

Today’s contributor is a recent retiree who says if you can get out, you should consider it. He’s hoping that gridlock in the next Congress will (as it did this year) keep feds out of harm’s way. He writes:

Today, I write as a retiree having just retired as of August of this year. I want to say it was an easy decision for me, as you know, federal employees have been the focus of Congress’ chopping block. I may not have as big a pension as I would waiting until I was 62, but the measly 1 percent raises would not have gained much in additional dollars in my pension. I wanted to stop sweating over losing anymore of what I was already getting and enjoy life. We’ve been put through the ringer by the President and Congress and I had enough. The job had become more stressful, doing more with less. It was my time to go.

Now I am seeing a brain drain within the federal government as experienced employees are doing the same as I did.

To make my point, I have a relative who also retired from federal service, whom I saw at a family event and he told me he has been begged to come back (while retired) several times to straighten things out where he worked. I asked him if it was due to lack of experience, and he told me absolutely! He also said it would be the last time he will do this.

I don’t know how other agencies are coping with this, but it is not good for the country. The government passed legislation to try and let us ease into retirement, but IRS (where I worked) did not set up anything while I was still there. To me, what OPM had put out there, didn’t entice me to ease into retirement. I saw no real advantage in it for me to stay. It could be for others, I just couldn’t see it. If you think about it, retiring when first eligible is a way to pay back Congress for their lack of respect for federal employees. The lack of good experienced workers will eventually bite them in the butt. (I believe sooner than you think.)

I hope for those still grinding away at the job every day that Congress, now in with a Republican majority, is focused on Obamacare and leave you alone until the 2016 elections. I say if you can leave, just do it, you can always find something to help supplement that pension. Besides, as I have found, you won’t regret it.

— Tony Krolik

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

Compiled by Michael O’Connell

The use of the “gridiron” to describe an American football field originiated in the early part of the 20th century. In addition to the horizontal yard lines, the field markings at that time included vertical lines at 5-yard intervals running parallel from the sidelines. This created a checkerboard or “gridiron” effect. During play, the ball would be snapped in the grid section where it had been downed in the previous play. Although the grid system was abandoned later in favor of yard lilnes and hash marks, the word “gridiron” has remained with the game.

Source: Wikipedia

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