Robert Hale likes government. He liked it enough to stick around as DoD comptroller for 5 1/2 years — the longest time anyone’s served in that position since the 1950s. It was also a particularly tough time to be a DoD comptroller, for reasons I don’t need to explain to our readers.

Hale took a new job this week as a fellow and advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton. He told me he expects to work about three days a week on both external and internal issues.

On the internal side, he’ll be advising the firm on financial management and change management matters. Externally, he said Booz Allen has agreed to fund his efforts to speak and write on public policy issues, including on a subject he spoke about frequently while he was still in DoD: making sure federal civilians don’t get thrown under the bus during the budget process.

“I’d like to do what I can to tell them that in most cases they’re doing a good job, and that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some parts of the civil service system that could use some change,” Hale said. “But former managers like me and current ones need to point out to our employees that they’re doing a lot right. I think that’s a start to counteracting a lot of the criticism that they get.”

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