Last week, I suggested that the Boomers may decide to depart in droves come November. The author of the article below suggests that the real target date is March 31, 2009, and is bold enough to suggest that half of the SES’ers will head for the doors once the appointees are in place. What do you think? Any SES’ers out there willing to share their thoughts?
Future Shock for Fed Workforce
Federal Computer Week
By Mark Amtower
There has been much discussion during the past few years about the aging Senior Executive Service population and when the tipping point of massive migration will happen. Many people smarter than me have been addressing this issue because it is an important one.
Here’s my prediction: By March 31, 2009, more than half of the current career SES population will vacate their government jobs.
The average career person in the Senior Executive Service is now age 60 or older and has more than 30 years of service, making these persons eligible for retirement. These people have put in their time and have done great service for their country when they were not impeded by Congress, earmarks, inept appointees and other unnatural disasters.
Why March 31? By then, the first wave of new presidential appointees will be moving in and flexing their authority. All the SES population has been through this process several times, and it is never painless. Why in the world would they want to go through this process again, when some new appointee is going to come in and start to tweak things to reflect the current political climate?
Click here for the full text of this article.
For more information on the impact of the four generations and Web 2.0 on the Federal workforce, please visit http://generationshift.blogspot.com.
I’m not one of the SES’ers mentioned above, but would it be far-fetched to think that as this generation retires, it might be filled be filled by more and more ex-corporate executives looking for new career choices? In the 1950’s, many military retirees began sifting into the corporate American workforce, bringing rigid “top down” management into the office. In the 80’s and 90’s the business world saw the creation of interdisciplinary teams and task forces to accomplish projects in line with business goals, Special Ops style. How many times have you heard that your agency should act more like a business? Maybe this will be the beginning of true interagency cooperation, especially with the host of collaboration tools and platforms we now have at our disposal.
Hi Gray – It’s not far-fetched. The Partnership for Public Service – in collaboration with OPM – is actively recruiting private industry retirees to engage in “encore careers” in government through an initiative called FedExperience.
Also, this is an excellent article that addresses this idea.
Oh…and one more thing: results of a survey sponsored by MetLife/Civic Ventures to the same effect. The date on the report is June 2008.
Sorry, last piece, I promise: http://www.encore.org