As the 2011 calendar year winds down, faint recollections of last year’s pay freeze dance in the minds of many Federal employees. Will it happen again this year? As the old 8-Ball says, “The answer points to ‘Yes’.”
The Administration already proposed a 2-year pay freeze on Federal civlian salaries arguing that this was measure was necessary to make up for past decades of “irresponsibility” by former Administrations, et.al. And, in a very separate action (but surely motivated by different reasoning), the 2011 Congress also voted to freeze their pay and to forego their (normally automatic) annual cost of living increase. Will Congressional members take this high road again in 2012 (is this an election year)?
If you are a Federal civilian employee you are unlike some 13.9 million other Americans. So, before weighing in on the matter, you might want to remember a few things:
- You are employed; that’s a great thing!
- Thanks to Federal career tenure, job security is at its finest.
- You have the opportunity to choose health care, vision, dental, long term care, life insurance and other employee benefits.
- Even though you pay approximately 33% toward the cost of your health care plan, you have good health benefits available to you and sufficient income to afford them.
- You have promotion opportunities, step increases and special duty assignments available to you if you are willing to invest in yourself with education, training, and high performance efforts.
So, if you’re bitter about your job, your employer, or the current economy and how it’s effected your Federal civilian employment, you have a choice:
Get in line (the unemployment line)!
OR
Let it go (and count your blessings)!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Always better to be happy than complain . . . and by living the leadership choice you can do what you enjoy and be happy!