re: How many of you actually interact with or know government workers?

The lack of respect for government employees is largely misplaced resentment arising from those who are discontent with their lot.
The government workers(state and federal) I’ve encountered are conscientious and capable for the most part.

Fresh out of school I did a stint with a contractor that was literally on the same floor as the feds we were hired to supplement.

The GS employees would get so mad that we were more productive than them and we'd get the cold shoulder all the time because we were making them look bad. This wasn't hard work. We were there because they'd gotten so inept/behind. They hired probably 50 of us, most straight out of school during a downturn, and in a week trained us to more competently do the work of a couple hundred government employees down the hall. And I'll be honest, some of the dudes on my team weren't setting any intellect records.

I went on to do other stuff with a lot of feds of varying quality in more traditionally well-regarded segments of the government. There are plenty of of very intelligent, diligent people in the government, but there are entire buildings filled with paper pushers and clock watchers all over the country.

My only experience is with a Federal Wildlife officer. I was FA. He told me not to FO. Pretty simple.

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The lack of respect for government employees is largely misplaced resentment arising from those who are discontent with their lot.

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Yeah, that's it.

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The government workers(state and federal) I’ve encountered are conscientious and capable for the most part.

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Consider the source.

Not many federal workers but I I have dealt extensively as a private vendor with state, municipal and county departments and employees in Alabama and Tennessee for 25 years.

Dedicated, prompt, highly professional workers are not unheard of but definitely are a minority.

The nature of government work - the security you mention, which means you almost CAN’T lose your job, lack of serious management/oversight, guaranteed retirement and other benefits being main factors - inevitably leads to lazy, entitled and sometimes even criminal people. Lots of dead weight. It’s human nature when excellence and hard work are not demanded.

The time-honored joke of one city water department ditch digger working his arse off while five more stand around watching is effective because it’s true.

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Government work used to be seen as prestigious. They used to sacrifice salary for public service and security.

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FIFY

Those guys at the welfare office treated you right, huh?

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What fricking sacrifice? They get a paycheck, retirement, good work environment and job protections no one in the free market would ever get.

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I think the point he was making is government pays significantly less compared to private sector, and even with the better benefits it still doesn't match private sector.

As an engineer, I've worked with government employees at multiple points in my career, and at each point/experience level the government salary never came within 20% of what they'd make with equivalent experience at my company.