I wrote below about odd people getting government jobs, people the private sector probably wouldn't hire. Let me share with you an experience I had decades ago in the federal government.
A temp employee on loan from the uni, I was located in headquarters of a modest sized agency of nearly 10k employees, housed in a branch with 5 professionals and 2 clericals. The clericals were normal, middle aged ladies with office skills. The professionals were less plain vanilla.
One odd-looking-and-acting professional appeared to have birth defects, in addition to which he was germ-phobic. His office was a sticky mess because he sprayed everything, including I believe himself with spray can Listerine, and then rubbed hand lotion over himself, presumably to counteract the drying effect of the Listerine.
He was the agency's human data base for the legality of personnel actions, adverse and otherwise. Challenge him to find an OPM reg that enabled, or prevented, some sketchy move and he normally could.
Another odd duck was a former Roman Catholic priest who'd married a United flight attendant. He'd gotten himself 'retreaded' as an Episcopal padre and was pastor of a small congregation in a DC suburb which could not afford a full-time minister. He spent half his workdays for the agency on the phone dealing with pastoral business. The agency was his "day job" but his heart was in pastoral work.
A third professional was also a former Catholic priest, now married to an ex-nun. What are the odds?
Two-and-a-half odd birds out of five should suggest why I view government employees with a jaundiced eye. Please forgive my occasional fondness for Brit slang.
