I used to work for a government as an employee and got fed up trying to deliver projects. I'm not the sort of person who can sit still and let the hours tick by

I used to work for a government as an employee and got fed up trying to deliver projects. I'm not the sort of person who can sit still and let the hours tick by. The whole culture of "not my problem" and staff to incompetent to do there jobs drove me nuts. I remember after one restructure I gained a new team member. HR dissolved her role, writing crystal reports with a GUI, and made her a .net software developer. I can remember one day trying to explain how an IF statement worked to her. There where members in my team which may have been better suited for the special olympics than programming. Then one day I gave up and quit. I contracted myself back to my manager and since then my ability to finish a project on time and budget is something I'm proud of. On the money side I don't think I really earnt a lot more, I sure as hell charged what I could get. But the fact was there was a lot more down time/unchargable hours, time lost chasing the next project. I had to buy/lease infrastructure of my own, liability insurance etc... When I tallied it all up I think I was probably 10% up on what I was before hand but doing so much extra work. But I did enjoy it a lot more being able to actually sit down and do a days work. I did about 6 years in total working for government (3 contracting) and Im solely working for private sector now.