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Interestingly, they say 18F jobs are capped at four years. I wonder if this is a harbinger of change overall in government employment from being "lifers" to a
by steven777400 11y ago
Interestingly, they say 18F jobs are capped at four years. I wonder if this is a harbinger of change overall in government employment from being "lifers" to a more mobile workforce where people perform "civil service" at all levels as a more temporary thing (like elected positions are intended to be). On the other hand, it also strikes me a possible way to select for younger (less encumbered/tied down) applicants without explicitly performing age discrimination.
- akilism 11y agoYeah both USDS and 18F are capped at the same length of time. There's a pretty good article about USDS @ http://www.fastcompany.com/3046756/obama-and-his-geeks http://www.fastcompany.com/3046756/obama-and-his-geeks
- acdha 11y agoI think it's simply a sign of how difficult it is to hire permanent staff which are seen as long-term commitments in a way that NTE (Not-To-Exceed) staff are not. My impression from the outside is that people are working on a more permanent system to keep people around indefinitely without losing a way to jettison the retire-in-place types and are working to get something in place by the time it starts to matter. I don't think age discrimination is a goal – the people I know value experience and most of them are 30-somethings, mid-career and looking for something more sustainable than death-marches, churning institutional knowledge, etc.
- wslack 11y agoThe reason for the four-year cap is tied into the legal authority used to hire most people at 18F. Government jobs work a little differently than what most of us are used to in the private sector.