Letter to the editor

There have recently been statements from federal managers to the effect that the government needs to make every effort to attract and retain its valuable information technology workforce. All of this is so much "blah blah."

The reality is that seven of us computer specialists at a medium-size Navy activity in San Diego went on the Defense Department Priority Placement Program last week. I am a GS-0334-11 with years of experience and tens of thousands of dollars of on- and off-duty education. However, human resources has calculated my "retreat" to a job I held many years ago due to desperation, WG-04 Packer.

I am not going to listen to what people are going to say: "A job is a job," and "Who cares what you are doing as long as you get the money?" I, for one, am not going back to a dirty, dusty, noisy warehouse to be supervised by dinosaur-era supervisors who rule by threats, fear and intimidation to do a dull, boring, meaningless, unimportant job (my sympathies to those people in this situation not of their own choosing).

I will take early retirement no matter what the penalties, go contract or sell cars before I will repeat the work history that led to numerous on-the-job repetitive motion injuries.

Are you Defense Department and other government IT workers listening? It may happen to you! To those IT managers who mean what they say, please watch for resumes from San Diego. Most of us would like to stay government, but some times they really make it difficult to do so.

Name withheld by request