Thank you to the op for starting the thread. It is easy to forget the ground troops of the fed when this is the visual most people get when they think about federal employees.

I wont quit working till my health forces it. I have put my self into a position where I work when I want to. I have done that for quite some time now. I don't drive an 80,000 dollar pickup or vacation in Cannes. My wife doesn't drive a Cadillac. We eat good though and the roof don't leak. When you do move into the skull orchard if you know its time and your reflecting on your life, I seriously doubt you will regret not working more.

For those not at MRA and have a lot of years in, I'd stick it out and make them RIF you first. For those of us at 62 or above, maybe, especially if you're going to take SS right away. For folks not very deep in years, maybe its an opportunity to take any learned skills and/or expanded knowledge and see if it can transfer to the private side of things. My Army kid is getting out after 6 years towards the end of the year and has some anxiety about adjusting to civilian life and starting school as a non-trad.

I'm not planning to go for another couple of years unless they RIF me. I'd be 64 but would only have about 18 years of service in. I'm not going to stop working (having other revenue streams that are not transfer payments incoming ) so I don't want to take SS then because I don't want their chains on me about how much I can earn before the 2 for 1 thing kicks in. I would actually like to hold off taking SS until I'm 70 and max that out and supplement between ages 64 and 70 with what SS would have paid me out of my TSP. We'll see, a lot of water has to go down stream before both the short and longer term things play out. Reality is only reality when the days actually pass.

For the stay at home whiners who are either close to retiring anyway or those you only have a few years in, yeah, take the option and I wish them a nice life. Most of the people I work with are extremely liberal and there's one guy who has only done 2 days a pay period in office since we returned from forced office 'vid exile because because he wants to save on vehicle emissions from his commute out to our place (its out in the country about 10 miles from the city and he probably has to do another 5 to get to the edge of the city from his house). This guy also thought I gave him a "Nazi salute" in years past (long before Elon's "my heart out to you" thing a few weeks back) in the way I sort of did a sweeping wave to him out in our big open space area. I'd love to see him and few others take the option.

P.S. nvwranger-- How bad is your exotic annual grass situation in your area after you have rangeland fires and those take out the sagebrush?

One of the guys I wish that would take the option from our place does a lot of that stuff annual mapping. Just curious about your range situation.

Pc cheat grass is everywhere and bad especially after a fire event or over grazing by dinks.

Hobbie my guys are cowboys, they hunt, trap and drink and fight. I would put money that our shop was 100% Trump.

Just curious... did "your guys" also get that email?

Yote, yep everyone got the same email, unfortunately for my guys they won't qualify for the early retirement , either short on time served or under 50.

We have over 12,000 horses in corrals in Nevada and are only half staffed. All 3 managers qualify for early retirement with these offers, 1 is going for sure but myself and the other one are just young enough and short enough on time to make it a super hard decision . Our staff and managers don't have telework options and even during lasp in funding are required to show up every day 365 days a year. In fact I worked Christmas morning after the call my sister was passing before i left town to see her. These guys have all worked the trades and chose to be here for the type of work and stability. Good thing they all married well above their pay grade as without their wives they couldn't afford to live or buy a house in the area here.

I've never regretted retiring. I've never heard anyone that retired say they wished they hadn't.

27 years of state employment. Home has been paid for for years My Tundra is paid for.

Just living the dream!

Swamp i wish i was there but about 5 years short of paid off

nvwrangler- It would be interesting to know about how this whole wild horses program works. Maybe you've explained it before in a thread AND/OR maybe the AAA fire on this site that it would probably generate isn't worth the effort in explaining it.

I'm fairly neutral on the western wild horses situation. I think there's a niche for them but I'd have no problem culling a bunch as well. Most Americans now have soft spots for anything that's domesticated, could be domesticated, or looks like something domesticated so I understand why the effort exists. I think the soft spot situation stems mostly from having fewer children or no children at all. And that situation a lot of times is amplified because close family often is far away so people treat domestic animals as semi-human. It is what it is.

Anyway, it might be an interesting story to tell.

I'm confused. What do you do? It's sounds as if you're some sort of cowboy. I didn't know there were cowboys in federal government positions? I imagine there's a lot I don't know. I know there's federal trappers. Just wondering what department you work for, and what it is you do?

Most anything to do with rangeland is gonna be BLM, USFS deals with timber ground, USFWS wetlands usually.

I run a couple of blm wild horse corrals, there are actually several different cowboy type jobs in the federal government. From the wild horse program with the blm to herding bison for the park service. Cowboys chasing cattle that swim the Rio Grand to mule packers and pack strings in wilderness areas.

I started as a in the saddle every day horse wrangler, i was on a gather crew catching burros in Az then on to a feedlot type operation in Nv that ive become the manager of plus a second contract facility that i supervise.

Ill have to post about the program some time but due to the polarization i tend to not share alot about my job. Heck most of us won't admit who we work for when out hunting or cowboying as BLM isn't liked by most ag folks.

nvwranger, I totally get it. Maybe tell about the program when you retire. Some people think I can read their vehicle license plates from space. Well, not with my rig. But then, we're not the "cool alphabet soup kids" that may have such assets. Hard to look at broad landscapes at six inch resolution. That would be a seriously big pile of imagery data...

Your in box is full.

Pc not too worried about this group but you never know lol

Ill dang sure answer questions and if anyone has a lead for a fall elk camp cook spot im looking?

This thread is good… Looks like outcome based job appraisals are finally in vogue…. Who would have thought?.

Fixed

Ya we're not the problem it's middle and upper management and support staff that bloats the ranks

No doubt, glad it’s getting fleshed out GSA- IG- treasury you name it… four billion a day?