From a reader:

Hi Jonah:
Moved from Oregon twenty months ago to take a job with GSA at the White House – a dream come true in many ways.
But as a conservative, and from the less than government loving West, I tell my friends not to worry. Yes, the Fed is HUGE, and so bloody inefficient – I tell them is it ever became efficient then life as we know it will end. The public sector in general, like socialism, is a gaping maw that only consumes, delivering no useful end product for the most part.
I have decided that Federal employment is the single largest social welfare program in history.
My best story from a co-worker at the WH is that she called in sick 3 days out of 5 for about a year an a half, because if you are out four days in a row you need a letter from a doctor to come back to work. As she put it “I was having problems with GSA then.” And when asked by her supervisor for a doctor’s letter in the midst of her “personal strike” she replied “I don’t HAVE one – what are you gonna do now?” He did nothing, becausze there was nothing he could do. And she remained a Federal worker!
I am jumping to the private sector in the next few months – my resume looks gorgeous, and I would not have passed on my experience at the WH for all the money in the world. Serving this President, even as one of the little people that keep the buildings in order has been a singular honor.
GREAT magazine by the way.