When you are working on a government contract, you sometimes have to interact with a government employee. Some of them fit the stereotype perfectly. Come in and drink their coffee. The read the newspaper until lunch. Long lunch leads into an afternoon coffee break. Finally they leave early for the day.
But there are many other types of employees who work for the government. Some of them are very talented and hard working. Often times our subject matter expert is a government person. And I have been surprised to see that many government employees work late and on the weekends to get their job done,
In terms of software development contracts, the government employee normally has the role of overseeing the contract. They make sure things are running well. And if not, they try to figure out why. But there are also situations where the government workers are tasked to work side by side with the contracts, doing the actual programming for the task.
I have some insight into the government employee situation because one upon a time, I myself was employed by the federal government. But that is a story for another post.
