Research consulting vs. Government work

Today I had a rare opportunity to compare my current job at a research consulting company with a day working for the Feds. Here are some casual observations I made:

At my company, my office has no windows. This is sad. At my government office, my office has a window. However, it's covered with a semi-transparent dark screen over it. I was told this is either to keep birds from hitting the windows or to keep people from jumping out of them. Possibly both. This is an improvement over not having a window, but still somewhat pathetic.

My consulting job has pretty flexible hours. Unless I have a pressing engagement, meeting or deadline, I can pretty much create my own schedule on a given day. Today I discovered that at a government job, you must decide what hours you're going to be at work every day and they must be consistent day in and day out. Point for consulting.

At least at this particular branch of the government, you can decide whether you want to dress up or dress down (aka suits or shorts). In consulting, you only get to wear jeans on casual Friday. The government got it right on this one--freedom of choice is the way to go.

The government building is a bit more dingy, cluttered, and lackluster than the consulting building. Some serious interior decorating is needed. Perhaps one of the reasons morale is not as high as it could be. At any rate, not much of a shocker there.

People like to gossip at both my jobs. That's not much of a newsflash about the workplace, now is it?

There are very nice and friendly people at both workplaces, and also strange and somewhat annoying people. For instance, I was intrigued by my first impressions of folks at the government today. When I arrived and was looking around in what must have been a bewildered fashion, a nice man approached me and asked me if I needed directions. My government supervisor is very open, friendly, and patient (I hope she's like that all the time!). One of the women on one side of my office seems very sweet. However, there is also the token jaded employee who manages to always see the glass half empty, and the absolutely crazy chick next door who got into a verbal altercation via phone loud enough for me to hear (and about a personal situation, not even work-related!!), and proceeded to almost cry. This was before she chewed someone else out (also a personal call) about the collective amount of time they had spent to date deciding on the specs and what paper to use for a letter she's sending out. Amazing.

Both of my offices/divisions are filled to the brim with women, with hardly a male in sight (at least there are a few at my consulting job). Girls clubs can be fun. Sometimes I miss a good balance of testosterone in the workplace, though. I think I should be careful what I wish for.