Editor's note: This story is posted with permission from the anonymous federal employee who shared it with us. Some edits were made for length and clarity.
Content note: This story contains discussion of suicide.
I worked for the IRS for 13 years as a Tax Examiner for business entities. I didn't do audits, "Tax Examiner" is just a job classification for someone who isn't answering the phones, but does the same sort of work. In my job, we researched cases that the system or the customer service reps on the phones couldn't "fix." I enjoyed my work very much.
Most of the cases that my team worked were old. Like over 3 years old. Being able to fix an account that had been messed up for years gave me a great deal of satisfaction. In several cases, I was able to determine that payments made on a business account were actually a wage garnishment for one of their employees (the employee SSN had been written on the check, but was misapplied to the business since that was the payee). Moving the payments to the correct account and letting that person know we had found their past due payments gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I know that may sound dumb, but I really enjoyed fixing issues like that. How happy was that person when they found out that, not only did they no longer owe anything, but they may get a refund?
I had another case where I needed to call a taxpayer, but I ended up talking to the taxpayer's estate executor as the taxpayer had committed suicide. The executor was still upset about that situation, so I let him talk, offered my sympathy and stayed on the phone with him for nearly an hour as he poured his heart out to me. It wasn't technically my "job," but as a human being, I couldn't just ignore his pain. I think of him every now and then and hope he's doing ok now.
Anyway, if there's one thing I'd like the American people to know is that we work for YOU. The vast majority of us are in government service because we are the HELPERS. We want to help. We like to help. We get satisfaction from helping. We are not "leeches" or "parasites." We help you every single day in ways you will probably never know. We are the faceless, the quiet, the unknown who keep the country running. We don't need accolades or recognition, but we do want respect.
For too many years, government workers have been attacked as lazy, dumb people who can't get jobs in the private sector, but that's simply not true. It wasn't stupid or lazy that got us to the moon, repaired the Hubble telescope, built the highway system, made the trails in our beautiful national parks, gets your social security payment to you every month, warns you of impending natural disasters, secures our borders, ports and airports, inspects your food and drugs for safety. We serve the American people every day and most of us are proud to do so. We would appreciate it if the American people would stand WITH us. We are here for them.