Retired-perspective: what survives of the federal merit system after 30 years

Spent 30 years in federal hiring, retired last year. A few things I'd want a younger version of myself to know. (1) The merit system never really existed as a coherent system; it was a patchwork of competing rule-sets each meant to fix the failures of the previous one. (2) The most defensible hiring decisions I made were the ones I documented before knowing the outcome. (3) The most regrettable were the ones where I followed a checklist someone else built. The Risk Efficacy framing would have changed how I documented #2 and given me cover to refuse #3. Better late than never.