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I loved my low-stress state job. They really cared that we got our reports in on time and that they reflected credit on the agency with their writing and their content, but we had enough time to make that happen. After I had been there for many years I discovered an amazing secret. Federal agencies, for instance the Department of Energy, give out a lot of money to states and universities, but the reports they got back are usually late and inadequate. The Geological Survey of Alabama stood out like a rockstar just by doing its job. That's the kind of job I like.

Then there was the time one of my co-workers visited the DOE office, and found all 20 copies of our last report still in the crate we sent them in. But that's another story.