Is financing a new single-family house feasible?

The experience levels are simply too long in terms of time. Whether someone sits in the same position for 5 years or 15 years makes no difference at least in my area. I already had more expertise than the rest of the department one year after training. For various individual cases, the public service offers hardly any great opportunities to skip levels. And even with a higher grouping, if you are upgraded shortly before the level increase, you could lose your period of service. Whoever came up with that.

Oh, there are the wildest cases and inconsistencies. However, the experience levels are by no means suitable for making a career. You are rather rewarded for long company affiliation. In the end, it is much more worthwhile to be flexible and apply upwards. I couldn’t even tell you when which level increase is due. I don’t even look at that.

And for employees, there is the option to shorten the level duration to bring high-performing employees faster to a higher level.

That you automatically receive €500 for a step increase without doing anything is really not bad. Mostly also flexible working hours. I still use it to pursue a secondary job. Depending on the job, I probably wouldn't have the time anymore. So I stay in the public sector even though I would probably get more in my main job elsewhere. :-)

Of my 40 employees, 4 are "underperformers." Another 6 are continuously below average.

So 25% move up the levels without voluntarily taking on additional tasks and work or engaging more intensively.
And I have the direct comparison through external employees of large consulting firms.

In my opinion, 75% also deserve the level increases because they actually improve over time and apply their experiences. No fresh university graduate can keep up with that. Even if they have top technical knowledge.

But it might be a bit more special with me. We work exclusively on projects. In the end, the healthy mix makes the difference.

Public perception is rather the other way around: 75% just serve out their time and 25% make an effort.
This is also because most only deal with [kommunaler Verwaltung]. I better say nothing about that.

Well, what kind of dream agency do you work in? The last salary negotiations in the VKA were already insufficient as inflation compensation before things went downhill. I work in the social welfare office and am practically working myself to death. There is no chilling there. The step jumps take way too long. The increases overall between the pay groups are too low. The means of accelerating step advancements is not used by any municipality in our area. Simply put, no works agreements are concluded for this.

The municipal administration is better than its reputation. The citizen only sees this or does not understand the responsibilities. When does the citizen ever deal directly with the state administration, the district government, or the federal administration? Actually, never.

The municipal administration is better than its reputation.

Even though I sometimes get upset about hair-raising processes in the municipal administration myself (example: when I registered my residence, I was sent back home because my house number was not yet in the system due to new construction. New house numbers can only be created by the supervisor, and she was missing for 45 minutes. Her boss as well)

The municipal offices are really better than their reputation. They work on the front lines and have to endure a lot. And they proved this very well, especially during the first months of corona. While companies sent their people into short-time work with 100% pay one after another, the municipal administration, especially in the social sector, had to continue to function at 100%. Example: a buddy of mine works at the high-tech company Xerox. Almost all of them were put on short-time work with 100% pay until a few months later their processes were switched to 100% home office. In contrast, at the job center of a neighboring city: at the beginning, there were not enough remote licenses and hardware for the employees, so they had to work on site in a two-shift system. Some from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., others from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. (or something like that. There were probably no overlaps). I really felt sorry for them. The daycares and schools were closed. And otherwise, you adapt your life to a certain working time if you have a family. And that is just one example out of many.

I myself do not want to complain. But with us, things would have ramped up 2-3 gears in 2020 while everyone around was first binge-watching Netflix or at least could calmly take care of childcare.

So: not everything is good. But the public sector is better and more motivated than its reputation.