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> though I've never seen someone save money and be punished like this

It happens. From DoD civilian world, 6 months in with a new org (I was the fng)…

tl;dr — Made some software that moved a project from imminent mission failure to mission success, and got all of my command chain in trouble in the process.

1. There was an 8-figure, 2-year R&D contract for some mission critical software that had functions that my org needed. We were updated regularly that everything was moving along swimmingly. At the end of the contract, only about 10% of the functions actually worked. This is totally ok from their side since R&D contracts are “best effort”, so no functioning deliverables are actually required. The part of the software that was mission critical for my org had 0% working. My org was fucked.

2. We need this software in 3 months or less or we can’t fulfill obligations that we had made years prior.

3. Manager gives me free rein to make something that can solve the problem.

4. I have a prototype in one week. It’s not as automated as the 8-figure solution was supposed to be, but we had bodies to help with that (and also do sanity checks at various stages).

5. Weeks two and three were refining based on feedback from stakeholders.

6. Week 4 was training about 60 people to use the software.

7. Software was iteratively refined over 6 months or so based on user feedback during active use, but no major changes were needed — just minor QoL stuff.

8. Software had the bonus side effect of getting two embattled groups to start talking to each other and resolving process issues, which saved unbelievable amounts of time and lowered stress levels immensely.

9. End result was that we were able to meet our obligations. Mission success! Software worked with amazing consistency (very little down time, almost all of it out of our control), and resiliency (changes were easy and fast to make without breaking the system).

So… what did I get for this? A spot bonus? A coin? A handshake from the commandant?

Nope… I got a reserved “thank you” from my supervisor.

The aftermath tells why.

When my supervisor changed the status update up her chain of command that “mission critical software missing, mission failure imminent”, to “mission software exists, outlook favorable” in the course of one month, people started asking questions?

“You had someone in your department who could do this already?” (No, I had just started, and not for a programmer job.)

“You asked to spend a big chunk of the 8-figure R&D contract on your mission critical needs, and that work could be done in a month!?! And you didn’t know this?!?!?” (Supervisor was not a programmer, so it was all basically magic.)

So supervisor was sort of criticized for “wasting time and resources” and “not knowing her people”, even though she could not have reasonably known that I existed (the R&D contract started two years before I worked at the org) and could solve the problem.

That’s bad, right?

Well, it got worse.

The head civilian of our org had been making updates to DC about a potential mission failure due to the 8-figure contract software not working. When that got updated to “not a problem” after it was evident that my system worked, he got called to task in Congress, with congressmen asking him the same sorts of questions that he asked my supervisor (“You had in house talent that could do this? In a month? And we spent how much time and money on a contract to get the same functionality?”). There were no good answers.

Needless to say, once I heard about the fallout, I was looking for the next thing. I felt like I had done my civic duty as a public servant. It was clear to me that further involvement would probably have similar outcomes (efficiencies made at the cost of negative career risk for my command chain).