Pros
Great work/life balance. Great training. Flexible work schedules. Low stress. The IRS is a great job if you stay in a union position.
Cons
If I had more information about being a manager with the IRS, I would have chosen a different path. The raises for managers are based on ratings. Managers are not in the union, so we can't dispute a rating. If your rating is low, so is your raise. We also don't get cost-of-living raises like the employees. I find that very unfair. The agency is a dinosaur and pays well below the market for a tax professional. A less-experienced person may not have experienced a pay cut, but an experienced person is likely to have suffered a drastic pay cut. As a manager, I am currently boxed in to my position and it's very difficult to transition to something else. It's almost a dead-end job. I am bored most of the time which is probably a good speed for most of the employees here. Sometimes the work is exciting, so I'm not miserable, but I'm also not motivated to come to work in the morning. My outside knowledge of taxation is not valued.
