Government Digital Service reviews about "work life balance"

Nothing strikes to my mind.

Bad remuneration, even for government standard, for a lot of work (although the pension is pretty good, if you ever get to retire 😅) - as a senior product person you have to give a lot in whilst not everyone works hard - the usual government bureaucracy especially around project funding

Constantly having to deal with slow internal processes that are not streamlined (e.g. building pass access takes weeks and you have to email multiple people). Do not get to deliver many changes that materially benefit users due to slow delivery culture. This is due in my opinion to large teams, lots of focus on non-delivery work (e.g. individuals are incentivised to spend lots of time on work for the community of GDS rather than organisational objectives), a meeting heavy culture that relies on face to face meetings rather than asynchronous working, lack of accountability/ownership, bad internal communication between teams and leads/senior leadership.

Not agile/fast Innovation capped but strategies and funding

Not so many exciting projects

A lot of red tape

Working in government can be painful