I had always planned to move out of the private sector and into the public. I know it’ll never be perfect but it’ll at least be less profit driven than consulting. The tough part is, I actually love what I do right now. I work from home making maps and models of contaminants in air, soil, soil vapor, surface water and groundwater. Showing where they are and where we predict they’re traveling. Projecting different outcomes considering different remediation systems. And I find that really fun. None of the gov jobs I’ve seen do as much of that, they usually contract it out to companies like mine. So I don’t know maybe I stay for my own happiness even if it tugs at my morals some. It’s still doing good ultimately even if our clients are often the bad guys.

This is so spot on to how it feels to be in the environmental science industry that it breaks my heart.

I’m an environmental geologist and I work in environmental consulting, it’s exactly that. And my boss will be all “you don’t seem as enthusiastic as we’d like” and I’m thinking “yeah because our clients are fucking evil and I hate their guts” but I have to hold my nose and play nice because what’s the alternative?

I went into environmental work because I care about the environment and I spend so much time pandering to people that don’t, it makes me sick.