This study explores the key policies of central government departments from a time perspective based on the premise that government competitiveness increases when bureaucracy properly operates in ways regarding time. To test the hypothesis, we introduced two new concepts called “normative time span” and “real work time span” spent on performing departments’ key duties. We surveyed civil servants in 40 central government departments about both time spans (normative and real work). From their responses, we examined the discrepancy between two types of time span and the causes of this discrepancy. Furthermore, we analyzed how this discrepancy influences job satisfaction and turnover intention. As a result, we find that the discrepancy between two types of time span influences two factors. That is, there is a discrepancy between normative time span and real work time span, and this discrepancy is statistically significant when we consider factors suggested by this paper such as job characteristics, differences between support divisions and planning divisions, occupational groups, number of years worked, and age. Also, we find that as the discrepancy between two types of time span increases, turnover intention increases and job satisfaction decreases. Moreover, as real work time span increases, turnover intention decreases while job satisfaction increases. These results suggest that government competitiveness will be increased when government operates based on time perspective.