Private employees face job cuts as a possibility every day. Do a job badly, often, and a company fails, employees are terminated, owners are bankrupt. Ditto if you don't provide a service consumer actually want or need to buy.
Federal and State employees have, for too long, been safe from termination. Now I am seeing a "letter" circulating social media and I am hard pressed to provide any sympathy or even care. In fact, I see the letter as whining. And I see it as success because if these people have spent a decade or more in federal service and never cared about their job performance or even if the service they provided was legal, then maybe now they should be terminated.
Federal workers never faced job uncertainty before, I say welcome to reality.
Here is the letter. What say you?
Federal and State employees have, for too long, been safe from termination. Now I am seeing a "letter" circulating social media and I am hard pressed to provide any sympathy or even care. In fact, I see the letter as whining. And I see it as success because if these people have spent a decade or more in federal service and never cared about their job performance or even if the service they provided was legal, then maybe now they should be terminated.
Federal workers never faced job uncertainty before, I say welcome to reality.
Here is the letter. What say you?
Texted to me by a friend…
"Today, my federal friends started to receive Reduction in Force (RIF) notices (the federal version of a "pink slip" for the rest of you). This week, I, my colleagues, and friends across all federal agencies all received what we perceived to be “quit or else” notices about the so-called paid early retirement offer. We’ve received updates about removing our pronouns from email signatures. We have had our pronouns digitally scrubbed from Microsoft Outlook. We have been insulted in multiple emails from OPM/Elon's cronies, the most recent of which was this morning where we were told we should quit our low productivity government jobs to find high productivity jobs in the private sector. Every night there is a new email with horrifying information being sent to all federal employees after working hours because this administration is full of cowards. Every day there is a new EO attacking agencies and federal employees.
My office has the title [redacted for privacy] in it and may very well likely be dismantled in the next week. The new name, and whether we exist going forward, is unclear. I have watched many of my newer colleagues with less than a year of federal service cry because as probationary employees, they are being threatened to be fired by the agency. Hell, I've been doing my fair share of crying and I'm a seasoned career employee.
Colleagues at USAID are being told they’re no longer needed and they are in limbo, waiting to find out if they’ll be RIF’d or, potentially, reassigned. Colleagues at the Dept of Education are paralyzed with what’s to come Monday. Colleagues at the NIH are reporting that portions of their website have been deleted. That goes for CDC websites as well. The US Census website is fully down. Information on contraceptives, safe sex, and HIV are being scrubbed across federal websites.
The news this morning was that 70% of the career employees at OPM will be eliminated with a demand for a 30% reduction next week by Tuesday. Friends and colleagues are being placed on Admin Leave due to their duties in DEI. EPA, along with all other federal agencies, were forced to circulate a memo today on how to implement some “defending women” malarkey that is essentially an anti-trans hate piece wrapped in bad science. The Treasury Department is under attack. Because of that, anyone on social security or who is a federal retiree should be deeply concerned about who is in charge of disbursements right now. Seriously, go Google it.
This is reality for Federal employees right now. This impacts Americans everywhere. This impacts our national security. It weakens our standing among the world. We are witnessing the dismantling of the US government. It will impact our health and wellbeing as a people. We are likely causing literal deaths abroad due to withholding critical aid.
I'm the midst of all of this, I wonder where is Congress? Where are our democratic leaders? Who can I turn to for help? I have no idea right now because I’ve asked and gotten no responses.
I need you all to hear me. Things are not going well in DC. Things are not going well in the regional offices of federal agencies either, which is where I work. We are 2 weeks in to this administration and they are creating a hostile takeover at each federal agency. They are firing anyone who speaks up against them. They are firing people regardless. This will impact every one of you, no matter how non-political you strive to be. It is time to become informed. The country’s future and your family’s security relies upon it. We are watching McCarthyism 2.0 happen right in front of our eyes and I feel helpless to stop any of this.
So, no, I'm not ok. None of us who are employed by the government are ok. None of this is ok."
