Just setting themselves up for the unemployment line....if they don't want to work they should have taken the buyout.

I hope and suspect that counts as voluntarily quitting and makes them unable to receive unemployment and severance benefits. Throw the bums out.

Keith

Let’s be clear. Not all Federal workers are bums. Fire them all and watch an enormous mess follow in its wake.

I agree with trimming fat, but the approach they’re taking towards the land management agencies is a shame. If they spent two weeks monitoring each office it would be easy to see who’s useful and who’s not. There’s your fat, trim away.

I’ve worked in a handful of Forest Service offices and can name several people from each that need to be fired. I can also name several in each that should be paid double.

Captain crunch is bad for you, and so is the government.

Especially the current government. But you'll find out soon enough.

Especially the current government. But you'll find out soon enough.

Especially the current government. But you'll find out soon enough.

Captain crunch is bad for you, and so is the government.

Especially the current government. But you'll find out soon enough.

There are 2 categories of federal workers. 'Essential' and 'Non-essential'. Whenever there is a government shutdown due to failure to pass the budget, they inform all of the essential federal workers to report to work without a paycheck, but they will eventually be payed for that time once the budget passes.
They inform all of the non-essential federal workers to stay at home without pay, but they are payed for that time even though they didn't work.
My suggestion is to mow down the non-essential federal workers and leave the essential federal workers alone.

It's not unreasonable to want people who were working from home to come back to the office and work. That's just good business.

Captain Crunch is delicious.

All emails are public record. If they are on the clock and don’t answer they get written up for poor performance based on previous times emails were answered. There are necessary people. There are leeches also. I work in government. I see it all the time.

Some counter comments to some on this thread.

1. Unions. Some agencies have them, and some do not. I don't know what the ratio is over the entire federal government. I think my agency used to for a some workers back when they were physically printing off a certain product, basically a blue collar job. Now those products, and all of our "products" (I sort of hate that word) are digital. No union in my center.

2. "Essential" versus "Non-essential". I don't know who came up with those terms but in our case, "essential" really means "emergency level of staffing". Whether "essential" actually means allowing any "public facing" services going or just keeping say satellites flying and not getting out of orbit and burning up in re-entry is probably in the details somewhere. I'll ask some folks on Monday about a "service" that I suspect most tman people have touched or used over time and who would update that "product" and how much additional it would cost if it was 100% privatized.

3. The USDA FSA was mentioned in a couple of times and I just saw that in South Dakota either a regional office or a major county office was getting their non GSA lease pulled. I did the math that was in the news story and I figured out it was about $30 a sq foot for a year. I don't know where that places in the general price of commercial real estate leasing. However, the way I understand what FSA does is that they work with individual farmers with all the various backstop programs they can enroll in as they operate . Yeah, people might spout the words to just let "freedom" (total free market work) but we'll see how well that actually flies in U.S. agriculture commodity trading and final consumer production that is concentrated into a few dozen massive corporations that control most food items found in the grocery stores or how ag commodities are traded around the world. I suspect without any fed government backstop programs AND the continued control of both ag commodity trade and making ag inputs into finished food, I suspect most typical American farms (sales of $100,000 to several million each year) would be bankrupt over time. Then we might see how well everyone lives off of the land. I suspect there would have to be a massive, massive reduction in population to reach multi-geographic scales of "equilibrium".

Finally, the DoDGE boys and girls (literally) "What 5 Things Did You Do Last Week" e-mail got a bit more timely the second time around, dropping here (Central Time) just before 9pm Friday evening instead at almost 4 pm last Saturday. Pretty easy, I'll cut and paste 4 of my 5 from last week, drop one, and add a new one. My bullets were fairly complex, I wonder if any of the AI bots "scratched their heads" on some of the details? Elon baby should tell us how many totally unique responses they got from last week (uniquely different tasks). I suspect they will get many new bullets (tasks) this week. We'll see...

No worries, I pulled my already mandated and tracked productivity report, my already mandated and tracked quality report, my already mandated and tracked weekly training report, my already mandated and tracked call report, my already mandated and tracked task log, which was all ready previously mandated and tracked by my supervisor, who I meet with on a mandatory basis every month for monthly performance checks, every 6 months for semi annual performance checks and annually for performance checks, which have always been mandatory.

If they fire every non-military Federal employee, I think they will trim 100 billion off the 1800 billion deficit.

I bet you would, that's like saying all you need is Captain Crunch and none of the folks that actually make the cereal

I get it and have empathy for them. But you know what? Those of us in the private sector face that every day.

Did you take an oath to the U.S. Constitution when you took your current or any private sector job? I didn't but I took one for this job.

If they fire every non-military Federal employee, I think they will trim 100 billion off the 1800 billion deficit.

I use to say the pledge of allegiance every day, does that count?

I agree there is a TON of fat in the Federal government. Tons! I agree that it needs to get cut but my gut is telling me that at least some of the cuts are being made in the wrong places. I believe that when all of the "probationary" employees were fired it was because they thought "probation" meant disciplinary problems, AKA "Screw Ups". It turns out that these were the newly hired "kids" that were the ones that went out in the field and got things done while middle management was stuck in the office filling out TPS reports or some other required nonsense. Ok, let the beatings begin..............

One thought I’ve had: Cut out the union and you add a level of accountability that inspires a lot more productivity.

I retired before the Constitution was written so no, the good news is I'm still collecting SS because it doesn't matter how old you are.

Should they get rid of the SSA?

Should they get rid of the SSA?

This is spot on.

I only speak to land management agencies and field-going positions, because that’s where I have personal experience. I was on a probationary period for the first year of my first “permanent” job. They could have canned me for any reason. After that, I was protected by the union.

They’ve cut off their own legs and crippled their ability to hit annual targets by removing lots of field-going personnel. I’m visiting the Tetons in June and preparing for overflowing trash cans and nothing but chaos.

One thought I’ve had: Cut out the union and you add a level of accountability that inspires a lot more productivity.

Did you take an oath to the U.S. Constitution when you took your current or any private sector job? I didn't but I took one for this job.

The Union "protected" an employee for almost 2 years after countless unsatisfactory performance reviews along with blowing a .12 BAC at 10 am, 2 hours after showing up for work. He was wrecked when he got there, yet I had to waste 2 years of time and effort to get rid of him. Like I said, LOTS of fat to trim but I wish they had just put each agency under a microscope for a short period of time and found efficiencies that way.

This is spot on.

I only speak to land management agencies and field-going positions, because that’s where I have personal experience. I was on a probationary period for the first year of my first “permanent” job. They could have canned me for any reason. After that, I was protected by the union.

They’ve cut off their own legs and crippled their ability to hit annual targets by removing lots of field-going personnel. I’m visiting the Tetons in June and preparing for overflowing trash cans and nothing but chaos.

One thought I’ve had: Cut out the union and you add a level of accountability that inspires a lot more productivity.

Should they get rid of the SSA?

Should they get rid of the SSA?

Does that guarantee a person a job or life?

Yes, it should be phased out. Why throw money into something that is going belly up and your not going to get your money back anyway. That's insanity. It's the highest tax I pay.

[quote] So Steve, do you have the same attitude with the U.S. military...? En E-7 with 12 years in gets told, even with excellent annual reviews, "Sorry, we have to cut back, just go away and thank you for your service." Is that how it goes with you..?

Would SSA be going belly up if there was no fraud and congress didn't dip into it?

I guess we'll never know but at least it sent a man to the moon.
I wonder how the Pittman-Robertson fund has kept itself from being raided?

So Steve, do you have the same attitude with the U.S. military...? En E-7 with 12 years in gets told, even with excellent annual reviews, "Sorry, we have to cut back, just go away and thank you for your service." Is that how it goes with you..?

Tell us how long you've been in your longest private sector job and if you think you didn't deserve to finish out a career there if you did a good job for the company and general society and really liked doing what you did and thought you made a difference? I suspect not.

If that what's really counts, there's no allegiance to any social construct, if not a legal construct, then were all just mercenaries, and the only real limits are who has the power over the other based on any means. That's not a world I choose to live in, but yeah, if we all what to live that way, then bring it on and we can all go down swing away at each other. I'm not afraid of dying...

Would SSA be going belly up if there was no fraud and congress didn't dip into it?

What makes you think it was never raided? I have faith that Congress is getting rich on side tax dollars.

It would be a start, only 1700 billion to go.

No one can deny the government employment is too gig and needs trim. The only ones that do are those who are afraid of their job.

I get it and have empathy for them. But you know what? Those of us in the private sector face that every day.

Would SSA be going belly up if there was no fraud and congress didn't dip into it?

Medicaid includes disability and welfare. No cost or very little to disabled and welfare. Seniors have to pay for supplemental insurance or face huge medical bills. I believe a goal of 2-3% annual inflation is doable. Some unhappy people would be inevitable.

I understand that you are concerned and anxious about your job and the rest of your career and I feel for you and I get it I truly do. I also feel the same way about my friends that work at a company up here who is shutting their doors May 22. 420 jobs lost. I worked their 30 years ago and I have friends that have been there for 40 years.

2019, the gov't spent 4.4 trillion. Last year they brought in 4.9 trillion in revenue.

If we get back, even close to the spending of 2019, with our revenue increase we'll surpass balanced.

Govt employment grew by 700,00 in 2023? Federal by 80,000+or-

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/employment-in-government-rose-by-709000-in-2023.htm

Doesn't seem realistic but that's what the labor board has posted.

Alaska
State & local government spending per capita: $20,668 (the highest)

No other State is even close.

Alaska is an island, is there a fair way to compare?

Alaska is an island, is there a fair way to compare?

OPM just was told they had no authority to carry out mass firings of federal employees. Judge will have hearing again March 13th - day of RIF plans required to OPM. Basically, agencies listened to OPM even though they had no authority and fired many thousands of probationary employees for unjust reasons - law was not followed. I hope they don't hire them back and then just RIF them in March on the 14th which could likely happen. There is currently much chaos at top levels now with OPM trying to direct agencies and its not going well.

If memory serves me correctly probationary employees can be terminated in a RIF just because they are probationary. No reason required except to reduce the number of employees.

2019, the gov't spent 4.4 trillion. Last year they brought in 4.9 trillion in revenue.

If we get back, even close to the spending of 2019, with our revenue increase we'll surpass balanced.

Govt employment grew by 700,00 in 2023? Federal by 80,000+or-

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/employment-in-government-rose-by-709000-in-2023.htm

Doesn't seem realistic but that's what the labor board has posted.