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Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Federal workers share concerns about impact of sweeping layoffs

News of more layoffs for federal workers is prompting increased concern about the repercussions of those cuts.

“There are ways to cull federal service. This is not the way to do it,” said a local federal worker who asked not to be identified.
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48 comments:

  1. WTF most have been home only working very part time.

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  2. Unburdened by what has been. Learn to code fuckers!

    Chutes Magoo

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    1. Departing Mexicans will be leaving jobs behind too.

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    2. The only coding I want them to do is the kind that requires a defibrillator which I would gladly Not provide.

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    3. Jeremy: well said!

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  3. We've had to put up with your god complexes for decades. So screw you, just get the hell out and stay out. I wish whole agencies were being cut.

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  4. So far (near as I can tell) the only people let go have been the buy-out (volunteer) folks and most of the probationary workers (last hired, first fired).
    I wondered how the "come back to the office or get fired" was working out?

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  5. Federal workers have been programmed to believe they are invincible to being removed from their jobs no matter what they do or how unnecessary their jobs are. It’s one big bloated million-member club and the politicians are its benefactors. So suck it up all you private industry working assholes. If you get laid off that’s because the greedy company owners don’t care about you. Oh yea keep paying your taxes that fund our salaries.

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    1. There's 2.3M Federal workers, overall govt. employment (fed, state, local, etc) is as Unclezip posted. About 1/3rd of that is DoD. Overall about 1 in 7 workers is a govt. tax eater supported by seizing the wages of the other 6. Private sector workers are continually "right-sized", it's about time govt. workers were too. They can stay home and not work just as well as they did when going into the office.

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  6. Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy: they grow. They never shrink, they never stay the same size. Government always increases, and government DOES NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING.
    We not only need to eliminate whole agencies with their entire staff and all their regulations, we need to place a hard limit -say, 5%- on how much government can EVER cost as a fraction of GDP.
    The way to cull the federal services is to eliminate entire agencies. Firing a few is not the answer. Fire. Them. All.
    The first targets should be failed agencies. Education: 50 years of increasing cost, 50 years of dumbing down the testing, and the BEST that can be said is that student performance hasn't gone up (it's gone down- the tests are easier now). #1 in the world when Carter created the Ed Dept, #40 today. Fire. Them. All. FEMA: a joke for decades. Fire. Them. All. USAID: funding our enemies. Fire.Them. All. CDC: a case study in mission creep. Fire half, or more.

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    1. That all sounds great, but if the percentage increase of GDP metric as adopted, they'll just lie their asses off about GDP growth. They already do that now. "Tractor and grain production have been up five straight years, comrades!" (But nary a loaf of bread to be found at the market). I think we need something like carousel from Logan's Run, where we just liquidate a bunch of gov employees every year, with the fake promise they will be "renewed".

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  7. Last job I got fired from didn't offer me anything but the front door.

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    1. You got the private sector buyout. Bye, you're out.....

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    2. Last one I got fired from was on a Monday before Christmas, as the worker that I was replacing returned from "an injury that won't be coming back from" and they offered me part-time on-call if someone ever got sick.

      Only the second time I was fired, only time without an injury involved.

      Rigged a few bridges for demolition but never burned one.

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  8. Any way which culls the federal government of useless and/or toxic employees is the right way to do it. And as anyone who has had the opportunity to encounter the feds in a way that requires the feds assistance, they're nearly all useless and/or toxic.

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  9. No pity, no remorse.

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  10. "This is not the way to do it"....
    Uh-uh, sweetheart, this is Exactly the way to do it. Learn to code.
    -lg

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    1. Coding? Naw, that gig is already a lost cause. Go ask Kamala what you can do for a few bucks, she can show you the way. Oh, and buy extra Listerine, you're going to need it.

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    2. Learn to weld.

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    3. Ok, now that there is a solid suggestion, but I suspect most of these people being cut loose now couldn't swing it. And be careful, if there was a sudden flood of welders into the job market, it would reduce the pay and benefits those in it now have enjoyed while demand outstripped supply. This upshot of all this is that sacred cows are going to get slaughtered in the process.

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  11. Actually the worker is wrong, the only purpose of most federal permits has been to justify a massive increase in the bureaucracy. A large government gives many ways to syphon off billions or trillions as we are finding out now.
    So all those federal workers and permits are just smoke screens for theft

    Exile1981

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  12. Back in the 90's before my glorious retirement, the major corporation I worked for was laying off 20% of the staff in a central location based on performance for a change. I called a friend there and asked how it was going. He said that 20% of the people were doing 5% of the work and now there was no one to do that 5%. Do we believe that of the government?

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  13. Although I have some sympathy for the forestry guy I just can't bring myself to give a shit... It takes 3 government workers to do the work of 1 private sector employee.....When you factor in the pay, holidays, retirement and insurance costs it's outrageous..
    President Trump is creating lots of opportunities, go grab one
    JD

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  14. Saw an article that said
    "Jim Jones, head of the FDA’s food division resigned in protest of the Trump Administration’s mass firings."
    And I thought why would anyone named Jim Jones be in charge of food?
    -lg

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    1. Actually, he was only responsible for the drinks. I'd avoid the Kool-aid and BYOB.

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  15. I have never broken a law or rule while either hunting or fishing but I have yet to meet a fish warden or game warden or park ranger that I wouldn't have fired on the spot if I was in charge.

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    1. Same here. I've never had a game warden treat me like anything other than a poacher.

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    2. Out here in Montana, they’re usually pretty nice.
      Doesn’t pay to piss off armed men miles from nowhere…

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    3. Back in the 40s and 50s, there was a terrific game warden. I believe he was the exception the proved the rule. He saved my ex's grandfather's family from starving.

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  16. Don't even get me started on licensing officials or DMV workers................

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    1. This really depends on the state. California? Right there with you. Nevada? Same.

      I went to the AZ DMV first thing in the morning. The employees were chatting how to make the customer's life easier and be more efficient. I was shocked. This is something a commercial enterprise dreams about. Employees voluntarily trying to make things better.

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  17. How about all the postal workers or Government workers that never paid into Social Security and now want the benefits.

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  18. Only one way to do it. Cut the bullshit fast. I don't feel sorry for anyone losing a bullshit job. And he has the audacity to say the forest is not political. Ha! Ha! The forest was WAY better before anyone managed it.

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  19. There are ways to cull federal service. This is not the way to do it. Okay, but the preferred method is illegal... For now.

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  20. I used to work at the VA. most days I was busting my ass (X-ray/MRI) but, there where a large amount of people that just "stood around" like. I never did figured out what their job really was. as for the "union" clowns, well. they where always in the hallways standing around and shooting the bull or whatever with anyone that walked by. yeah. this was every damn day. It was kind of weird but they did stand by the doors to met people when they walked in. one asshole got pissed as hell when I asked if he was going to get the same job at Walmart after he retired. so, yeah. there is a LOT of dead wood at the VA.
    dave in pa.

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    1. Pubic employees should be prohibited from unionizing. That includes any act which resembles union activity.

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    2. that was a big beef with those assholes. I wouldn't join their "union".
      thinking back on it now, it seems to me their main job was keeping really worthless assholes that should have been let go on the "job". as for the "head guy" in the union, I never saw him work at anything but shaking hands and talking shit.
      and I am right with you on the public service unions. lot of dead wood there for sure. funny fact, they had to hire 2 techs to replace me after I retired.
      one thing I used to say was that we where paid per hour NOT per patient.
      but management did manage to drive away a lot of good people that wouldn't play their "game" . I have seen it happen all too often there. dave in pa.

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    3. Even FDR was against federal employees unionizing.

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  21. And there it is; We are necessary. You need us!

    It's only a short hop to; We have families too. Now my children gonna not eat.

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  22. Sigh. The grift of FEDGOV bureaucracy started when FDR took power. And, keep in mind, their union(s) contribute mightily to the coffers of the Uniparty congress critters. If these tax termites are concerned, let them relocate to a Blue Hive which still supports the grift and work of Hochul, Newsome, Pritzker, et. al., picking pepper out of fly shit for a paycheck.

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  23. They will never make a forest safe. It is unsafe by its' very nature. Take away the risk and it's no longer a forest. Wrong people doing the wrong stuff. Leave the woods alone.

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  24. 18 years ago I was a contractor doing forest inventory work in the Huron-Manistee National Forest and had to go to the Baldwin field office. While getting some data straightened out, a couple guys came in and one loudly said "End of the month, welfare checks should be in!"

    So basically we were doing their job for them, and lawsuits kept the last 5 years of timber sales from happening.

    There's a lot of thing wrong when you're stepping over most of the jack pine you should be tallying, but at least jack pine isn't a fire-dependent species that burns real well and needs lots of heat to open its serotinous cones.

    I think we were grossing about $2k per day between the two of us.

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  25. Years ago, I consulted for a company that was half comprised of aerospace workers (government contractors) and half a commercial venture. I could tell you where everyone came from by watching how they walked down the hall. The commercial people walked with a purpose and direction. The aerospace people meandered, chatted, and were slower. Commercial workers wanted decisions and to get things done. Aerospace wanted to form committees, have meetings, and delay decisions.

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  26. Remember all the empathy and sympathy government workers gave to the private sectors over the last 40 years of downsizing, deindustrialization, NAFTA, outsourcing, ridiculous regulatory environments targeting specific industries (e.g. coal mining, nuclear power production), and other industrial antagonism?

    Me neither.

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  27. Some on here are full of shit. I work civil service for a large federal maintenance facility and I can tell you about private sector versus federal. We contracted the repair of garrison equipment, which is dozers, scrapers, dump trucks, fire fighting equipment, refuse collection, and emergency response vehicles. In short, equipment used to maintain the garrison and gunnery ranges. It was a miserable failure, so we brought that mission inhouse to try to do with two thirds less mechanics than the contractor had. We're able to keep the equipment safe and serviceable but we're falling behind on scheduled maintenance because the government will not let us hire more mechanics. For an example, we have four specially trained mechanics in our emergency vehicle section to repair and maintain nearly one hundred high tech vehicles. A lot of these vehicles require very stringent yearly certifications to ensure they pump the necessary amount of water or foam when it comes time to fight range fires, structure fires, or God forbid an aircraft crash. The DA Civilians at my facility are more experienced, better trained, better equipped, and more dedicated than the contract workforce that I observe on a daily basis. I voted for Trump and would again even though it may bite me in the ass before it's all said and done. As a federal employee, I was exposed to the DEI bullshit that most only read about. Our country needed a new direction.

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