Poll of the Day > Probably losing my job on Friday.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Due to reasons we arent allowed to discuss on this board. Im completely fucked.

You hornyposted at work?

I work for the government

On nuclear missiles?

Crazy

My Cousin finally got a job at the IRS but I fear she could get the at some point.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-irs-start-laying-off-6000-employees-thursday-nyt-reports-2025-02-19/

DirtBasedSoap posted...

Due to reasons we arent allowed to discuss on this board.

You might as well, everyone else seems to do it and get away with it.

They've said they don't want political talk on any board other than CE, but I don't think the mods actually care because they don't seem to do a very good job of ever deleting people's posts or topics about it unless it's extremely blatant.

Condolences, man. that sucks.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

You might as well, everyone else seems to do it and get away with it.

They've said they don't want political talk on any board other than CE, but I don't think the mods actually care because they don't seem to do a very good job of ever deleting people's posts or topics about it unless it's extremely blatant.

I completely forgot this was a thing since I mostly post on CE these days.

Couldn't just not smoke weed

JoanOfArcade posted...

Couldn't just not smoke weed

Weird thing to say.

Anyway, hope it works out well. From our CE topic Im USDA and who knows whats gonna happen. Especially since these fucking idiots keep accidentally firing people.

Cacciato posted...

Weird thing to say.

Anyway, hope it works out well. From our CE topic Im USDA and who knows whats gonna happen. Especially since these fucking idiots keep accidentally firing people.

Hes still mad about shit I said to him 5+ years ago lol Hes obviously not paying attention to the news. I havent smoked weed in years and I dont even get drug tested .

good luck, though. I thought DoD was safer than the rest but im probably getting terminated by Elon and his broccoli hair team despite top-notch permanence reviews in the last 2.5 years Ive worked for them

A lot of government employees are about to hit the private sector all at once so competition is going to be a nightmare. Sorry this has happened to you.

Sorry to hear that :( hoping for the best

willythemailboy posted...

You hornyposted at work?

@NeonPhoenix

Cacciato posted...

Especially since these f***ing idiots keep accidentally firing people.

I wouldn't be so sure it's an accident. Destabilizing government services is the goal, as much as the pretense is "reducing waste." Musk and the wannabe oligarchs he represents want government services to fall apart so the private sector can take over and control them in their absence. If they "accidentally" fire everybody that knows how to do some critical service, the agency falling apart after that is just going to be spun into "look how incompetent this agency was, why would we spend tax dollars keeping them afloat when they can't even handle a few layoffs?".

Everything about this is - as has been the GOP's MO since the Reagan days - to erode public faith in government and promote downloading services to the private sector to enrich corporations.

Pororin posted...

@NeonPhoenix

Neon is still here?

Damn, sorry to hear that bro

Best of luck :/

Damn_Underscore posted...

Neon is still here?

coyot posted...

UI?

https://youtu.be/O-d3_ilA_rk?si=26tKWkecU4ORowm8

DirtBasedSoap posted...

good luck, though. I thought DoD was safer than the rest but im probably getting terminated by Elon and his broccoli hair team despite top-notch permanence reviews in the last 2.5 years Ive worked for them

Im hoping youll be okay, without getting to much job info from you. Im sure youve seen all the horseshit in the news about people being terminated for under performance despite having great reviews. Thats what were worried about in my agency.

adjl posted...

I wouldn't be so sure it's an accident. Destabilizing government services is the goal, as much as the pretense is "reducing waste." Musk and the wannabe oligarchs he represents want government services to fall apart so the private sector can take over and control them in their absence. If they "accidentally" fire everybody that knows how to do some critical service, the agency falling apart after that is just going to be spun into "look how incompetent this agency was, why would we spend tax dollars keeping them afloat when they can't even handle a few layoffs?".

Everything about this is - as has been the GOP's MO since the Reagan days - to erode public faith in government and promote downloading services to the private sector to enrich corporations.

I understand your point. Its just that with some of these firings its one of those things that you assign to incompetency and not to maliciousness. But maybe Im not giving the administration enough credit, but hopefully youll understand why thats a difficult thing to do.

Cacciato posted...

I understand your point. Its just that with some of these firings its one of those things that you assign to incompetency and not to maliciousness. But maybe Im not giving the administration enough credit, but hopefully youll understand why thats a difficult thing to do.

Oh yes. Half of the programs they've slashed for being "DEI" seem to have been identified by just doing a Ctrl+F search for keywords like "transition," "gender," or "diverse," given that they've lumped in things that talk about "economic resiliency in diverse situations" and stuff like that. In pretty much exactly the fashion one would expect from Musk, there's no actual intelligent oversight happening, having delegated everything to crude algorithms and tech interns too inexperienced to know when those algorithms need manual intervention.

But also, I don't think that's an accident. He's being careless because he doesn't know enough to understand how to make cuts intelligently, but he's also not putting in effort to gain that understanding and avoid being careless because the goal is not to be left with a functioning public service. It's to gut enough of it to make room in the budget for the massive billionaire tax cuts Trump wants to enact, then leave the rest floundering so the private sector has an opportunity to step in and take over.

I'm also working for the government (and a probie too), and, just sort of quietly hoping that nobody pays attention to our agency. We're normally out of the line of fire for stuff, and, seems like we still are right now.

The new head honcho of the department probably likes what we do, so instead they're just cutting away at all of the othertime to show off how good we are.

adjl posted...

Everything about this is - as has been the GOP's MO since the Reagan days - to erode public faith in government and promote downloading services to the private sector to enrich corporations.

The Tories have been doing this for years in the UK with the NHS. Step 1, cut funding. Step 2, service goes to hell. Step 3, "The NHS is broken, we should privatize it."

The US Postal Service makes a profit every year. Buuuuut... The Republicans rigged it so the USPS has to pre-fund the retirement for every single USPS employee for the next 75 years! They literally have to set aside money for the retirement of employees who haven't even been born! Gee, now the USPS is unprofitable. Let's shut it down and make people pay FedEx and UPS rates instead.

DirtBasedSoap posted...

Due to reasons we arent allowed to discuss on this board. Im completely fucked.

That rule really isn't enforced. It'd have to be a topic expressly about a political opinion or the like, and even then. Which is why the ban was laughable to begin with - virtually everything is political, especially when there's almost no separation between reporting on the news and reporting on something "political."

On the topic, I feel you. I have 2 family relations that are in such jobs. Both safe for now, but one had their workplace go throw a shock after a bunch of people were fired, the government went "whoops", and is trying to hire them back. Basically pure chaos, is what I hear.

ToadstoolPeach posted...

A lot of government employees are about to hit the private sector all at once so competition is going to be a nightmare. Sorry this has happened to you.

Worse than that, a lot of government jobs, like the aforementioned ones related to me, have no private sector counterpart at ALL. So if those jobs are gone, they are just done.

adjl posted...

But also, I don't think that's an accident. He's being careless because he doesn't know enough to understand how to make cuts intelligently, but he's also not putting in effort to gain that understanding and avoid being careless because the goal is not to be left with a functioning public service. It's to gut enough of it to make room in the budget for the massive billionaire tax cuts Trump wants to enact, then leave the rest floundering so the private sector has an opportunity to step in and take over.

It's mostly because there are 3 competing "ideologies" in the White House at present:

1. Project 2025, aka the Heritage Foundation, aka the final master plan hellscape of oligarchs running the country. The end-ressult of Reaganism, as you put it.
2. Trump who is just there to avoid being in prison and to enrich himself, serving as the perfect puppet to rubberstamp 2025 without a single thought or reason. When he's not doing that, he acts as an Agent of Chaos, like throwing out ideas like occupying Gaza.
3. Musk, who is there to remove oversight, suits, fines, and regulations of his companies to further enrich himself (no surprise every agency he's targeted has some hand in oversight of his companies).

The often confusing and contradictory nature of this all stems from the confusing and contradictory nature of these goals. Which is why we see the hatchet job of illegally gutting these departments resulting in, "wait, we didn't mean those guys! Also, we didn't know they did that!"

https://youtu.be/VYoARIrCEpA?si=nTRjDYZMa-prcj71

Sounds like the mass-firing plan has been put on hold for you DirtBasedSoap.

It's sad to see so many lose out on their dream job. A job that comes with a pension and knowing you are secured financially for life.

My Cousin has survived the cuts so far. I think she's been in for 2 years now at the irs

Lotta people on social media show no remorse. They just say welcome to the private sector aka the real world where there's no loyalty or pensions

Sorry to hear that bud.

teddy241 posted...

It's sad to see so many lose out on their dream job. A job that comes with a pension and knowing you are secured financially for life.

My Cousin has survived the cuts so far. I think she's been in for 2 years now at the irs

Lotta people on social media show no remorse. They just say welcome to the private sector aka the real world where there's no loyalty or pensions

I moved to my position because automotive's crashing, I just want a job that pays enough with the degree I worked for.

teddy241 posted...

Lotta people on social media show no remorse. They just say welcome to the private sector aka the real world where there's no loyalty or pensions

A lot of people seem to prefer thinking that nobody should have a job better than theirs instead of that their job should be better. American corporate propaganda has been terrifyingly effective at convincing people that boots are delicious.

Sorry to hear about that.

Did you get the new fun email today?

Cacciato posted...

Did you get the new fun email today?

The reply should be

1.)Dig hole
2.) Fill hole
3.) Dig hole
4.) Fill hole
5.) Dig hole

ooger posted...

The reply should be

1.)Dig hole
2.) Fill hole
3.) Dig hole
4.) Fill hole
5.) Dig hole

I was on leave for the week so I thought about writing that five times, but theyd probably fire me.

Im also currently assigned to inspect a poultry plant so I figured Id have to work choked my chicken into the list somewhere.

Cacciato posted...

I was on leave for the week so I thought about writing that five times, but theyd probably fire me.

Im also currently assigned to inspect a poultry plant so I figured Id have to work choked my chicken into the list somewhere.

lmao

Cacciato posted...

Did you get the new fun email today?

I was just going to give the most vague and useless information to anyone outside of my agency. "Processed X, Interview, Processed Y, Communicated with superior about Y, Processed Z". If they wanted more information, they should give me a timecode.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the responses to the email don't actually matter because there's no way Musk is actually reading and evaluating 3 million job descriptions. He's either going to Ctrl+F buzzwords that he uses to trigger automatic firings or he's already decided which departments he's going to gut or shut down and is just using this to pretend he's put any effort into understanding the work the public service does.

No the actual benefit is they can gather the org chart in a convenient manner.

shadowsword87 posted...

No the actual benefit is they can gather the org chart in a convenient manner.

And publish them in one convenient spot for our adversaries to see.

teddy241 posted...

It's sad to see so many lose out on their dream job. A job that comes with a pension and knowing you are secured financially for life.

shadowsword87 posted...

I moved to my position because automotive's crashing, I just want a job that pays enough with the degree I worked for.

As far back as 20 years ago, it was noted that whereas people used to settle into a career and maybe change jobs 2-3 times over the course of their life, we've now moved into a scenario where people were more likely to change careers 2-3 times in their life, because they'd be unable to find work in their chosen field and need to pivot.

It's one of the reasons why people are so disillusioned about going to college - there's a significant chance that whatever degree you spend tends of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars on is going to be about as useful as toilet paper. People used to value college because it was seen as an optional upgrade that would reward you with much better employment afterwards, now it's effectively a mandatory step that doesn't give you much advantage at all (and you'd arguably be better off just learning a trade in many cases).

The problem is, it's only going to keep getting worse (at least in the US specifically). It doesn't really matter who's sitting in the White House, the economy is mostly worsening as a consequence of global factors entirely beyond anyone's control or ability to alter. Things are going to keep getting worse before they ever have a hope of getting better.

The convenient way to gather an org chart is to delegate it. Supervisors know who works for them and what they do (in theory, at least), their supervisors can collect and consolidate charts from all of their reports, and so on up the chain until you get one giant org chart that the grand poobah can stitch together.

Having all employees of every level send what they did last week directly to the top just creates an impractically large data set with little internal consistency that would require a whole new team to make any sense of, let alone allow them to compile a useful org chart.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem is, it's only going to keep getting worse (at least in the US specifically). It doesn't really matter who's sitting in the White House, the economy is mostly worsening as a consequence of global factors entirely beyond anyone's control or ability to alter. Things are going to keep getting worse before they ever have a hope of getting better.

I'm fully convinced that the economy's trashed, but by acknowledging that it's bad, it causes fear and makes it much worse.
Every professional I've talked to about it mentions how things are going badly. Automotive can't handle the EV transition. Biomed has stopped research. Alcohol sales are crashing due to the new generation just not drinking as much. Telecoms and silicon valley are shedding thousands of people at a time.
But, the psychology of economics just means admitting it will cause a crash.

shadowsword87 posted...

But, the psychology of economics just means admitting it will cause a crash.

Basically.

There's also the mindset that you don't have to admit everything is fucked if you can fix it before people notice. But no one really knows how to fix it. So you desperately lie and say that everything is fine, or that it isn't fine but you totally know what the problem is and how to fix it. And then you just rock back and forth in the corner and hope things straighten themselves out on their own. Or that you'll at least be able to escape out the back door before the shit hits the fan and it becomes someone else's problem.

This is the main problem with government (both parties) as it currently exists - the job of a politician isn't to fix problems, the job of a politician is to get reelected. So they will always favor short-term solutions that look like they're fixing things, but which usually make things worse down the line. Because it doesn't matter if everything explodes 20-30 years from now if you can look like you're a proactive champion of the people today.

But most of the things going wrong that CAN be fixed (as opposed to the things that are pretty much inevitable because of global socio-economic factors) would require tons of sacrifice (which no voter will ever agree to), and tons of investment of money and effort over much longer periods of time (which no voter will ever agree to, and no one in government wants to commit to). So those solutions will never be proposed or accepted, even if the people running things are even aware those options exist in the first place.

Unfortunately, given the choice between doing something that will earn you praise and a raise, and doing something that will get you fired and likely give all the credit to someone else decades from now even if it does succeed, very few people are going to choose the greater good over their own well-being.

So we basically wind up in a scenario where we keep spinning all the plates, and every politician is hoping they can keep the plates spinning just long enough for it to become someone else's problem. Then when one of the plates falls everyone in charge of spinning them immediately starts blaming everyone before them, everyone on the opposite side of the room from them, the people who made the plates, and pretty much anyone else they can think of other than accepting the blame themselves.

And occasionally a politician will start three more plates spinning so they can claim they did something proactive.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Basically.

There's also the mindset that you don't have to admit everything is fucked if you can fix it before people notice. But no one really knows how to fix it. So you desperately lie and say that everything is fine, or that it isn't fine but you totally know what the problem is and how to fix it. And then you just rock back and forth in the corner and hope things straighten themselves out on their own. Or that you'll at least be able to escape out the back door before the shit hits the fan and it becomes someone else's problem.

This is the main problem with government (both parties) as it currently exists - the job of a politician isn't to fix problems, the job of a politician is to get reelected. So they will always favor short-term solutions that look like they're fixing things, but which usually make things worse down the line. Because it doesn't matter if everything explodes 20-30 years from now if you can look like you're a proactive champion of the people today.

But most of the things going wrong that CAN be fixed (as opposed to the things that are pretty much inevitable because of global socio-economic factors) would require tons of sacrifice (which no voter will ever agree to), and tons of investment of money and effort over much longer periods of time (which no voter will ever agree to, and no one in government wants to commit to). So those solutions will never be proposed or accepted, even if the people running things are even aware those options exist in the first place.

Unfortunately, given the choice between doing something that will earn you praise and a raise, and doing something that will get you fired and likely give all the credit to someone else decades from now even if it does succeed, very few people are going to choose the greater good over their own well-being.

So we basically wind up in a scenario where we keep spinning all the plates, and every politician is hoping they can keep the plates spinning just long enough for it to become someone else's problem. Then when one of the plates falls everyone in charge of spinning them immediately starts blaming everyone before them, everyone on the opposite side of the room from them, the people who made the plates, and pretty much anyone else they can think of other than accepting the blame themselves.

And occasionally a politician will start three more plates spinning so they can claim they did something proactive.

Do you think doge will fit it?

If so, how?

Please be specific.

shadowsword87 posted...

I was just going to give the most vague and useless information to anyone outside of my agency. "Processed X, Interview, Processed Y, Communicated with superior about Y, Processed Z". If they wanted more information, they should give me a timecode.

Whats funny with us is that we literally document our activities in PHIS. Like, they can just log on and see when I do a lab sample, or a specific sanitary check, or anything else we do. I was going to just rewrite my job description until my union rep told me to wait for further guidance.

with my luck Id just write what I usually do and theyd check my timesheet and fire me for not being at work lmao.

adjl posted...

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the responses to the email don't actually matter because there's no way Musk is actually reading and evaluating 3 million job descriptions. He's either going to Ctrl+F buzzwords that he uses to trigger automatic firings or he's already decided which departments he's going to gut or shut down and is just using this to pretend he's put any effort into understanding the work the public service does.

Yeah, the chaos of this shit is the most annoying part because to me it just screams flagrant incompetency. The funny part is is that our positions salaries are covered by the amount the government charges for inspection anyway. So I could stare at the wall all fucking day and the taxpayers arent losing a dime.

Cacciato posted...

Yeah, the chaos of this s*** is the most annoying part because to me it just screams flagrant incompetency.

It's pretty much entirely performative. The whole "shut it down and audit it" thing has absolutely zero basis in how real audits work. Unless continued operation poses a serious risk (such as in a site safety audit), audits are supposed to happen while everything keeps running more or less normally, with any "shut it down" decisions coming after the review has found critical issues that can only be solved by eliminating the problematic sector. Shutting it down first only serves to pander to people that have bought into the narrative that the entire public service is worthless and corrupt and therefore want to see it all dismantled.

The fact that the email was sent on a Saturday night to be actioned by EoB Monday is also pretty transparently just fishing for an excuse to fire people who miss/ignore it for any one of countless legitimate reasons.

Cacciato posted...

The funny part is is that our positions salaries are covered by the amount the government charges for inspection anyway. So I could stare at the wall all f***ing day and the taxpayers arent losing a dime.

People tend to have a skewed view of what's actually taxpayer-funded. Here in Canada (where I work with Indigenous Services), people frequently get uppity about the fact that First Nations get "free" university and "free" housing and other entitlements that they believe come from taxpayers. That's not actually true at all. All benefits paid to First Nations recipients come out of the Indian Trust, which was established as part of the Indian Act to manage the compensation Canada paid to First Nations as part of the various treaties that were signed. Administration of the Trust is a bit of a grey area (I'm honestly not even sure if my salary comes from tax dollars or straight from the Trust), and there are some benefits that are covered by federal tax dollars (usually stuff that would be covered by provincial services for non-indigenous people, but gets uploaded to the federal level when dealing with indigenous people), but the vast majority of the things people get butthurt that First Nations get for "free," they actually get from a trust fund that literally cannot be used for anything else and which they receive in exchange for the land that people complaining rely on for pretty much every aspect of their lives

adjl posted...

It's pretty much entirely performative. The whole "shut it down and audit it" thing has absolutely zero basis in how real audits work.

It does seem to be entirely on-brand with how Musk operates in other ventures, though. Much like how SpaceX tests rockets by launching them and seeing when and how they explode rather than doing more extensive testing on the ground; his MO for this seems to be "shut it all down, see what breaks, and then fix ONLY the stuff that broke" without bothering to look at what might break in the medium-to-long term rather than what immediately blows up.

Some things you can get away with testing that way, but most government functions probably don't belong on that list.

willythemailboy posted...

It does seem to be entirely on-brand with how Musk operates in other ventures, though. Much like how SpaceX tests rockets by launching them and seeing when and how they explode rather than doing more extensive testing on the ground; his MO for this seems to be "shut it all down, see what breaks, and then fix ONLY the stuff that broke" without bothering to look at what might break in the medium-to-long term rather than what immediately blows up.

Some things you can get away with testing that way, but most government functions probably don't belong on that list.

Indeed not. "Move fast and break things" isn't a totally invalid philosophy for R&D, especially when you're breaking a lot of new ground and there isn't much precedent available to research that would support a more conservative approach, but when it's a complex structure that you understand very little about, that will be extremely difficult to repair once broken, and when actual lives are on the line, it becomes not only stupid but outright irresponsible. There's a reason Musk's only successful companies are ones where other people handle all of the management decisions (though arguably Twitter was less meant to be a successful business and more meant to be a tool to manipulate the election in Musk's favour, and in that regard it was successful). He's got a head for recognizing decent ideas and the financial backing to be able to take risky investments, but he's got no sweet clue what he's doing when it comes to actually running anything.