Other feds just very depressed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just hope smaller independent agencies can remain forgotten about.

Same. Although under the orange turd’s first admin, we were basically stymied for months - year (can’t remember exact time) because of his refusal to nominate Commissioners. This time around, we are fully staffed until June 2025, so I suppose he will just reshuffle who the Chairman is?

Also we regulate pipelines and he basically made them rubber-stamp everything, so I guess that will happen this time around. . .

Wondering if it makes sense to start a new thread for the smaller independent agencies.

Unfortunately I fear that those of us at smaller independent agencies will be easier to move outside of DC. Way easier to move a 400-person department than it is to move HUD or Transportation.

[Anonymous]

How do we think DOE will be affected?

[Anonymous]

Thing to remember when dealing with orange appointees is that regular logic does not apply. One cannot reason about what they might do based on reasonable prior experience. We are facing incompetent and frankly just dumb people. Lot of them for example believe that he is chosen by the go to lead us. Exception to this could be if someone is completely in it to profit themselves like Elon from the chaos they will create. Just look at the interviews with his supporters at any level, not that many bright people there.
Normal rules will not apply!

[Anonymous]

All of our costs are offset through industry fees. How will we be affected? Makes me think there’s nothing to cut here, right?

[Anonymous]

The Democrats will probably be just a few seats short of the majority in the House this year. It's fairly safe to assume that they will take the majority in 2026, unless Trump is wildly popular by then (unlikely). A Dem majority would mean two years of constant hearings and subpoenas about the abuses of the previous two years. I know that it's a small bit of relief, but it makes me think that this very real prospect will prevent some of the worst actions by the new administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Democrats will probably be just a few seats short of the majority in the House this year. It's fairly safe to assume that they will take the majority in 2026, unless Trump is wildly popular by then (unlikely). A Dem majority would mean two years of constant hearings and subpoenas about the abuses of the previous two years. I know that it's a small bit of relief, but it makes me think that this very real prospect will prevent some of the worst actions by the new administration.

Also, thanks to the secret ballot, it's likely that Thune will be Senate majority leader. That might prevent the worst of the worst nominees and policies.

[Anonymous]

So, do depressed. I really need to get offline because seeing the vitriol directed at at feds by Elon and Vivek and others is making me crazy. I’ve been in an office for many, many years with incredibly smart people who work really hard - all lawyers - and most of the people at our client agency are really good too. The client has a few duds, sure, but I doubt any more than any large corporate organization.

I really like my job and I do work less than I would at a law firm for example, but I also make about 1/3 or less of law firm money so that seems like a pretty fair trade.

Most Americans - inc this new crew taking over DC - have absolutely no idea what federal employees do and the complexities of our jobs. I am quite sure there is waste in govt but I have no confidence that this crew is discerning enough or careful enough to figure out where it exists. They just want to burn it all down.

[Anonymous]

+1

I have a browse-only Twitter account and I deleted it from my phone this weekend because I couldn't stand to see the constant attacks on "federal bureaucrats." I'm in your situation - I left biglaw and ended up at an agency that I love. I work somewhat less than I did at biglaw, but definitely far more than 40 hours a week. As do nearly all of my colleagues.

Anonymous wrote:So, do depressed. I really need to get offline because seeing the vitriol directed at at feds by Elon and Vivek and others is making me crazy. I’ve been in an office for many, many years with incredibly smart people who work really hard - all lawyers - and most of the people at our client agency are really good too. The client has a few duds, sure, but I doubt any more than any large corporate organization.

I really like my job and I do work less than I would at a law firm for example, but I also make about 1/3 or less of law firm money so that seems like a pretty fair trade.

Most Americans - inc this new crew taking over DC - have absolutely no idea what federal employees do and the complexities of our jobs. I am quite sure there is waste in govt but I have no confidence that this crew is discerning enough or careful enough to figure out where it exists. They just want to burn it all down.

[Anonymous]

It’s weird — Trump never mentioned RTO a single time in campaign speeches, etc. But now everyone thinks that’s suddenly his highest priority and major platform? An admin only has so much bandwidth and can only fight so many battles at once. RTO isn’t one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s weird — Trump never mentioned RTO a single time in campaign speeches, etc. But now everyone thinks that’s suddenly his highest priority and major platform? An admin only has so much bandwidth and can only fight so many battles at once. RTO isn’t one of them.

When he was president -- before COVID -- my agency allowed up to two days of telework per week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s weird — Trump never mentioned RTO a single time in campaign speeches, etc. But now everyone thinks that’s suddenly his highest priority and major platform? An admin only has so much bandwidth and can only fight so many battles at once. RTO isn’t one of them.

It’s based on Republicans in Congress complaining about Feds teleworking.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure there are tons of capable, reputable leaders who are just DYING to give up their private sector salaries to go lead some boring, dirty agency for 2 years and fight and squabble and litigate with bureaucrats over RTO.

Nobody on this board understands how DC works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, do depressed. I really need to get offline because seeing the vitriol directed at at feds by Elon and Vivek and others is making me crazy. I’ve been in an office for many, many years with incredibly smart people who work really hard - all lawyers - and most of the people at our client agency are really good too. The client has a few duds, sure, but I doubt any more than any large corporate organization.

I really like my job and I do work less than I would at a law firm for example, but I also make about 1/3 or less of law firm money so that seems like a pretty fair trade.

Most Americans - inc this new crew taking over DC - have absolutely no idea what federal employees do and the complexities of our jobs. I am quite sure there is waste in govt but I have no confidence that this crew is discerning enough or careful enough to figure out where it exists. They just want to burn it all down.

Seriously, get offline. I’ve stopped listening to any news, recycled the news sections of the paper this weekend (we get the Sunday times, so I kept the non-news parts) and have limited my online presence to just dcum and instagram. It definitely helps.

Also, try to go for a walk in the sunshine and do hobbies- I’ve been reading, sewing, and lifting weights. Again, it really helps. I figure I’ll reengage with the world at some point but not for awhile.

[Anonymous]

I suspect things will actually go even slower this time, despite online whinging to the contrary. Working for the prior Trump admin made you unemployable afterwards, so even people with some experience won't be back. It'll just be Brayden from some Christian academy who doesn't have any idea how anything works at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s weird — Trump never mentioned RTO a single time in campaign speeches, etc. But now everyone thinks that’s suddenly his highest priority and major platform? An admin only has so much bandwidth and can only fight so many battles at once. RTO isn’t one of them.

Vivek and Elon are talking about this constantly online. Vivek tweeted it yesterday that bringing feds back 5 days will get 25 percent to quit because they are so lazy. Sen Mike Lee echoed it, Elon saying similar things.

Today Vivek tweeting about doing away with the bureaucracy. His proposal has been to immediately fire all feds with an odd number at the end of their SSN number.

RTO is honestly the least of our problems although the push for it in the extreme is indicative of the hatred of feds and wanting to scapegoat feds. It’s not any kind of honest move fir business reasons, they just want to make us miserable with draconian policies re telework that haven’t been in place for decades (totally different than saying hey, time to come back to pre pandemic levels of RTO for business reasons)