Are things calming down, Feds?

[Anonymous]

Taking a pulse check on how you're all feeling. It seems, at least at my Agency, things are settling a bit. Does anyone else feel better about getting through this?

I don't want to leave my job if I don't HAVE to.

[Anonymous]

lol no. I am calmer because I am numb, but we are still waiting on the RIF plans that are due next week, to be refined for several months. And people at other agencies are still getting fired left and right. That does not lead to a feeling that things are calm.

[Anonymous]

Calm before the storm OP. Worst is yet to come.

[Anonymous]

The EOs have calmed down but RIFs have barely started at all.

[Anonymous]

If you read Government Executive or follow reliable reports on alt.gov sites, you will see the worst is coming - tens of thousands more to be laid off in offices across the USA and DC.
Local news is reporting thousands being laid off in coming months in small towns, which is making people sit up and take notice.when it happens to someone you know, or affects your town’s economic landscape, it suddenly feels real.

[Anonymous]

Why would we be calm when sudden, arbitrary mass layoffs are about to happen in a quickly worsening economy?

[Anonymous]

All non-mission essential probationary were let go in my agency on Monday. It’s calming down for some agencies and ramping up for others.

[Anonymous]

No? They're only quiet because they are working on RIFs. Which will not be conducted properly (as in, following any rules) or sensibly (as in, just axing full offices with no understanding as to what they do). Get ready for entire offices/departments to be defined as a single "competitive area" and eliminated completely.

[Anonymous]

Nonstop dread is not better. And it will get worse.

[Anonymous]

Concur with the responses thus far that they are working on RIF plans and those are coming. Not just for feds but I hear plans are being made to cut contractors.

[Anonymous]

I’m at SSA, which is being run by a non-supervisory GS-15 who was was on Admin leave and probably would have been fired (possibly prosecuted) for leaking info to DOGE. He’s serving as a figurehead while Musk has completely redone the other chart, closed field offices, turned our 10 national regions into 4, fired most of the decent SES (and certainly the people we trusted), made it clear they will be replaced by politicals, announced RIFs of 12-50% (we are not getting reliable info from anyone and what we get is contradictory). He apparently decided to outsource teleservice operations (mostly to AI). He has been sending a stream of insane, typo ridden, stream of thought, impossible to interpret without Ketamibr memos, including one telling us we serve at the pleasure of Trump (nope, we are political appointees) and we had better improve our attitudes or else (gee, wonder why morale is down). He’s also started the RIF process now and isn’t waiting until 3/13. He returned NBU to the office with 36 hours notice. They found out Monday they had to report today. But as of last night, they don’t have space for many people— so people left work knowing they were RTO today, but not knowing their office location. “Your manager will reach out.”

And that’s just the last week. It’s completely insane. No one is doing substantive work because they are do many DOGE imposed issues and so many meetings with managers who have no answers.

How to Destroy an Agency 101. It’s ramping up, not down.

And again, this is being done (nominally) by a GS15 in his first supervisory role. DOgE chose to completely restructure now, rather than waiting until our political is confirmed next month. Which makes zero sense.

If you are in a lull before rIGs, enjoy it. It’s pretty clear part of the goal at SSA is to create a work environment so toxic, people wuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taking a pulse check on how you're all feeling. It seems, at least at my Agency, things are settling a bit. Does anyone else feel better about getting through this?

I don't want to leave my job if I don't HAVE to.

I actually feel like this is the worst it's been. Yes, there aren't constant orders or something new every day, but now I feel like we are all waiting around to see what our fate is. I think March will be calm, but things will escalate greatly after that when the RIFs really kick in.

[Anonymous]

But there have been two big victories with today’s supreme court ruling and lower court regarding probationary fires. Call me naive but I think the wrecking ball is being slowed.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Yesterday credit card purchases were limited to $1. It was the only way to get lab supplies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But there have been two big victories with today’s supreme court ruling and lower court regarding probationary fires. Call me naive but I think the wrecking ball is being slowed.

They are just now leaving it up to the agencies as direction cannot come from OPM. They still have the ability to conduct a RIF, it will just be a slower, more dragged out process that the hasty illegal firings that have been taking place.