Contractor Cuts: Booz, Deloitte, Leidos, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they can’t get rid of feds themselves (which they’re having trouble doing) this seems like an easier way to cut. I’m getting more and more depressed and would leave this area if it weren’t for our kids.

We don’t have kids (and won’t be, in light of the current economy) and my husband’s stable job is here, but i also am so depressed and wish I could leave. We also just bought a house.

Why would you hold off having kids.

That doesn't make sense, especially if you are looking at a situation where one patent might be home for a few years.

Do you have kids? Responsible people do not want to bring children into an unstable chaotic world.

+1

I wish we can go back to the olden times. The world is so much safer in

1930s - Great Depression
1940s - World War 2
1950s to 1970s - Nuclear Arms Race and Cold War
1980s and 2024 - Golden age of tolerance for LGBTIQ+, minorities, etc.

This really only started in the 2000s. Can confirm in the 80s/90s, LGBTQ tolerance did not exist in most suburbs. You have rose colored glasses on for that time period….

Agree! The 80s and 90s were not great for LGBT+. My close friend is gay and I witnessed first hand the nightmare behavior from people, especially the Mormon and evangelical kids at our high school. It really made me deeply hate religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they can’t get rid of feds themselves (which they’re having trouble doing) this seems like an easier way to cut. I’m getting more and more depressed and would leave this area if it weren’t for our kids.

We don’t have kids (and won’t be, in light of the current economy) and my husband’s stable job is here, but i also am so depressed and wish I could leave. We also just bought a house.

Why would you hold off having kids.

That doesn't make sense, especially if you are looking at a situation where one patent might be home for a few years.

Do you have kids? Responsible people do not want to bring children into an unstable chaotic world.

+1

I wish we can go back to the olden times. The world is so much safer in

1930s - Great Depression
1940s - World War 2
1950s to 1970s - Nuclear Arms Race and Cold War
1980s and 2024 - Golden age of tolerance for LGBTIQ+, minorities, etc.

This really only started in the 2000s. Can confirm in the 80s/90s, LGBTQ tolerance did not exist in most suburbs. You have rose colored glasses on for that time period….

That really only started in the 2010s. And I think you mean “minimal tolerance.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of bloat with the support contractors. OSD has 10s of thousands of them and a lot of them are needed as a warm body to increase the head count.

That's nice, too bad auditors weren't sent in to actually find this waste.

They wouldn't even know how to identify it. I support a lot of projects part time as a tech SME and the vast majority of people in them barely know what they are doing, do not care about learning otherwise, and the overall pace of development is geological. How would an auditor know what any of these people are doing, or how productive these projects should be overall?

Hmm… if you think that everyone working with you is a moron who doesn’t know what they’re doing, that usually is a clue that you’re the moron who doesn’t know what you’re doing.

Usually, except it's pretty easy to differentiate between skill levels and measure productivity, so this fortune cookie wisdom does not apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when its over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when its over.

In a word, flexibility. The gov't benefits from the ability to acquire talent as needed instead of permanently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of bloat with the support contractors. OSD has 10s of thousands of them and a lot of them are needed as a warm body to increase the head count.

That's nice, too bad auditors weren't sent in to actually find this waste.

They wouldn't even know how to identify it. I support a lot of projects part time as a tech SME and the vast majority of people in them barely know what they are doing, do not care about learning otherwise, and the overall pace of development is geological. How would an auditor know what any of these people are doing, or how productive these projects should be overall?

My impression is the whole system drains motivation. There is a set of common issues across agencies and offices, but individual offices or divisions don't have the same issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when its over.

In a word, flexibility. The gov't benefits from the ability to acquire talent as needed instead of permanently.

Regardless, I don’t know why people thought this wouldn’t happen. It’s not just Feds getting nailed here, but they are on the front lines.

The ripple effects are HUGE and everyone running around yelling “but the waste” is going to be shocked when they seem the impact on the economy, innovation, etc.

[Anonymous]

And you know where that money's going to be funneled to? Anduril.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when it's over.

What product? These support contractors don't make any proprietary product or any kind of SMEs. They are just middleman in hiring the talent for Govt. According to someone from Deloitte - we will put a warm body to do anything as long as we are getting paid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when it's over.

What product? These support contractors don't make any proprietary product or any kind of SMEs. They are just middleman in hiring the talent for Govt. According to someone from Deloitte - we will put a warm body to do anything as long as we are getting paid.

Depends on how savvy the client is, but not far off. In many cases there are actually disincentives to putting together a strong team, accomplishing the work faster for cheaper, because those people are low margin and generate less profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its quietly happening all over. It has been for a while.

+1

Hoping that this is more bark than bite.

Are you breathing brain cells active ?
Depression is headed to the whole country

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when it's over.

What product? These support contractors don't make any proprietary product or any kind of SMEs. They are just middleman in hiring the talent for Govt. According to someone from Deloitte - we will put a warm body to do anything as long as we are getting paid.

Of course they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Deloitte and Booz charges crazy overhead and stop work orders could be issued. Look at the number of Deloitte contract at DOGE site.

And Deloitte and Booz contract with numerous 8a contractors around here. Stop work orders are happening across the board.

We, as a country, could have avoided creating the massive federal infrastructure for contract management and internal project management of contractors. There was a solution to this problem and it meant never privatizing mission critical work.

It’s just shocking to me that people want to blame contracting for waste when privatization was sold as a savior for government waste.

It is just not blaming contractors and you are right there is no structure because that takes time, efforts, resources etc so it is easier to contact work out. They were also picked so that work could be increased and decreased anytime(such like this) without any repercussions of RIF, severance pay etc. Contractors are for-profit and use the weakness of any agency to gold plate their contracts. What is happening should have been looked into a long time ago but noone cares when Govt just keeps on expanding. It is disgusting even if you consider 20% info coming out for USAID contracts is true. Now, everyone suffers.

Two big reasons for contracts - 1. the government cannot make that product, and 2. so they can hire and fire at will which in the past has been near impossible to do for feds. They can ramp up projects quickly and let people go when it's over.

What product? These support contractors don't make any proprietary product or any kind of SMEs. They are just middleman in hiring the talent for Govt. According to someone from Deloitte - we will put a warm body to do anything as long as we are getting paid.

The problem is most of these jobs don't pay well.