Fed employees and work ethic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a fed contractor for 20 years, it is a mixed bag, both on contractor and fed side.

Probably 50/50 or 60/40 - just over half are hard working talented workers and the remainder are lazy, incompetent, or loafers.

There are also programs with talented people that are pretty worthless.

Hopefully DOGE is able to effectively separate the wheat from the chaff.

The thing is I’m not at all convinced DOGE wants to separate the wheat from the chaff. They just want to burn it all down and profit off of the destruction.

As you said, there are certainly programs that are not worthwhile but that’s not the fault of the employees. DOGE wants to fire all the employees but Congress is what created statutory requirements and programs that then have to be carried out by the agencies. The regulations that they attack are typically necessary to meaningfully carry out the requirements of the statutes Congress created.

The problem is that statutes expire or are no longer relevant, but the programs live on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a fed contractor for 20 years, it is a mixed bag, both on contractor and fed side.

Probably 50/50 or 60/40 - just over half are hard working talented workers and the remainder are lazy, incompetent, or loafers.

There are also programs with talented people that are pretty worthless.

Hopefully DOGE is able to effectively separate the wheat from the chaff.

As a high performing fed with excellent performance reviews I hope this is the case, but I’m genuinely worried I’ll be churned out with the harvest.

You will. When their proposal is just to fire people by SSN, that's not a precise method. They are just trying to make you anxious and fearful so you will preemptively quit. It is their explicitly stated goal.

[Anonymous]

It’s not the workers in many cases that are the problem, there’s just a lot of unused bandwidth. Some programs are just bloated and there’s not enough work for the people to do, others are running on shoestrings and staff are burning out. It should be easier to move people around than it is, without firing people who could contribute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to any pickleball courts in the DMV and you will find A LOT of remote Fed workers playing pickleball during normal work hours. There are also A LOT of remote Fed workers at public golf courses during normal work hours. I have played with so many of them for the past five years. They book the golf tee times under their spouse's names, so that it can not be traced back to them.

This is ridiculous. Who would be looking at the pickleball logs and trying to trace them? This is pure fantasy.

Also the idea that it would be impossible to figure out that someone booked a tee time under their spouse's name is ridiculous.

Yes. Seems fake. There are cameras. Do they wear mustaches and big sunglasses too? Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Replacement by AI. Right. Because if we go to war, there's absolutely no possibility that the electrical grid might be affected, or the internet might go down or we might get hacked by our adversaries. You know they are still teaching the students at the Naval Academy how to manually calculate geographic coordinates for maritime navigation etc. because they are assuming there may be a scenario where the technology isn't available. This is what readiness means. Making sure that you don't lose these skills because you outsourced them to machines or technology that is no longer available. This is the definition of short sighted.

Exactly. There are people who can’t read maps and who do not know most cities use a system for numbering and naming streets. These people will be in trouble if the grid goes down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a fed contractor for 20 years, it is a mixed bag, both on contractor and fed side.

Probably 50/50 or 60/40 - just over half are hard working talented workers and the remainder are lazy, incompetent, or loafers.

There are also programs with talented people that are pretty worthless.

Hopefully DOGE is able to effectively separate the wheat from the chaff.

The thing is I’m not at all convinced DOGE wants to separate the wheat from the chaff. They just want to burn it all down and profit off of the destruction.

As you said, there are certainly programs that are not worthwhile but that’s not the fault of the employees. DOGE wants to fire all the employees but Congress is what created statutory requirements and programs that then have to be carried out by the agencies. The regulations that they attack are typically necessary to meaningfully carry out the requirements of the statutes Congress created.

The problem is that statutes expire or are no longer relevant, but the programs live on.

What programs? If the authorizing statute has expired and/or Congress doesn’t authorize funds to support the program, how can a program “live on”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fun fact DOJ and FBI attorneys are prohibited from earning overtime. We certainly work more than 40 hours but Congress prohibited overtime many years ago.

Yes - we have been told over the years to put 40 hours on our timesheets even if we work 60-80. How is that acceptable?

Your job is exempt from FLSA. And just like anyone's job anywhere whose job is exempt from FLSA, you can't earn overtime. Do you think lawyers in the private sector are earning overtime? They're not. You get a salary that covers your job duties, not hours. If you don't like it, get a different job or employer.

Let me introduce you to Title V.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a fed contractor for 20 years, it is a mixed bag, both on contractor and fed side.

Probably 50/50 or 60/40 - just over half are hard working talented workers and the remainder are lazy, incompetent, or loafers.

There are also programs with talented people that are pretty worthless.

Hopefully DOGE is able to effectively separate the wheat from the chaff.

The thing is I’m not at all convinced DOGE wants to separate the wheat from the chaff. They just want to burn it all down and profit off of the destruction.

As you said, there are certainly programs that are not worthwhile but that’s not the fault of the employees. DOGE wants to fire all the employees but Congress is what created statutory requirements and programs that then have to be carried out by the agencies. The regulations that they attack are typically necessary to meaningfully carry out the requirements of the statutes Congress created.

The problem is that statutes expire or are no longer relevant, but the programs live on.

What programs? If the authorizing statute has expired and/or Congress doesn’t authorize funds to support the program, how can a program “live on”?

Congratulations, Elon, on getting this far without understanding basic facts about how government operates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-People who know how to game the system, including use of EEOC and ADA, and do just enough to never get fired. It is genuinely very difficult to get rid of an average to below average employee who can show intermittent periods of doing their job.

And of course there are people in public service who work very hard.

So shouldn't everyone have a some type of income? Should we just fire people because they had a bad year, bad week or got sick? I know many amazing workers who fell ill with cancer, lost a loved one or had a mental health issue. Their work suffered because they couldn't take time off without a paycheck. So they just muddled along until they could get back on their feet professionally.

I find that many Americans want to see people fired, not the street, begging and groveling if they aren't working at 100 percent and firing on all cylinders every day of every year. People should be fired for major screw ups like in medicine, science, architecture and data breaches. But in my years in government, much of the work that people think is fireable is actually laughable. I worked for an overeducated, prep school elite woman who would write paragraphs in emails that were akin to Jane Austin. I couldn't believe she held her position. She said she was such a hard worker, but really it was full of fluff. She also had a son with special needs and was going through a divorce. Should she get fired? I mean what do people think happens to all these unemployed people? They end up on the streets and it isn't a good look for society. Look at California. Hard working people are sleeping on the steps of Rodeo Drive because they were fired. Do we really want a society where all we do is fire people because they are not performing like robots?

This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read on dcum.

Feds are not being fired for not firing on all cylinders nonstop. 99% of feds are fired for egregious actions- working a 2nd job at work (using gov computer, gov printers), misuse of government funds, not showing up to work, or criminal activity.

Someone with a special needs kid going through a divorce gets a lot of grace. Reasonable accommodations are a change of schedule, ability to go to doctors appts during the day. But even still, we need work to get done. How is it fair to coworkers that they have to do their work plus yours?

I am concerned for the future of work in general. Gen Z has a lot of mental issues and wants everyone else to work harder to accommodate them. I’m a millennial and completely understand mental issues, but I feel like you can’t bring it to work or let it interfere with your life. They’re making their mental issues their entire life.

COVID shutdowns and social media has done them in hard.

No one requires more accommodation than boomers who are way past their prime. My gen Z employees can at least complete basic administrative task when directed.

Your Gen X losers have zero valuable corporate knowledge and regularly lack basic common sense.
And that's why we are very careful before hiring them in my org.

We're not talking about corporate on this thread. We're talking about Feds. You go ahead with your age discrimination though, that's one way to rack up a good stack of EEO complaints.