Why are people not freaking out about Schedule F here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 48 and a GS15 supervisor in a job that deals with the southwest border. I stressed about it all the time. But then I saw that there is rulemaking in place, and the rulemaking would likely be litigated and/or withdrawn and that will take at least a couple of months. And then I suppose it would take at least a couple of months for me to be fired. So basically, I’m counting on hitting 50 and my agency offering early retirement. I’ve never wanted to be 50 so badly. Me and my staff are freaking out about it though.

Me too! When’s the next happy hour?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agency isn't particularly "political".

I came from private sector and have been a fed for several years now but, if need be, I can go back to private and most likely with higher pay due to my fed experience.

So no, I'm personally not freaking out at all.

If people are "freaking out", what do you want them to do about it? What is the point of this thread besides fear mongering?

This. I am not freaking out because why? I could move to the private sector now, but it's not like the private sector has any guarantees. Or I could wait and see and maybe get fired later, and move to the private sector then.

It feels like some of you have never had a significant job move, and don't think you could be employed if outside of the federal government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most feds on this board are in exempt positions anyway so Schdule F doesn’t change anything. It only means something if you are in a non-exempt position.

Can the exempt positions already be fired at will?

“Excepted Service” can be fired at will.

Separately, SES can be reassigned to any other SES job at the whim of the government, which sometimes gets used to encourage someone to retire or quit.

That is straight up not true once you pass the probationary period an excepted service employee has full MSPB appeal rights.

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/employee-relations/employee-rights-appeals/#url=Appeals

+1. Not sure where this misconception comes from. One difference is that the probationary period for competitive service is typically one year, while it's two years for excepted service, but once you're past the probationary period you have similar protections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agency isn't particularly "political".

I came from private sector and have been a fed for several years now but, if need be, I can go back to private and most likely with higher pay due to my fed experience.

So no, I'm personally not freaking out at all.

If people are "freaking out", what do you want them to do about it? What is the point of this thread besides fear mongering?

This. I am not freaking out because why? I could move to the private sector now, but it's not like the private sector has any guarantees. Or I could wait and see and maybe get fired later, and move to the private sector then.

It feels like some of you have never had a significant job move, and don't think you could be employed if outside of the federal government.

NP and I do think from a financial perspective you get locked in with respect to the pension after a certain number of years. Say you get fired at age 52 with 20 years of service. Over the 8 years until you can draw your pension without penalty at age 60 inflation is going to decrease the value of your pension significantly as compared to increasing your high 3 until it is time to retire.

[Anonymous]

Talk and action are two different things. For example, Republicans have been saying they want to abolish the Education Department for decades. It is still here, despite Republicans having had control of Congress and the White House.

[Anonymous]

By "freaking out" do you mean letting recruiters know that I might be more interested in their private industry positions than in the past?

The feds Schedule F would affect are the very feds who could probably make more money in private industry..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By "freaking out" do you mean letting recruiters know that I might be more interested in their private industry positions than in the past?

The feds Schedule F would affect are the very feds who could probably make more money in private industry..

Very very different lifestyles. For many likely Schedule F, it would mean gov contracting/consulting, which is far more lucrative but requires you to do sales pitches and be on call far more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By "freaking out" do you mean letting recruiters know that I might be more interested in their private industry positions than in the past?

The feds Schedule F would affect are the very feds who could probably make more money in private industry..

Very very different lifestyles. For many likely Schedule F, it would mean gov contracting/consulting, which is far more lucrative but requires you to do sales pitches and be on call far more.

? I'm in a STEM / data science field where I would do the same job, just for private industry rather than government. Would not be selling anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk and action are two different things. For example, Republicans have been saying they want to abolish the Education Department for decades. It is still here, despite Republicans having had control of Congress and the White House.

They will have to abolish the filibuster to make any sweeping changes to government, which they won’t do because the filibuster is much more of a limitation on the Dems.

[Anonymous]

I'm not worried about getting sacked. I'm worried more about the stupid policy experiments like when my Social Security taxes didn't get taken out for a whole year and then I had to pay them back the next year and got a pay decrease instead of a raise.

And I was a lower grade then...so it only affected the worker bees.

Then I got the notice that they screwed up the witholding and if I wanted to see if they owed me money I'd have to refile my taxes.

That's the dumb sh*t I'm worried about.

[Anonymous]

The current OPM rulemaking should be finalized in the next few months. Although Trump would repeal it within a few months, it would provide a *much* stronger argument that random firings violate the due process rights of Schedule F employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most feds on this board are in exempt positions anyway so Schdule F doesn’t change anything. It only means something if you are in a non-exempt position.

Can the exempt positions already be fired at will?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most feds on this board are in exempt positions anyway so Schdule F doesn’t change anything. It only means something if you are in a non-exempt position.

Can the exempt positions already be fired at will?

Yes

So Trump wouldn’t even need Schedule F to clean house at DOJ, which I assume is his top priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most feds on this board are in exempt positions anyway so Schdule F doesn’t change anything. It only means something if you are in a non-exempt position.

Can the exempt positions already be fired at will?

Yes

So Trump wouldn’t even need Schedule F to clean house at DOJ, which I assume is his top priority.

Untrue. Most DOJ attorneys are in either the excepted service or the non-career SES. Both have protections currently. Only the super top brass politicals don’t. Schedule F would designate career employees as political in order to remove their job protections, after which they could be fired at will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most feds on this board are in exempt positions anyway so Schdule F doesn’t change anything. It only means something if you are in a non-exempt position.

Can the exempt positions already be fired at will?

Yes

So Trump wouldn’t even need Schedule F to clean house at DOJ, which I assume is his top priority.

Untrue. Most DOJ attorneys are in either the excepted service or the non-career SES. Both have protections currently. Only the super top brass politicals don’t. Schedule F would designate career employees as political in order to remove their job protections, after which they could be fired at will.

Jo

Make that career SES …