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….

NP - you are absolutely correct. AIDS came into the public eye in the 80’s and gays were shunned in both the cities, moreover the suburbs. People were afraid that they could contract AIDS by touching something that a gay person touched or breathed on during that time frame in history.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an EO a couple of days ago telling all agencies to cut back on all contracts. Are other contracts besides the “big 10” hearing about more stop work orders?

Yes. I’m a COR on a contract that the work is statutorily mandated. The contractor has been notified that the work is on pause.

Client?

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.

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.

Kids are expensive. And having them grow up in a facsist regime…no thanks.

You don't want them badly enough then. Not having kids was not an option for us.

You had the luxury to make that choice when the country was more stable.

I have two, and they are great, but I’m so sad that they are growing up into this. Whoever thinks that this is the way to increase the birth rate is sadly mistaken. Families have more kids when there is stability. Just look at the drop in birth rates in 2009 from the economic recession.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are screwed. Our contract is about to expire and were hoping to be renewed. IDK what we are going to do.

Same. And I’m on a long-term, stable contact - it’s just crappy timing. The contract I’m on fills a critical national security gap, and no one in govt or the private sector does it or can/could do it without years and tens of millions of dollars in new investments. The public doesn’t know what my co-workers and I do — they’ve never even heard of us. And that’s a good thing, because our job is to keep them safe and to protect this country, so not knowing about us means we are accomplishing our mission. But we could be gone in a few weeks… we don’t know yet.

Even before reading this post I've been thinking we'll have a terrorist attack on our soil within the next 4 years.

This would not surprise me either. They are making things very difficult for our intelligence agencies to do their jobs.

Calling civil servants "deep state", accusing them of having orchestrated the January 6 MAGA terrorism and calling them dishonest is a pretty good way to get the best people at the FBI and CIA to quit. I have friends there, and I'm so horrified at how Republicans are treating those agencies.

Why do people say civil servants?

My friends that work at Commerce call it middle class welfare.

So your friends tell you that they are welfare recipients.

Anonymous wrote:Of course we are Op. the goal according to OPM is to inflict pain on the federal workers and those who benefit from govt contracting (except for the companies of Elon musk and his cronies which will benefit.)

Trump doesn’t care if DC turns into Detroit 2.0

It is not just DC it is every single red state as well
Univ. of Alabama Birmingham supports millions of jobs in Alabama they are now cut. Oklahoma over $600,000 and counting. Kansas, SC, MO, etc all have jobs cut by Donnie and Musk. The government jobs are not just in DC

Zero empathy for what is coming to any red state fir hardship and it will be horrific

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?

Surely you’re joking. People trained to do this job would be able to do this job, certainly better than a drug addict and his merry band of incel teens. They’re not trying to figure anything out and have said as much. They’re just there to chainsaw it. If you’re ever diagnosed with cancer, it would be like the doctor not treating you but rather calling in his machinist cousin and letting him take a crack at you. I find it curious you can call yourself a SME, but don’t recognize expertise in any other field?

In any organization, especially one as large as the government, there are going to be duds. But they’re not even trying to figure out who the duds are. They’re mass firing people indiscriminately. And doing the same to the contracts. They fed a 250 character summary of contracts through AI and cut based on keywords they don’t like, such as “transition.”

Anonymous wrote:There was an EO a couple of days ago telling all agencies to cut back on all contracts. Are other contracts besides the “big 10” hearing about more stop work orders?

Yes. I’m a COR on a contract that the work is statutorily mandated. The contractor has been notified that the work is on pause.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

I really wanted kids, too. I despise everyone who voted for this who has taken that away from me. I will never get to have a family thanks to this administration. It’s horrible.

I say this with much kindness. Please take a deep breath and consider talking through your feelings with a therapist. If you really wanted children and have limited time, don’t make the decision not to have them, or even just one, because of Trump. Children were born even during the Great Depression and World War 2. I had my son just before I got too old, and while he has been a difficult child in some ways, he has also brought much joy. I think he makes our small corner of the world a better place.

Ironic, too, since Vance is pushing for people to have more kids, not just one.

But, yea, having kids on one salary and saving for college and retirement in a hcol is very difficult. And if both are feds on the chopping block.. forget it. Or are you advocating for people to have kids while they are unemployed, with Mump gutting social welfare?

--fix quote

As feds, we didn't make enough to fund IVF or to pursue adoption, so we just gave up that dream of having kids, since I couldn't conceive naturally.

This is the first time I've actually been happy about not having kids, there is no way we could afford to live in the area, have one person unemployed and still feed ourselves if we had kids.

This is such bullshit. Two GS-9 Feds can make $150K combined. That's early career salaries.

Have you seen what day care costs in this area? Rent? No, sadly, with $150K and kids you are squeaking by, especially if you also want to save for retirement and put something away into savings.

But back to the topic. Yes, many contractors are getting hit hard. I feel for them. What’s sad is the waste - stopping contracts mid flight and squandering the investments already made. This is a war on middle class people and it’s not actually saving anyone anything or addressing any “waste”. It’s just brutalizing civil servants and contractors and opening up the door for Musk and other billionaires to scoop up the work.

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….

Thank you for correcting me. I am thinking more of the idyllic, happy and totally carefree days of 1930s during the Great Depression.

DOGE is going to RIF employees at every private business in the area.

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….

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?

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.

Why have kids when there are no jobs?

Do you understand what the unemployment rate is? It does not seem like it.

The layoffs and firings have not been captured in the latest unemployment rate. Also, if anyone received severance, they must wait until severance payments cease before applying for unemployment compensation. April 2025, numbers will be interesting