Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say this with respect because I know there’s a lot of affected people here (in addition to the OP), but could someone please explain how/why the people at this org were paid so much before when it seems like their actual skills just didn’t warrant that high level of pay? Is this typical in government orgs? I knew government positions paid a lot more than I originally expected, but I was told that they need to pay those salaries (in addition to the security that has historically also come with government positions) in order to staff the positions.

I worked for a USAID contractor. For sure the management skills are transferable, but the challenge is that what I did was super specialized and no longer exists. Do you need someone to design and implement a low-cost program to get women in Nigeria or Malawi to take their prenatal vitamins and give birth in a birth facility with a trained midwife? Or maybe you need to figure out how to reduce the biases among midwives that lead to infant and maternal mortality. I’m your woman. I’ve done it and have the studies to prove the programs reduced death.

But the jobs here in the US that reduce infant death are few and far between. Who funds them? Some counties and states, but they are not funded to the level we funded these sorts of programs abroad. Sad, isn’t it? And I would understand and even sort of approve if we pulled all that money from USAID and instead used it for health programming in the US. But we didn’t. And now we are losing not just the work, but the expertise. I was a known, respected expert in my field. I’m now doing something different, and can’t mentor the next generation should we decide maternal health is important again. Poof. A generation of knowledge is just gone.

I don’t want anyone’s pity - I’m doing fine. But I would like people to understand that the skills USAID people had were real and valuable and necessary for the work we did. We just don’t seem to find helping poor people a needed skill anymore.

Your work sounds interesting and fulfilling but I’m not sure that you answered the question. Why were you paid so much money to do that work?

I don’t know that I was paid that much. I was in senior leadership, managing programs and budgets totaling $100 million/year and overseeing a staffing structure of 800 people. I made $140,000. I’m always told here on DCUM that makes me poor. I thought it was very fair pay for a job that meant a lot to me.

Who paid the salaries of the staffing structure of 809 you oversaw?

You did, for the most part. As you pay for the staffing structures of thousands at defense contractors, consulting companies, and now AI companies. When the government awards a contract for something to be delivered (airplanes, lives saved) the organization hires staff to do the work. It’s not a gotcha. The government contracts out a large percentage of that work, and those organizations need staff to do the work. That is how work gets done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say this with respect because I know there’s a lot of affected people here (in addition to the OP), but could someone please explain how/why the people at this org were paid so much before when it seems like their actual skills just didn’t warrant that high level of pay? Is this typical in government orgs? I knew government positions paid a lot more than I originally expected, but I was told that they need to pay those salaries (in addition to the security that has historically also come with government positions) in order to staff the positions.

I worked for a USAID contractor. For sure the management skills are transferable, but the challenge is that what I did was super specialized and no longer exists. Do you need someone to design and implement a low-cost program to get women in Nigeria or Malawi to take their prenatal vitamins and give birth in a birth facility with a trained midwife? Or maybe you need to figure out how to reduce the biases among midwives that lead to infant and maternal mortality. I’m your woman. I’ve done it and have the studies to prove the programs reduced death.

But the jobs here in the US that reduce infant death are few and far between. Who funds them? Some counties and states, but they are not funded to the level we funded these sorts of programs abroad. Sad, isn’t it? And I would understand and even sort of approve if we pulled all that money from USAID and instead used it for health programming in the US. But we didn’t. And now we are losing not just the work, but the expertise. I was a known, respected expert in my field. I’m now doing something different, and can’t mentor the next generation should we decide maternal health is important again. Poof. A generation of knowledge is just gone.

I don’t want anyone’s pity - I’m doing fine. But I would like people to understand that the skills USAID people had were real and valuable and necessary for the work we did. We just don’t seem to find helping poor people a needed skill anymore.

Your work sounds interesting and fulfilling but I’m not sure that you answered the question. Why were you paid so much money to do that work?

I don’t know that I was paid that much. I was in senior leadership, managing programs and budgets totaling $100 million/year and overseeing a staffing structure of 800 people. I made $140,000. I’m always told here on DCUM that makes me poor. I thought it was very fair pay for a job that meant a lot to me.

Who paid the salaries of the staffing structure of 809 you oversaw?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say this with respect because I know there’s a lot of affected people here (in addition to the OP), but could someone please explain how/why the people at this org were paid so much before when it seems like their actual skills just didn’t warrant that high level of pay? Is this typical in government orgs? I knew government positions paid a lot more than I originally expected, but I was told that they need to pay those salaries (in addition to the security that has historically also come with government positions) in order to staff the positions.

This is because the whole industry was dependent on federal funding, so the floor dropped out, and all experts were suddenly redundant. However I think it’s very questionable to have been using taxpayer dollars to essentially create an industry that has no transferable value. It is tough to set appropriate compensation in the non-profit world as there is no ‘buyer’ to set prices. Practically and ethically, billionaires, like the gates foundation or true missionaries should be footing that bill instead of taxpayers.

You could say the same thing about the defense industry. And that's much bigger and employs far more people.

Well nobody has been saying what these nebulous skills are. Is it just grant writing? Making policy? Writing white papers? Won't somebody please be brave and say what people did? I'm sure some of it is transferable.

As for the denfense industry, I have only a good sense for IT and the different systems and needs are vast. But perhaps contracts management and procurement would be a highlighted feature in this industry? It seems that nobody in government is very good at it. If they are then their hands are tied with ridiculous regulations on how to choose and oversee contractors since it seems that there's no spending limit and no rules these days.

Np here. Here is some of What We Did/Skills We Have:
-managing multimillion dollar global contracts, ensuring contract compliance and delivering technical results (in health, education, and more)
- managing large international teams, including across continents
- designing cutting edge programs
- managing grants and subcontractors
-diplomacy and managing counterpart relationships with foreign govs and global organizations
-public speaking and representing the USG
- extensive writing (reports, briefing materials, technical guidance etc etc)
- condicting projecr auditd and evaluations
- responding to requests from Congress, the GAO, the White House (whomever was in there)
- collaborating with USG colleagues at the Depts of State, Treasury, Commerce, Justice, and many more

This is just a taste. Lots of it is highly transferable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say this with respect because I know there’s a lot of affected people here (in addition to the OP), but could someone please explain how/why the people at this org were paid so much before when it seems like their actual skills just didn’t warrant that high level of pay? Is this typical in government orgs? I knew government positions paid a lot more than I originally expected, but I was told that they need to pay those salaries (in addition to the security that has historically also come with government positions) in order to staff the positions.

I worked for a USAID contractor. For sure the management skills are transferable, but the challenge is that what I did was super specialized and no longer exists. Do you need someone to design and implement a low-cost program to get women in Nigeria or Malawi to take their prenatal vitamins and give birth in a birth facility with a trained midwife? Or maybe you need to figure out how to reduce the biases among midwives that lead to infant and maternal mortality. I’m your woman. I’ve done it and have the studies to prove the programs reduced death.

But the jobs here in the US that reduce infant death are few and far between. Who funds them? Some counties and states, but they are not funded to the level we funded these sorts of programs abroad. Sad, isn’t it? And I would understand and even sort of approve if we pulled all that money from USAID and instead used it for health programming in the US. But we didn’t. And now we are losing not just the work, but the expertise. I was a known, respected expert in my field. I’m now doing something different, and can’t mentor the next generation should we decide maternal health is important again. Poof. A generation of knowledge is just gone.

I don’t want anyone’s pity - I’m doing fine. But I would like people to understand that the skills USAID people had were real and valuable and necessary for the work we did. We just don’t seem to find helping poor people a needed skill anymore.

Your work sounds interesting and fulfilling but I’m not sure that you answered the question. Why were you paid so much money to do that work?

I don’t know that I was paid that much. I was in senior leadership, managing programs and budgets totaling $100 million/year and overseeing a staffing structure of 800 people. I made $140,000. I’m always told here on DCUM that makes me poor. I thought it was very fair pay for a job that meant a lot to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get your health insurance through Obama care the ACA.

They probably already are, which is very expensive. Hence the reason why OP's DH is seeking FTE with health insurance.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure that these skills are as transferable as some people are claiming. For example, being in charge of large teams or very large budgets really isn’t the same in public and private industry since in private industry there is real accountability and if your team isn’t performing or you are deemed to be wasting money then you’re gone. Maybe these days things are closer these days, since someone is looking at budgets and delivered value, but that certainly hasn’t been the case historically.

And I think it’s safe to say that the days of the US funding the entire world are over. We are literally going into debt each year to do it, which is insane. We simply cannot afford to do it. These orgs will never be what they were.

I would suggest retraining into other industries like medical as PPs have mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe that usaid did much measurable help I think they shot themselves in the foot by not tying the aid with clear kpis, targets and outcomes.

When Ebola comes here maybe you’ll begin to have an inkling of what USAID did.

This thread should end with this comment.

Usaid cured ebola ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not in DC but we had a large contingent of IR folks in my circle in my city as dh worked for a large NGO and US Aid contractor based here for over 13 years. He left years ago to start a business ( he was on the fundraising side). Many of our program friends from those days now work in city government or state government. They are well suited for emergency management, one is high up working on the homeless programs and policy. Turns out work in refugee camps is great experience for this crisis. Others work in non profits around town. These were senior director level folks mostly.

Homeless programs? Another drain on the taxpayer dollar if you look at places like LA.

Sure, let’s just throw people away. A civilized world has social safety net programs. If ours were better here we would spend a lot less and have a lot fewer people get to the breaking point.

You probably think it’s all the cities’ faults too don’t you? That the many fentanyl addicts don’t come from the rural areas and suburbs where there are no services and you send them in the cities for us to deal with. We are dealing with your problem. You probably consider yourself a Christian. You sound like a tool who has just enough so that you are afraid of sharing it with anyone else. Whatever loser.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not in DC but we had a large contingent of IR folks in my circle in my city as dh worked for a large NGO and US Aid contractor based here for over 13 years. He left years ago to start a business ( he was on the fundraising side). Many of our program friends from those days now work in city government or state government. They are well suited for emergency management, one is high up working on the homeless programs and policy. Turns out work in refugee camps is great experience for this crisis. Others work in non profits around town. These were senior director level folks mostly.

Homeless programs? Another drain on the taxpayer dollar if you look at places like LA.

Sure, let’s just throw people away. A civilized world has social safety net programs. If ours were better here we would spend a lot less and have a lot fewer people get to the breaking point.

You probably think it’s all the cities’ faults too don’t you? That the many fentanyl addicts don’t come from the rural areas and suburbs where there are no services and you send them in the cities for us to deal with. We are dealing with your problem. You probably consider yourself a Christian. You sound like a tool who has just enough so that you are afraid of sharing it with anyone else. Whatever loser.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was all one big scam and contractors/politicians have been using it to milk US taxpayers of billions of $s.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Over 1M have already died due to its illegal dismantling with an anticipated 14M by 2030, 4.5M of those children under 5.

I know it’s off topic, but with so many lives at stake, why do Dems manage to mess up so much they can’t beat Trump? And don’t seem to have learned much or have anyone ready for 2028.

Government can’t just keep shoveling money and benefits out to everyone while our own citizens go without healthcare, and allowing unfettered migration.

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe that usaid did much measurable help I think they shot themselves in the foot by not tying the aid with clear kpis, targets and outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not in DC but we had a large contingent of IR folks in my circle in my city as dh worked for a large NGO and US Aid contractor based here for over 13 years. He left years ago to start a business ( he was on the fundraising side). Many of our program friends from those days now work in city government or state government. They are well suited for emergency management, one is high up working on the homeless programs and policy. Turns out work in refugee camps is great experience for this crisis. Others work in non profits around town. These were senior director level folks mostly.

Homeless programs? Another drain on the taxpayer dollar if you look at places like LA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not in DC but we had a large contingent of IR folks in my circle in my city as dh worked for a large NGO and US Aid contractor based here for over 13 years. He left years ago to start a business ( he was on the fundraising side). Many of our program friends from those days now work in city government or state government. They are well suited for emergency management, one is high up working on the homeless programs and policy. Turns out work in refugee camps is great experience for this crisis. Others work in non profits around town. These were senior director level folks mostly.

Homeless programs? Another drain on the taxpayer dollar if you look at places like LA.

Anonymous wrote:I am not in DC but we had a large contingent of IR folks in my circle in my city as dh worked for a large NGO and US Aid contractor based here for over 13 years. He left years ago to start a business ( he was on the fundraising side). Many of our program friends from those days now work in city government or state government. They are well suited for emergency management, one is high up working on the homeless programs and policy. Turns out work in refugee camps is great experience for this crisis. Others work in non profits around town. These were senior director level folks mostly.