Anonymous
12/04/2025 20:00
Subject: Re:Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Russell Vought doodling during a meeting with Trump.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 13:40
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My agency is full of rockstars who are burning out due to increased workload (thanks, DRP) and the pointless daily commute (many colleagues were remote and are now commuting to other agencies' office buildings as performative RTO). Now we are being told that we are not getting 5s on our performance reviews because OPM. We are all supposed to embrace mediocrity. Yay.
This is what really burns me. We have done extra work to deal with all the bs and now are being told we’ll be graded low no matter what??
Will they offer VERA again next year so that we can go??
It was nice of them to let you know ahead of time nobody is getting 5's, because now you can work to rule. Why would you reward them with extra work when they're not going to recognize you for it?
Leave after 8 hours on the dot, every day. They want you to work a minute later you ask them to request it in writing and approve overtime. Don't do an ounce of work on your breaks and take every minute of break or leave you're entitled to. Don't even look at your email when you're not working. If they are going to say you only "meet expectations" then that's the work you give them, the bare minimum expected and nothing more.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 10:10
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:My agency is full of rockstars who are burning out due to increased workload (thanks, DRP) and the pointless daily commute (many colleagues were remote and are now commuting to other agencies' office buildings as performative RTO). Now we are being told that we are not getting 5s on our performance reviews because OPM. We are all supposed to embrace mediocrity. Yay.
This is what really burns me. We have done extra work to deal with all the bs and now are being told we’ll be graded low no matter what??
Will they offer VERA again next year so that we can go??
Anonymous
12/04/2025 08:25
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
My agency is full of rockstars who are burning out due to increased workload (thanks, DRP) and the pointless daily commute (many colleagues were remote and are now commuting to other agencies' office buildings as performative RTO). Now we are being told that we are not getting 5s on our performance reviews because OPM. We are all supposed to embrace mediocrity. Yay.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 06:55
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Pray tell what has Vought done that specifically addresses poor performance?
The dead wood is still here, they hang on because they know they won’t get hired anywhere else. The talented hardworking people have left.
I also work for a component that this administration very much wants to work hard and get a lot done. But they are also traumatizing us and morale is in the pits. So much winning…
So that means you are one of the deadwood, unable to get hired elsewhere. These are your words and your description of those still working for the feds.
that's not what they said. They said "the dead wood is still there." When people say this, that means that they consider, say, 5% of the workforce as "dead wood". I've seen it myself-- that 5% hasn't left. It's a lot of very top performers and very low performers stay and some of those in the middle take the DRP or VERA to see what else is out there.
This is what I have seen as well. The very mission driven performers are holding everything together. But they are burning out big time, making mistakes they wouldn’t normally make etc. If you are still in, you’re either a rockstar (with people pleasing issues) or a stereotypical lazy ass, or you have kids to put through college and are too young to retire but are having health issues from all of the stress. It’s pretty awful. Seriously toxic.
Anonymous
12/03/2025 22:34
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Having spent more time in private industry that with the Feds, I have found this not to be the case at all.
Well I was a supervising Fed in two agencies and can tell you that accountability WAS a problem. Simple competence was a problem. Attitude was a problem. Work ethics were a problems. I’m not a Trumper but he was right to get rid of many agency personnel, in particular, ED.
Anonymous
12/03/2025 21:12
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Having spent more time in private industry that with the Feds, I have found this not to be the case at all.
Ditto. I spent roughly 2 decades in the private sector, including many years at a Fortune 500 company. I've now been in the federal government for about 3 years.
Merit is _fairly_ recognized and rewarded far more frequently in the government than in the private sector.
WRT "accountability" in the private sector - more often than not, the employee held "accountable" for poor performance is not the one who actually screwed up, but rather the employee who reports to the wrong manager or works on the wrong project or got left holding the bag when everyone else dodged responsibility. It never happened to me personally, but I saw it happen many times to others.
I came to understand that the high compensation in the private sector is not necessarily because of superior skill or work product, but to balance out the risk of losing your job for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with how well you do your work.
Absolutely true.
In the private sector, extroversion and playing the game is conflated with competence, while quieter but highly skilled hard workers are often not rewarded.
I have been extremely successful in the federal government in spite of not fitting that mold, and was able to advance by learning skills on the job, in spite of not having an advanced degree.
This happens in the government too. My first office would give awards out for special projects all the time. Sounds great, except the rest of the bunch who had to pick up that employee's regular work so that person had free time to work on the special project never got anything.
Anonymous
12/03/2025 20:59
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Pray tell what has Vought done that specifically addresses poor performance?
The dead wood is still here, they hang on because they know they won’t get hired anywhere else. The talented hardworking people have left.
I also work for a component that this administration very much wants to work hard and get a lot done. But they are also traumatizing us and morale is in the pits. So much winning…
So that means you are one of the deadwood, unable to get hired elsewhere. These are your words and your description of those still working for the feds.
that's not what they said. They said "the dead wood is still there." When people say this, that means that they consider, say, 5% of the workforce as "dead wood". I've seen it myself-- that 5% hasn't left. It's a lot of very top performers and very low performers stay and some of those in the middle take the DRP or VERA to see what else is out there.
Anonymous
12/03/2025 12:31
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Having spent more time in private industry that with the Feds, I have found this not to be the case at all.
Ditto. I spent roughly 2 decades in the private sector, including many years at a Fortune 500 company. I've now been in the federal government for about 3 years.
Merit is _fairly_ recognized and rewarded far more frequently in the government than in the private sector.
WRT "accountability" in the private sector - more often than not, the employee held "accountable" for poor performance is not the one who actually screwed up, but rather the employee who reports to the wrong manager or works on the wrong project or got left holding the bag when everyone else dodged responsibility. It never happened to me personally, but I saw it happen many times to others.
I came to understand that the high compensation in the private sector is not necessarily because of superior skill or work product, but to balance out the risk of losing your job for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with how well you do your work.
Absolutely true.
In the private sector, extroversion and playing the game is conflated with competence, while quieter but highly skilled hard workers are often not rewarded.
I have been extremely successful in the federal government in spite of not fitting that mold, and was able to advance by learning skills on the job, in spite of not having an advanced degree.
Anonymous
12/03/2025 06:43
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Having spent more time in private industry that with the Feds, I have found this not to be the case at all.
Ditto. I spent roughly 2 decades in the private sector, including many years at a Fortune 500 company. I've now been in the federal government for about 3 years.
Merit is _fairly_ recognized and rewarded far more frequently in the government than in the private sector.
WRT "accountability" in the private sector - more often than not, the employee held "accountable" for poor performance is not the one who actually screwed up, but rather the employee who reports to the wrong manager or works on the wrong project or got left holding the bag when everyone else dodged responsibility. It never happened to me personally, but I saw it happen many times to others.
I came to understand that the high compensation in the private sector is not necessarily because of superior skill or work product, but to balance out the risk of losing your job for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with how well you do your work.
Anonymous
12/02/2025 22:09
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Having spent more time in private industry that with the Feds, I have found this not to be the case at all.
Anonymous
12/02/2025 19:31
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
Pray tell what has Vought done that specifically addresses poor performance?
The dead wood is still here, they hang on because they know they won’t get hired anywhere else. The talented hardworking people have left.
I also work for a component that this administration very much wants to work hard and get a lot done. But they are also traumatizing us and morale is in the pits. So much winning…
So that means you are one of the deadwood, unable to get hired elsewhere. These are your words and your description of those still working for the feds.
Don't be an a$$ (NP). That is not what she said. Some people were unable to leave for a variety of reasons.
But, your simpleton conclusions is typical of MAGA.
Anonymous
12/02/2025 10:42
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
My DH supports the military and they are dying for people but unable to hire. They have the money, but no one to do the work.
Anonymous
12/01/2025 22:25
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Will there be a VERA in 2026?? That's all I want at this point.
Anyone hear anything about the possibility of VERA again next year?
Anonymous
12/01/2025 21:57
Subject: Vought wanted feds in trauma, that works for me
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vought wants to hold federal employees accountable for poor performance. For some federal employees, accountability is an alien concept, which they equate to trauma. However, in the real world (i.e., private sector), accountability is life and nothing new.
I'd like to hold Vought accountable for poor performance. Why hasn't he been fired yet?
+1. I've never seen a person mismanage OPM more than Vought. He should absolutely be booted, immediately.
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