Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many long term feds qualify for a year of severance pay? That will be yet another huge expense.

I'm sure all the landlords locally will love not being paid until they have to get the sheriff involved.

Government does not give severance pay. And private industry is already cutting back jobs.

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/severance-pay/

I suspect they’d be able to get around this by reclassifying the jobs as schedule F

DOES he congress to move jobs?

we have to understand that getting rid of deadweight feds is a good thing for the country, agency, and also high performers who wants to move up but can't. It is sad when a crappy senior guy takes the position but don't do anything and we have to hire a few contractors to take care of his work.

Anonymous wrote:Quick ways for the federal government to save money:

Establish a windfall elimination program for those receiving military disability benefits who are also gainfully employed. Stop the double dipping since almost everyone who has served in the military is some percentage disabled these days and those payments are huge.

Scrutinize SSDI and remove those off the program who are able to work. Too many rural areas rely on SSDI as income due to lack of opportunities but that’s not why that program exists.

Implement those two very controversial plans and the government could save trillions.

Those are really good ideas. I know plenty of veteran double dippers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:people in my agency have $30k taxpayer scooters so they can go back and forth between their office and the bathroom. It’s completely laughable how bad it’s gotten and Elon hasn’t even seen half of it.

So you are angry that disabled people have reasonable accommodations so they can be employed? You know how much more they would cost taxpayers by not working?

They don't realize most of them are disabled veterans. We all know Trump hates those suckers.

Anonymous wrote:people in my agency have $30k taxpayer scooters so they can go back and forth between their office and the bathroom. It’s completely laughable how bad it’s gotten and Elon hasn’t even seen half of it.

I do not believe that for 1 second. $30k? no way.

Quick ways for the federal government to save money:

Establish a windfall elimination program for those receiving military disability benefits who are also gainfully employed. Stop the double dipping since almost everyone who has served in the military is some percentage disabled these days and those payments are huge.

Scrutinize SSDI and remove those off the program who are able to work. Too many rural areas rely on SSDI as income due to lack of opportunities but that’s not why that program exists.

Implement those two very controversial plans and the government could save trillions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think they’re going to do a lot, honestly. Elon musk is just a blowhard. If they had a real plan for huge cuts without chaos that would amount to political suicide, they would have done it. It’s the same as “repeal and replace.”

No chaos when they replace Fed jobs with contractors.

Then get a job with a contractor.

Trump is smarting over people like Fauci. Not the GS-13 in the corner cubicle.

So what's more likely is something like NIH IC directors will have term limits. No one can be in that position for nearly 40 years as Fauci was. Maybe he'll seek to have SES positions have term limits. Not an entirely bad idea -- new energy, new ideas (my last SES director was in the position for almost 30 years and stayed way too long at the party, phoning it in for the last ten years at least).

Even RTO won't happen overnight, with practicalities to consider, such as offices who gave up their space.

Anonymous wrote:Best thing is to start planning for the worst now. Brush up your resume and LinkedIn accounts. Start looking at what might be available in your sector in private companies.
You should also do what you can to put some additional savings away.

I have been part of a reorganization work jobs were lost x3 in the private sector. I didn’t have any time to prepare, it was announced at a regular staff meeting. You have time now, use it wisely.

I think this is correct. I've let a couple neighbors know I'm open to opportunities and will be working on a non-federal resume soon so I can apply to contracting firms if necessary (haven't needed one in almost a decade).

I hope it's not foolhardy to say this, but I don't want to start actively searching and jump too early if there's a good chance of keeping my job, I'm exactly where I want to be right now and would rather be forced out than leave voluntarily. I'd have a 2 hour commute each way if my job got moved back to DC, and I think I'd even try to tough that out for a few years rather than jump.

More savings is a good idea too, although I don't know if that means "keep extra $ in the bank account rather than taking a big vacation this year," or "cut back to the level of absolute necessities," might be tough on the kids to cut 100% of discretionary spending ASAP (no extracurriculars, Xmas gifts, etcs) when we still have jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump doesn’t want to ever print a negative jobs number…my guess is not filling open positions, having a certain amount of attrition if they mandate RTO and other accounting gimmicks may get you to a massive headline number.

Having government layoffs turn jobs negative isn’t something that will fly.

Also, how will any of this help with inflation or housing costs, etc?

Honestly, nobody cares about budget deficits because they never translate into anything that actually directly impacts anyone.

Of course they translate. The federal government spends more of US GDP servicing debt payments than it does on defense. As the debt grows from borrowing a larger percentage of our GDP will be spent paying that debt, assuming countries even want our debt at a certain point. And more borrowing will push interest rates higher, which will make buying a house with a mortgage more expensive.

Then cut Medicare if you’re so bothered

Why Medicare? Why cut a program that benefits the most vulnerable populations in the United States? Fiscal discipline benefits everyone, because we all pay literally for a lack of fiscal discipline. We are paying now and will continue to pay in the future.

I would let the tax cuts expire and as it relates to federal employees, I would treat them like employees in every other sector and require RTO/hybrid and sell real estate that isn’t needed.

Because Medicare and Social Security are the reason the US keeps going further into debt. Discretionary spending (i.e., basically everything else) has been effectively FLAT for nearly two decades. As a portion of GDP, we are spending less than ever on it.

This is not about “fiscal discipline.” The Republican party just uses that concept as window dressing for their actual goal of eliminating programs they don’t like.

Best thing is to start planning for the worst now. Brush up your resume and LinkedIn accounts. Start looking at what might be available in your sector in private companies.
You should also do what you can to put some additional savings away.

I have been part of a reorganization work jobs were lost x3 in the private sector. I didn’t have any time to prepare, it was announced at a regular staff meeting. You have time now, use it wisely.

Anonymous wrote:people in my agency have $30k taxpayer scooters so they can go back and forth between their office and the bathroom. It’s completely laughable how bad it’s gotten and Elon hasn’t even seen half of it.

Same thing with a guy in my office who became disabled fighting in Iraq. What a lazy a*hole! I hope Elon fires him first!

Anonymous wrote:people in my agency have $30k taxpayer scooters so they can go back and forth between their office and the bathroom. It’s completely laughable how bad it’s gotten and Elon hasn’t even seen half of it.

So you are angry that disabled people have reasonable accommodations so they can be employed? You know how much more they would cost taxpayers by not working?

Anonymous wrote:Look, Trump said he’s going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Do you think that will happen? He says a lot of sh*t.

That he will allow the Russians to crush Ukraine? Absolutely.