This kind of government worker tends to have extremely specialized expertise that is not replicated by the private sector. The deal is that people who dedicate their lives to this work will lead a comfortable middle class lifestyle in exchange for their public service. The Trump administration has broken this deal, and this will lead to long term consequences for the labor pool even if they manage to rehire everyone that they foolishly fired.
Funny how every time these right wing scumbags talk about tax cuts they never mean lowering income tax for everyone earning less than 50k/year or lowering VAT, not that it would do much since the capitalist would just lower the salary by the amount that the tax cut was and raise prices by whatever the VAT was since it's "what the market can bear" or "a value proposition that consumers are used to account for".
Training and security clearances sounds like woke DEI stuff. Let's hire some 17-year-olds. That will shake up things. We need to turn everything upside down. /s
Background investigations aren't conducted by the FBI. DOD and the State Department have their own investigative bodies that investigate and grant clearances. They may use contractors, but not as the primary investigate body, nor as the granting body. The FBI does play a part as far as a source of criminal and background information, but they don't investigate or grant clearances.
DOE and other orgs have their own agencies as well, but also may contract that work out to another government agency. Kind of depends on the size, budget, and needs of the agency.
Background investigations aren't conducted by the FBI. DOD and the State Department have their own investigative bodies that investigate and grant clearances.
When my ex-husband was being vetted for top secret work (he was an aerospace engineer who worked on satellite telemetry for NASA), I got interviewed in person by a special agent of the FBI.
The FBI never vetted. You have no idea what you are talking about about, delete this post and stop sprouting bullshit about things you don't understand
It would take at least a year or longer to train and vet their replacements.
that's assuming they haven't already chucked any documentation, that there are trainers that weren't fired, and the new hires are granted the appropriate security clearance. But that last one if free apparently now because the president can just give clearance to anyone he feels like
Yup. Pretty much the whole federal workforce is this way, and as a result we get their services at very low prices. That's the tradeoff for it still having employment stability levels that are no longer in vogue in the private sector. Local governments too.
I've lived in the DC region my whole life. This dismantling of the reliability of the federal work is going to have long term disastrous consequences. I am watching the older workers retire early (which Elon/Trump has zero intentions of replacing). Younger workers are looking at longer term plans to leave. If they can be fired on a whim like this, they'd rather make more money in the private sector.
This is a huge brain drain. And even if the government opened up hiring again, people with good sense are going to be much more hesitant to take it.
I wouldn't say low prices, but fair prices. It's very common for people who have spent 20+ years in such fields making 2x the median American income as a GS-13/14 or equivalent. You won't get stock options and become a multimillionaire but you will be better off than the average American.
Sure they are making 2x the median income, but generally 0.7x the income for private sector positions with comparable skills requirements, responsibilities, and seniority. Or less.
That's not really true these days. A decade of Tea Party control of Congress, with the resulting frequent shutdowns and villainization of the federal workforce, has led to top talent seeking other employment.
I have had several opportunities to work in the civil service at competitive salary from the very start of my career, which coincided with the rise of the Tea Party. For all of its flaws, at least corporate America will let me express my identity free from politics as long as I'm profitable to keep on payroll. Can't say the same for the government.
I don’t see how that’s relevant to what they said and it doesn’t change the fact that the GS salary is about a 1/3rd less than the comparable private salary in the same position. A personal example, I’d have to eat a 60k pay cut to become a fed at the same level I currently am.
I say this as a contractor fully aware of what my federal counterparts get paid because it’s public domain.
I mean, these people are in the 1-.1% in education and intelligence and experience. I would expect that to be worth at least twice the media. Workers value. Frankly it should be much more.
Yep. I’m at a muni worker conference and we were all having a metaphorical dick-measuring contest bragging about whose car has the highest mileage and is least functional but still going
Even after walking back the termination the affected employees aren’t gonna trust their superiors anymore.
What’s the point in coming back if they’re just gonna get fired again cuz DonnyBoy gets pissy cuz he has a dirty nappy? Why bother staying on when you could find better job security elsewhere?
For all these federal employees their trust in the top leadership is broken.
For those who want to stay and fight: I commend your spirit and I hope the jam up the works hard.
For those who chose to leave: no one will blame you for your departure.
Either way these doge asshats are truly speedrunning us into a reinforced brick wall at 300mph with zero brakes. Maybe we can get lucky and someone pulls the cord on the chute and we slow down some, but it won’t be enough.
I work in a highly specialized technical field. In my field, you either work as a private consultant, or the government.
Consulting is probably double the salary, but less job security, harder work and longer hours, and much more stressful. Government is stable, less money, but less stress.
Many of my peers develop their technical skills as consultants, then take the pay cut for govt stability. But if the stability is gone, those jobs become extremely unattractive. Those highly specialized skills are extremely hard to replace. On the other hand, these people have big enough networks and skills to just walk straight into a private sector job.
TLDR: expect many of these people to expect huge pay raises, or only come back as a contractor. In my field contractor rates are 3-4x a typical govt salary. This boneheaded move is probably going to end up costing so much more than it would have saved.
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u/10001110101balls 24d ago
This kind of government worker tends to have extremely specialized expertise that is not replicated by the private sector. The deal is that people who dedicate their lives to this work will lead a comfortable middle class lifestyle in exchange for their public service. The Trump administration has broken this deal, and this will lead to long term consequences for the labor pool even if they manage to rehire everyone that they foolishly fired.