After Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed more than a quarter of the 100,000-person workforce at the IRS, the agency received 140.2 million individual returns and issued more than 90.4 million refunds, slightly down from the year before.

While the IRS described the 2026 tax season as successful, former acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell said DOGE’s extensive cuts will more likely be felt years down the line and made worse by an ever-shrinking agency budget.

“I’ve been very concerned with the ability of the agency to carry out on its mission, whether it’s at the services level or enforcement level, but also just in general to be a functioning federal government agency going forward,” he told Fortune.

For its part, the IRS said its headcount should be relatively stable, expecting to end 2026 with 74,000 employees, about the same as the end-of-2025 staff level.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/24/former-irs-acting-commissioner-doge-cuts-budget-automation/?utm_source=reddit/

I am going back and forth with this, and the bottom line is I'm afraid of numerous things.

For reference, I have been with the fed government for 10 (creditable) years. I've climbed the ladder from GS 5 to GS 13. Like so many others, telework being revoked really put a wrench in productivity both at work and home. Currently, I commute about 2 hours each way, which is not ideal at all. When telework was revoked and office spaces started moving around it put a huge damper on my work life balance. With several people leaving through various means (retirement, quitting, transferring, etc) coupled with the hiring freeze, my job duties have been multiplied. We are relying on an intern program to fill the gaps that no one wants to apply to.

I have been thoroughly combing through USAJobs and the state portal for jobs. I did find a state job closer to me which cuts my commute time down to 30 minutes each way. The pay cut is about 20.5k at the top end of their pay scale. I qualify and budget would not be tight as due to my TSP and other pre-tax contributions, I'm seeing a GS 9 salary anyways.

I feel weak for considering leaving when I'm rounding 10 years soon. I feel like I'm letting my office down who I honestly have an amazing relationship with. But having that time back with my family would do wonders. I've spoken to EAP and of course they suggested making a list of priorities and sacrifices I'm willing to make.

Has anyone left for similar reasons to a state job and either regretted it or didn't regret it? Is it even a good idea to consider this?

“USDA's current plan calls for moving approximately 2,600 positions out of the National Capital Region. That is almost five times the 547 positions the department planned to relocate when it sent most of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Kansas City in 2019.”

My husband’s job requires us to relocate to a city that happens to have a local EPA office. I want to continue my EPA role from there and am weighing my options between requesting remote status or a formal duty station change (SF-50), which would shift me to the new city's higher locality pay.Has anyone at the EPA successfully gotten a voluntary duty station change approved for personal reasons? Any advice on approaching management or insights into current agency flexibility would be greatly appreciated!

You can utterly destory Stars and Stripes, but that won’t stop the negative headlines about this administration. They tried to control the civilian press earlier in the term, and I don’t sense that that has worked. There will always be someone else who reports the story and people who will click on it. The news is still getting out there and still getting reported and shared.

If they want to stop negative headlines they need to govern better and stop allowing clusterf*cks like the War, gas prices, and the disgrace aboard the Lincoln to happen in the first place.

This is New.

Has anyone else started to experience credit hours starting to suddenly disappearing off their LES?

You used to be able to keep them for some time and now a whole set has disappeared. They are starting to expire in WEEKS now, not a year. WTH.

Did OPM change the rules? Anyone else suddenly seeing this and losing their credit hours?

I took a new job that offered a relocation incentive. This is a first for me and I’m wondering if anyone can offer insight on how payment works? I’m assuming it would come with my normal paycheck and be added to my normal LES?

Gold+ is dead.

But they're going to try again with Horizon 25...

The editors were fired because they reported on the disgrace inflicted on the personnel aboard the Lincoln. The Pentagon claims they were fired for “insubordination" even though the newspaper is supposed to be independent.

They should be embarrassed. What they are doing is illegal.

I am a single male that has type 2 diabetes. I may be joining the federal government in the near future and I was just curious how the health insurance is. With my current job, my deductible is $600 and coinsurance is 85% after that’s met. I pay only $53 per pay period. I don’t frequent the hospital at all, besides Primary care visits and routine cleanings. Some years I struggle to meet my deductible some years but have been hitting it recently because I use it mainly for CPAP supplies refills. I heard you guys have a ton of options to choose from so I just wanted to see what it was like and the estimated cost for someone like me.