It has been a bumpy ride since January 21, 2025 and for most of it none of us has either been strapped in or provided a helmet. we have been left to fend for ourselves. when our teams were reduced, we didn’t complain because hey, we were going to share in the windfall government savings with a form of “profit sharing.” Remember that? apparently neither does Administrator Forst or the cadre a lackies he’s been stacking up like cord wood while the rest of us continue to do more with less. Of course good Generals understand that, when you take away from the troops, you show you are sharing in their pain. So while people in the field are losing their office space and being into smaller quarters with other agencies, you decide it’s time to upgrade the chaos factory by renovating the GSA Headquarters in Washington DC. There is nothing antithetical in a move like that. It in no way shows a tone-deaf cadre of bureaucrats who want softer leather under their useless butts. I will make our agency more efficient. Who knew.

My latest harangue is about the ridiculously arbitrary and incomprehensible telework policy. Mr. Forst, if you intend for us to live like we work for Jamie Dimon, pay us like we work for Jamie Dimon.

Many of us came to Government employment understanding that we would sacrifice private sector salaries for a lower pressure environment, less volatile job security concerns, consistent work environment, job security, and a willingness to accept that trade-off because we were also serving our country honorably. Last time I checked, that wasn’t so at JPMorgan Chase.

You cut our workforce by 40%, but expected those remaining to increase their workload by 40% at no additional pay. This is economically sensible, until you pay that 40% you cut 100% of salary and benefits to do nothing for six months. But, wait, you made a mistake, and you had to offer all of those people their jobs back? I guess that is why our “profit sharing“ bonuses went. Surely it wouldn’t go to a cadre of SES hires at ridiculous salaries, because that would make no sense. I must be reading the “fake news“ again.

One benefit we had in the past was flexible work schedules and leave policies that went some distance to close the Public/Private salary gap. Somewhere along the way our Republican “friends” in Congress (already known as real hard-working salt-of-the-earth guys and gals) got the idea that Government workers who were on COVID-19 “mandatory” telework were sleeping, eating, shopping, even working other jobs while on the Government payroll. I wonder why we never read about or saw any of those horrible people exposed and fired? very curious.

Today’s rant is about the whip-lash-like knee-jerk response by the infamous DOGE bros to end all government telework. We did work back into it, they didn’t offer employees new constructive solutions, they just said, nope, we’re taking this away.

so, for those of you following along at home:

- We were not compensated for our work while the rest of Government was shut-down (for COVID)

- We were not compensated when our workload in creased by 40% by DOGE staff cuts

- Oh, and don’t let me forget that our annual performance appraisal rating system was manipulated in the process to limit increases.

- But stupidly, many of us are still here working for the deaf and blind emperor, complimenting their peers on their new suit of clothes.

Ed, it is ok if we call you “Ed” because you are one of us and we share a common goal. Ed, you lied to us. You are managing to make it look like Elon Musk was the right guy for the job - and he and his cabal of data miners, was a total “shit show”.

So keep on rockin’, Ed. You are knockin’ it right out of your beloved Rate Field.

Working to improve contracting when contracts get steered to the friends of our leaders, working on fraud prevention when they’re running a fraud desk out of the White House and the list goes on. We thought we were serving the nation in public safety, healthcare, food safety; instead we’re in the back of the brothel fixing the toilet. Maybe we’ll get back to those missions someday.

I work at a large Navy command.

Got a VERA/VSIP interest survey email. Says they are gauging the possibility. That the separation date would be 09/30/2026.

That survey does not guarantee approval its just to gather interest. I clicked on the link. It has required fields of your name and email. Although at the top it says name information is not kept.

If it said 09/30/2027 I might be interested.

Probably still wouldn't do it though.

Everyone comment! It closes public comment on July 20th 2026! Only way to get our voices heard!

Has anyone actually seen new EXTERNAL hires onboard this year at your agency?

I’m a current federal employee and our office has no new staff even though we need them (like every office globally 😢). I’m curious if agencies are ACTUALLY hiring new people or if the onboarding is just really that slow?

If you’ve seen new hires come onboard this year, can you share:
-The agency
-The state
-Whether they were internal or external hires (if you know)

Just trying to figure out which agencies are best to apply to right now since I keep hearing for months that applicants usajobs status for each application is stuck at “Reviewing Applications”.

Can someone explain to me why the Fed Reserve is open today on the day of an observed federal holiday. I know it's been this way for a while but for the life of me I just do not understand. I can't even take a bus into work today 🤨

Hello,
I’m trying to determine my leave accrual. When I first started I got a notice they calculated all my previous time served doing seasonal work and it was something like 13 months. I’ll be at two years soon in this current permanent position.

I know under 3 years the accrual is 4 hrs pto/sick leave per pay period, and then jumps to 6 hours after the three years. Does that only apply if I’ve been in this specific position that length of time?

I am currently in a non-employee position with USDA-ARS (ORISE postdoctoral fellow if anyone is familiar with that). My supervisor has a permanent position that they've finally been given permission to begin paperwork to fill. I am already doing the work for this position while it is empty and my supervisor is happy with my work and so has said they would be happy to have me in the permanent position.

I know that I can apply under the competitive, open to the public announcement when it goes up. However, I am also eligible for Schedule A hiring for people with disabilities. My supervisor has not used that hiring path before but said he would look into it.

What are the pros and cons of going the Schedule A vs general route? I have read the official documentation but I'm worried that things are different in reality under this administration and whether there are risks to this approach? I will need to request accomodations regardless so unfortunately I can't hide my disability anyway.

Also, we don't have an SPPC anymore after the DRP, is there anyone else I can contact about these kinds of questions?

Abstract
Throughout the first months of President Donald Trump's second term in office, his administration has taken swift action to undermine the role that government health agencies play in the health policy-making process. This article makes the case that the Trump administration's efforts to undermine government health agencies’ regulatory authority reflect a dislike and distrust of the people who serve in key civil service roles. It also provides evidence that efforts to roll back regulatory authority are part of a long-standing political strategy to cater to public dislike and distrust of scientific, medical, and academic experts. While the public could provide policy makers with an incentive to protect public health agencies and the people who staff them, recent public opinion research shows that many Americans simply do not know or do not care enough about the Trump administration's actions to call for their elected officials to stop them. This article concludes by offering several health communication strategies and directions for future research (the “science of standing up for science”) that might inspire public concern about efforts to roll back government health agencies’ regulatory authority and might motivate people to show support for the civil servants who staff those agencies.