...how? In the worst job market in decades, mid recession, when people with 15 and 20 years of relevant experience are begging for work, and double digital percentages of the population are either unemployed or working below the poverty line.... how are they going to magically find work?

halfastros81 said:

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If they are competent they will find work.

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and they have a golden severance package. Learn to code.

Because competent people find a way to adapt and win. Maybe they have to make major adjustments ( retrain, open a business, take a job at less than their competence level, etc) and maybe it takes some time . How is that any different than anyone else ?

Industries ebb and flow and people have to change their plans and careers all the time. People can wring their hands about it or they can adjust and move on with the business of living their life.

Was on the Green side but wasn't there a RIF during Hussein's administration? Also remember civilians told to not come to work.

Capt. Augustus McCrae said:

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Ag_of_08 said:

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...how? In the worst job market in decades, mid recession, when people with 15 and 20 years of relevant experience are begging for work, and double digital percentages of the population are either unemployed or working below the poverty line.... how are they going to magically find work?

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Because skills and skillful people are always in high demand. In hard times, the best thrive. Be the best. You'll get hired.

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Another canned answer that was probably swiped from a radio talk show with no basis in reality.

If there are 100 jobs available and 1000 competent people, how will they all find jobs? 100 will, what about the 900? Start a business? No one is buying anything because of market conditions. Basic demand and supply.

This has not been planned out very well, to say the least. I am all for cutting government inefficiencies, but what this admin has done is just chop off the low-hanging fruit without assessing if it was ripe. This admin has just blanket-fired all employees on probationary status across multiple agencies. This pretty much consists of people that have been hired within the last year and people that have recently taken new positions/promotions. If your goal is to root out the lazy and incompetent government slugs (of which there are absolutely many), this does the exact opposite. These cuts have targeted the young, cheap, hungry workers as well as the workers with ambition to move into higher positions and not simply coast along. Which leaves you with a higher concentration of those lazy unmotivated slugs afterwards, now tasked with more work when they already weren't performing to begin with. That is just going to lead to government services that are more poorly administered than they already are.

Sims said:

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Ag_of_08 said:

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...how? In the worst job market in decades, mid recession, when people with 15 and 20 years of relevant experience are begging for work, and double digital percentages of the population are either unemployed or working below the poverty line.... how are they going to magically find work?

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Even though I don't accept the premise that competent people cant find jobs currently if they aren't completely inflexible in their requirements ie...(has to be 100% remote, has to be located in picturesque scenic valleys of idaho)... Let's say these hundreds of thousands of people don't find jobs...in the absence of other opportunity, should the federal government be a jobs program that provides no value to the citizenry other than wages?

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Not at HIGH pay. An interesting argument might be made that perhaps a system (not saying ours) might find it in their interest if they always did provide jobs in one form or another, at something just above subsistence level where the incentive to get more remains, but also is work of some kind and not a hand out. This may become a bigger issue in near future with the AI and automation trends. But that's another thread. Carry on.

Teslag said:

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I'm a federal worker. Voted for Trump. Took the buyout offer so have 8 months severance. Have a private gig starting in may that's hybrid work from home and better pay


Always have options.

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To quote the Catfish King, David Beard- " I didn't have nuthin when I started, and if I lose it all , then I'm back where I started".
To quote my accounting prof at Rice- " I lost a million then got it back several times".

Look at head coaches who become assistants after they are fired. Maybe work their way back, maybe not.
Can people not adapt? So what if you lose your car and big ass house, work to get it back. And don't be afraid to move!!

Anyone whose job relied on taxpayer dollars has a chance to be impacted. From federal employees to prime and subcontractors to university employees to service companies providing everything from janitorial services to consulting to any of the above industries.

If your paycheck ultimately is tied to tax dollars, you have a good chance of being impacted. If you didn't understand that in the campaign, I don't know how to help you.

I've been waiting for this forum to have buyers remorse (I don't have buyers remorse and never will) because A&M will be impacted for sure. The proposed 15% indirect rate from NIH is the beginning. Replicate that ID rate for every agency. A&M does maybe 750M$ of federally funded research every year. Going from 47% ID to 15% ID is a cost cut of almost $250M to A&M.

If you didn't understand these are the kinds of cuts to all people and organizations that depend on tax dollars then you weren't paying attention.

titan said:

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Sims said:

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Ag_of_08 said:

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...how? In the worst job market in decades, mid recession, when people with 15 and 20 years of relevant experience are begging for work, and double digital percentages of the population are either unemployed or working below the poverty line.... how are they going to magically find work?

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Even though I don't accept the premise that competent people cant find jobs currently if they aren't completely inflexible in their requirements ie...(has to be 100% remote, has to be located in picturesque scenic valleys of idaho)... Let's say these hundreds of thousands of people don't find jobs...in the absence of other opportunity, should the federal government be a jobs program that provides no value to the citizenry other than wages?

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Not at HIGH pay. An interesting argument might be made that perhaps a system (not saying ours) might find it in their interest if they always did provide jobs in one form or another, at something just above subsistence level where the incentive to get more remains, but also is work of some kind and not a hand out. This may become a bigger issue in near future with the AI and automation trends. But that's another thread. Carry on.

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Except that will just raise the poverty line and then in 10 years unions will start protesting for "livable wages" just like we see for minimum wage jobs now. The poor will always be among us. Unless you find a cure for scarcity, paying everyone a minimum wage of $1,000,000 would just move up the poverty line to $1,100,000.

Jobs programs don't work in the long run unless they are productive. Giving someone menial work and paying them a "subsistence" wage is bad for everyone in the long term, especially the person working the job. The only caveat here would be if these jobs were apprenticeships that were preparing them with the skills of a trade.

Poor analogies but I'll give it a go

Wake up one day and realize OMG I've got subscriptions to way too many streaming platforms and I'm about to lose my house. Cancel all hose platforms and once I can get my mortgage payments in line maybe I can add back a platform that was truly enriching my life.

Minus the rampant corruption, our national house is upside down and we are way past time for studied cutting at the margin. The people we've all trusted to operate our federal govt have been essentially corrupt but also incompetent, so a reboot is the only path.


People complaining should take a very hard look in the mirror at the absolute abuse of their organizations responsibility to the US taxpayer.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Wait. The people who have been working from home for 5 years are entitled?! NOOOOOOOO!

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If you can do your job in DC from home, then somebody living in a less expensive place, in the US, can also do it. That is not job security.

halfastros81 said:

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If they are competent they will find work.

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If they were competent they'd have known to take the 8 months paid vacation offer and gone out to find work.

No private employer is loyal to its employees.
No reason for the government to be different.
Always look out for yourself.

And massive layoffs in the private sector are certainly coming....get ready.