This could get interesting

[Clem72]

What are you talking about? Do you not know how bloated our federal government is and here's millions of people sitting around on their ass on our dime doing makework bullshit? Holding innumerable meetings and creating task forces to "look into things"?

Every time I see some bureaucrat all - "Oh we've empaneled a commission to investigate the situation....." MFer, you run the ****ing thing! You should know it inside and out and not have to hire a bunch of new people to do your damn job! Then the job STILL doesn't get done, it just gets memory holed and that commission is still on the payroll while Mr. Bureaucrat power lunches with lobbyists and elected officials to keep the gravy train on track.

Federal government isn't supposed to be this Rube Goldberg behemoth. United States. United STATES. STATES. UNITED. Get it? All this sht the Fed has created - programs for this and that, Dept of blah blah blah - should be eliminated or kicked back to the states. That way it's close to home and someone can keep an eye on it instead of funneling money nobody knows where it goes and having obsolete departments nobody knows what they do.

If you want to pay for that sht you go right ahead - cut a check. Start a GoFundMe. Have a bake sale. But I don't. And apparently most people don't, either, because Trump won.

How are you this ****ing stupid? No, really. I genuinely want to know.

I don't doubt there are bloated agencies and bad bureaucrats, but I can only speak to the 32 years of experience I had working for various department of defense agencies and in my experience we were never fully staffed. Never had enough people to perform the work necessary. Yes, some processes were overbearing and seemed designed to slow us down, mostly related to contracting, division of money, and segmenting work to keep people without a "need to know" from getting the full picture, but unfortunately those processes are necessary to keep people honest and to make it difficult for our enemies to gain Intel.

Unfortunately this trimming of the fat isn't being done surgically, it's being done in an alley and without anesthesia. Designed to hurt as much as help.

 

[vraiblonde]

$100K salary = $67K buyout (before taxes and other deductions)

See, if I were a federal drone I wouldn't take that deal. Being me, I'd take it and start one of my dream small businesses, but most federal workers don't have an entrepreneurial spirit or they wouldn't be fed workers to begin with. Some might get all excited about $67k, but the smarter ones will realize that doesn't go very far and now they're going to have to find another job.

 

[vraiblonde]

Never had enough people to perform the work necessary.

That's because you had too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Oversight and budget realignment would go a long way toward fixing that.

 

[OccamsRazor]

See, if I were a federal drone I wouldn't take that deal. Being me, I'd take it and start one of my dream small businesses, but most federal workers don't have an entrepreneurial spirit or they wouldn't be fed workers to begin with. Some might get all excited about $67k, but the smarter ones will realize that doesn't go very far and now they're going to have to find another job.

Agree for the most part BUT, for those who were already eligible and planning on retirement, that's some decent "walkin' out the door" money in addition to their pension and other benefits.

 

[vraiblonde]

Agree for the most part BUT, for those who were already eligible and planning on retirement, that's some decent "walkin' out the door" money in addition to their pension and other benefits.

What percent of the federal workforce do you think that is?

 

[Clem72]

8 months of pay (and benefits) to sit on their butts and do nothing OR to take into early retirement OR to even collect while working another job.
Still better than working every single day until retirement date and just collecting your retirement pay. Essentially, 8 months of free money and benefits IN ADDITION to their retirement pensions and benefits.
$100K salary = $67K buyout (before taxes and other deductions)

So you guys didn't read the actual e-mail (why not, it's all over the internet) or the OPM memo/fact sheet?

It's not a buyout despite early headlines. It's an agreement that if you opt for a deferred resignation for the last day of the fiscal year you will be exempted from the return to in person work requirements.

That's it. Keep doing your job, keep getting paid, until the end of the fiscal year.

The only people likely to take the offer are those who were already planning to resign or were on the fence because they cannot or do not want to work in person. But again, they will still keep doing their jobs (in as much as they were before) remotely until the end of the fiscal year.

There's no VSIP/VERA/Buyout. That would actually get a LOT more people to leave and would actually shrink the government because billets that get VSIP/VERA are removed, they don't get to be filled by new people (the point being that the job is no longer necessary, which is why they are offered a bonus to vacate the job).

 

[stgislander]

Unfortunately this trimming of the fat isn't being done surgically, it's being done in an alley and without anesthesia. Designed to hurt as much as help.

But from the outside looking in, trimming it surgically never got done. People in Nov decided to do it in an alley without anesthesia. Cut it now and bring back only what's needed.

 

[phreddyp]

No, he’s actively destroying institutional knowledge.

The most experienced folks, talented ones, will take this offer and be bought by the highest Raytheon bidder. The rest will vacillate under a hiring freeze of managers and things will slowly get worse, as they have since 2016.

Government workers are you kidding me ! Not on their best days ever LOL.

 

[OccamsRazor]

So you guys didn't read the actual e-mail (why not, it's all over the internet) or the OPM memo/fact sheet?

Keep doing your job, keep getting paid, until the end of the fiscal year.

I think you need to re-read it......

 

[BOP]

Gilligan offered me a buyout. Two-weeks severance pay and an Arby's BOGO coupon.


I'm seriously considering it.

Hold out for the coupon for a turkey at Giant coupon at Thanksgiving.

That is literally what one new Ford dealership gave us for an end-of-year bonus for our parts in standing up said dealership. I know for a fact that everyone in the service department busted their humps to make it work.

I gave mine to a charity.

 

[stgislander]

I gave mine to a charity.

That's what we normally do with the multiple turkeys we get around TG with our Weis points.

 

[LtownTaxpayer]

I would guess genetics, but I don’t think nature is that evil.

I think it is methane poisoning - a direct result of having ones head inserted into ones posterior.

 

[Sneakers]

That's what we normally do with the multiple turkeys we get around TG with our Weis points.

Same. When I was working, my ex, myself and my dad all got turkeys from the same company. One year we didn't use 2 of them and still had them in the freezer next holiday. From then on, gave away all but one.

 

[LtownTaxpayer]

So you guys didn't read the actual e-mail (why not, it's all over the internet) or the OPM memo/fact sheet?

It's not a buyout despite early headlines. It's an agreement that if you opt for a deferred resignation for the last day of the fiscal year you will be exempted from the return to in person work requirements.

That's it. Keep doing your job, keep getting paid, until the end of the fiscal year.

The only people likely to take the offer are those who were already planning to resign or were on the fence because they cannot or do not want to work in person. But again, they will still keep doing their jobs (in as much as they were before) remotely until the end of the fiscal year.

There's no VSIP/VERA/Buyout. That would actually get a LOT more people to leave and would actually shrink the government because billets that get VSIP/VERA are removed, they don't get to be filled by new people (the point being that the job is no longer necessary, which is why they are offered a bonus to vacate the job).

The deferred resignation is really only for people who were working from home, and it really is a deferred resignation. If you leave before the end of the fiscal year, your pay ends. There is not big payment. And it isn't available to everyone. Those excepted include military personnel of the armed forces, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, and those in any other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency. I'm thinking anyone holding a high level security clearance are not included. But they probably weren't working at home.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

FYI if you resign you don't keep your healthcare into retirement.

 

[LtownTaxpayer]

FYI if you resign you don't keep your healthcare into retirement.

And if you take an deferred retirement (people who get out at 57 with between 10 and 30 years of service), you also don't keep your health insurance.

 

[Tech]

FYI if you resign you don't keep your healthcare into retirement.

Because you didn't retire.

 

[LtownTaxpayer]

Because you didn't retire.

Actually if you work five years or more for the federal government, you are eligible for retirement. You can apply for it later.

 

[OccamsRazor]

And if you take an deferred retirement (people who get out at 57 with between 10 and 30 years of service), you also don't keep your health insurance.

For clarification... once you reach 30+ years, you are entitled to full retirement.

 

[SamSpade]

There’s no cash. It’s just the right to work from home until the day you officially retire. That’s it.

It does however, grant TIME for those considering their options. My best friend at work has been working remotely from Pennsylvania because his parents are gravely ill, need assistance and can’t afford to pay someone. I suspect he MIGHT consider it, though he’s not close to retirement age.