And from the information I have, I believe they have a right to be.
With DOGe gaining access to all these federal systems, employees are now wondering if they are being monitored. They have no way to tell if they are or not. They’ve all rightfully become highly paranoid. With the tRump administration’s search for federal employees it deems disloyal to the president, they are afraid to say much electronically.
From CNN: Some government employees are now turning off their phones at home. Others are opting for in-person chats at work rather than over Microsoft Teams. Some have even gone so far as to buy special Faraday bags, designed to block electromagnetic signals, in order to thwart any potential snooping. A few are printing out their employee records, including performance reviews, just in case they are deleted or altered in the federal systems.
That’s a pretty major concern. They don’t know how much DOGe can see or what they have accessed. How can you be certain of your job with all that going on? And what’s to say there won’t be another round of firings if it’s deemed to not have cut enough positions in the first round? The firings were already baseless, just the employees who were still on probation, as they hadn’t been there a year. And so many positions were needed. They have hamstrung many, many programs with taking away personnel. The fallout from this is going to be enormous.
You don’t cut positions without knowing what they do. I’ve said this before and I’ll likely say it again. For example, the National Park system lost many people. This was everything from guides to the parks to firefighters. California just came out of some horrible wildfires. So now there are fewer people to fight those fires. It doesn’t make sense, does it? Let’s cut the people who fight those fires.
Actually, this whole mindset of cutting the people who have been with programs the least amount of time, are not necessarily the ones who should be cut. You need to look at the organizations THEN look at the numbers and make more informed decisions than “Okay just let everyone who has been there less than a year get cut”. But I guess that’s too much work and not as “efficient”.
The job market is in horrible shape. I’ve been looking for a year and a half, with only one nibble. Now we have many more people joining the ranks of the unemployed, Will they even be able to *find* a new job? We don’t know about their circumstances outside of their job. How much is that going to hurt people? Are they going to be able to collect unemployment? Will that choice be available? It’s not efficient, except for the people who need it.
So yea, federal employees are worried. With DOGe having their sticky fingers in everything federal, they certainly have a right to be. Even last year we wouldn’t have thought about something like this happening. Now we are. And that’s just sad.
******And now, please read a very special request from our awesome boss******
Friends, I am forced to self-promote and ask you for money. We had a bad year compared with 2023 and the end of the year has been catastrophic. Traffic died on November 5. We are a small blog and completely self-supporting by ad revenue, donations, and subscriptions. If you can afford a monthly subscription that would help us out. If you can make a small donation, likewise. Our only goal is to stay in business and give you the best content we can generate. You are the wind beneath our wings. Thank you. Ursula
In all fields, people who do the computer work usually have no knowledge whatsoever abut the material they are digitizing or even how to design it for the purposes of the users. I am sure these bozos have no fucking idea what they are doing to the systems, other than the particular purposes THEY have n mind, which has nothing to do with the work they were actually designed for.