Very low moral in the Federal Government, talked to my daughter last night that works at the CDC. She said everyone is scared to death about being fired. They spent yesterday and will spend most of today cleansing web sites of gender language, no more pregnant person and things like that while there is 3 new Ebola outbreaks. For the moment they have shut down all communication and work outside of the office. At least for her team and her teams focus are the countries of Ghana, Niger and Mozambique.
They have to write a justification letter that defends why their jobs should not be cut. I totally understand what the feds are doing but I hate it for my daughter, her dream has been to work for the CDC and Ebola since she was in the ninth grade. She has worked there for 14 months and her fellowship term of two years is over in October. Before then she can be fired without cause. I told her to show up early, stay late and do absolutely anything someone asks her to do. But a problem is the people that will write the recommendation letter is not on their team and they may never even meet the person..
That’s a long winded way of asking if any other federal employees see the same sort of things, low moral and the fear of being fired.
Ive talked to people working at multiple federal agencies over the last couple of weeks.. State Dept, FBI, VA, DIA, DOD, and a few others..
Low morale, despair, etc.. are widespread and rampant.. that said, the people that seem to be most upset and concerned are either clear DEI hires (not white, male, straight, middle aged, etc.. that are known to be poor to average performers at best.. that have been with their respective agencies for less than 5 years) or have been huge proponents of all the DEI crap (gender language, pregnant person, etc..etc..)..
Most of the people Im talking to (that are the opposite of what has been described above), are looking at the "Fork in the Road" email and giving serious consideration to their options.. most acknowledge that while they don't particularly like the way the email was worded, that whats being offered is a really good deal.. and they're also acknowledging that while they are understaffed in general, that they are overstaffed with people that don't actually do their jobs which makes things much worse.. if they can get rid of some dead weight, those left behind wont have to do their jobs and the jobs of the dead weight, and the jobs of the missing/unfilled positions.. they will just have to do their jobs and the unfilled jobs.. and things will actually get easier for them in time..
The way she needs to look at things (IMO) is... the last time there were 3 ebola outbreaks, people were busy adding gender language, pregnant person, etc to the federal websites.. they were equally distracted and just as poorly focused on the mission of their organization..
This transition period is going to suck... but its necessary.. ALL of our federal agencies need to get back to doing the things they are designed to do.. and need to get back to hiring the best possible people to perform those tasks as possible.. and stop all of the wasteful activities (like putting up gay pride flags at the US Embassy in Jerusalem) that take time, cost money, and pull focus away from their actual jobs..
Once all of the people creating the time suck and brain drain are gone (unfortunately Im sure some really good people will either quit or get laid off or fired in the process as well).. working at the CDC and other federal agencies should get much better...
Assuming she survives the night of the long knives that is surely coming to the CDC, the silver lining on that cloud is the job she has dreamed of since she was in the ninth grade will be BETTER than it would have been otherwise.. if she is a performer, that loves her work, is dedicated to the CDC mission, etc.. etc.. I think the CDC will be a much more fulfilling place to work.. where she wont have to worry about whether or not she "mis-gendered" someone, or be concerned about whether or not she has her pronouns in her LinkedIn profile, etc.. (all of the nonsense that's been going on in the fed govt for the last few years)..
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