I work for large federal employee labor union. We told employees to disregard this ridiculous missive and to not, under any circumstances, resign. They are protected by collective bargaining agreements that cannot be undone at the whim of a lunatic. Moreover, the process for authorizing buyouts comes with regulations and takes time. It has not been done in this case. This is just an attempt to see how many scared employees bite on this putrid bait.
“Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10 percent of them, then you didn’t delete enough.”
That sounds like something a fucking moron would say.
The Musk is a polluter of Texas land, communities, and waters. I vote we stage an event at Boca Chica and launch him and his bestie into space. Melania won't miss Felon 47. Heck, maybe we can stuff the Vance into the rocket. And maybe it won't blow up. Little bits of greedy people floating in the Gulf of MEXICO sounds revolting.
Feds are being told not to share info and are being kept in the dark, but I'm a retired fed so nope. As a former contracting officer, I go immediately to 2 questions: 1. Is this legal? Show me the authority. 2. Show me the process and my rights under than process. (you could consider that the terms and conditions of the offer) That plan for retiring was so well laid out that it took a couple of days to get through the full process. clearance release, security debriefs, etc, and know exactly how this major life decision would affect my future. Here are some questions every Fed should be asking: I highly suggest BEFORE responding with "Resign" and hitting Send to an email that only says you'll "be paid not to work through September 30, 2025" that you get answers to these questions...
▶️Will my health, vision, and dental insurance continue thru the payment period or what is the cutoff date?
▶️What happens to my retirement contributions -- can I ask for my FERS employee portion back or can I still defer and leave it in case I come back as a Fed later?
▶️What happens to my TSP? Will I still get the auto 1%, matching, and/or auto deductions made? Will contributions still come out of my pay thru September? What if I have a TSP loan?
▶️Will state taxes still be taken out? Same with social security (OSDI) payments?
▶️Will life insurance or long-term care insurance benefits during the "deferred resignation" period? Am I still covered or not?
▶️Will I retain my career status with reemployment rights for future Federal positions I might want to apply for down the road?
▶️Will I continue to accrue leave (sick and annual) since I'll technically be in a "paid" status? When will I receive my annual leave pay out?
▶️What happens to my unused sick leave since that's usually counted toward service credit at retirement?
▶️What is the effective date of this resignation if I do select it?
▶️Am I waiving any rights to a future class action suit if I resign?
▶️Am I waiving rights to future Federal employment?
▶️Am I agreeing to any NDA or other agreement in resigning?
▶️How do I outprocess (i.e., turn in equipment, badge, etc.)?
▶️Am I waiving severance payments if I become employed before the payments are complete?
▶️Have I had this reviewed by a trusted LABOR ATTORNEY knowledgeable in Federal labor law?
I worry that my former colleagues will take the bait and never see the pay out or admin leave that's being promised and if they resign, they'll have no recourse. This is haphazard at best. Maybe there should be a FOIA asking if Elon or others in the DOGE have REITs in some of these Govt buildings where employees are being RTO'd.
Well, yes, but none of this is terribly surprising, given the general tendencies of bourgeois habits of thought (shared by both Trump and Musk [I should copyright that one for a cologne: "Trump/Musk"]) about cost-cutting, what we've already seen of Trump's lack of imagination and laziness, and what I think is a pretty typical bit of social behaviour about "courtiers" surrounding and "manipulating" the "royal" center (to a greater or lesser degree depending on the personality of the royalty).
I'm not a passive reader. Please, if you're a passive reader, I urge you to do something with the information you get from Substack writers such as Ken Klippenstein, Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell, and Heather Cox-Richardson. These people (and others) are working their asses off and doing their part to protect our democracy, and we should too! Please call your senators today, using this script (below). TIP: Input all your elected officials' phone numbers and email addresses into your contact list so you can quickly contact them to complain/compliment. Their contact info is here:
"Hi, my name is [Your Name], and I’m urging [Senator’s Name] to fight Elon Musk and Trump’s illegal funding freezes and cuts. I urge [Senator] to use every tool available to prevent the Senate from conducting business as usual, including:
Opposing all Trump administration nominees
Denying any requests for Unanimous Consent
Opposing all Cloture Votes
Requesting a Quorum Call at every possible opportunity
I also recommend including your place of residence and/or the name of your district so that the official knows you're a constituent and not just some rando.
Why the request to "prevent the Senate from conducting business as usual" specifically? Requesting "Shutting down the Senate" seems a bit anti-democratic at minimum, what's the strategy there?
A friend who's a fed employee sent me a msg about what's happening in their agency and it is so much worse than I thought.
It's not just that the Trump administration is breaking shit.
They're literally building their own dark infrastructure inside the one that exists. They brought their own personnel, yes -- personnel who aren't even being cleared. They just come straight from Heritage or Musk, and they're setting up shop. They're bringing their own servers - so there are no communications that can be traced through 'the system.' This goes against every rule. They're all going through their own offline channels.
That's what all that stuff about the meta data on those memos is about. No trace back to the WH.
The Heritagers + Muskovites have purged all the senior folks and sending memos in the name of powerless juniors who remain.
I don't want to sound alarmist but it's literally like those movies about evil fuckers taking over. It's another Jan 6 but with memos and communiques vs guns.
My former colleagues tell me that some of the leaders who were standing firm to protect their employees have been passed over and much lower-level people have been put in charge and are sending these missives to their workforce. It's not that those are "powerless" junior people--just spineless. It's easy to say you have principles until you have to prove it.
I work for large federal employee labor union. We told employees to disregard this ridiculous missive and to not, under any circumstances, resign. They are protected by collective bargaining agreements that cannot be undone at the whim of a lunatic. Moreover, the process for authorizing buyouts comes with regulations and takes time. It has not been done in this case. This is just an attempt to see how many scared employees bite on this putrid bait.
Yup, totally.
Ken, if you need any insights in this context, DM me.
Don't take the bait.
Federal workers matter.
Watch them struggle to implement this outrageousness. They have no idea how.
King James sponsored Shakespeare.
The Medici Popes sponsored Michelangelo.
Elon pays someone to build a giant fork.
Oh, okay, I can't resist. Fork him!
“Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10 percent of them, then you didn’t delete enough.”
That sounds like something a fucking moron would say.
Awe how cute. Musk's first time dealing with Union employees and in a situation where he doesn't own the company. Fork off pal!
The Musk is a polluter of Texas land, communities, and waters. I vote we stage an event at Boca Chica and launch him and his bestie into space. Melania won't miss Felon 47. Heck, maybe we can stuff the Vance into the rocket. And maybe it won't blow up. Little bits of greedy people floating in the Gulf of MEXICO sounds revolting.
Feds are being told not to share info and are being kept in the dark, but I'm a retired fed so nope. As a former contracting officer, I go immediately to 2 questions: 1. Is this legal? Show me the authority. 2. Show me the process and my rights under than process. (you could consider that the terms and conditions of the offer) That plan for retiring was so well laid out that it took a couple of days to get through the full process. clearance release, security debriefs, etc, and know exactly how this major life decision would affect my future. Here are some questions every Fed should be asking: I highly suggest BEFORE responding with "Resign" and hitting Send to an email that only says you'll "be paid not to work through September 30, 2025" that you get answers to these questions...
▶️Will my health, vision, and dental insurance continue thru the payment period or what is the cutoff date?
▶️What happens to my retirement contributions -- can I ask for my FERS employee portion back or can I still defer and leave it in case I come back as a Fed later?
▶️What happens to my TSP? Will I still get the auto 1%, matching, and/or auto deductions made? Will contributions still come out of my pay thru September? What if I have a TSP loan?
▶️Will state taxes still be taken out? Same with social security (OSDI) payments?
▶️Will life insurance or long-term care insurance benefits during the "deferred resignation" period? Am I still covered or not?
▶️Will I retain my career status with reemployment rights for future Federal positions I might want to apply for down the road?
▶️Will I continue to accrue leave (sick and annual) since I'll technically be in a "paid" status? When will I receive my annual leave pay out?
▶️What happens to my unused sick leave since that's usually counted toward service credit at retirement?
▶️What is the effective date of this resignation if I do select it?
▶️Am I waiving any rights to a future class action suit if I resign?
▶️Am I waiving rights to future Federal employment?
▶️Am I agreeing to any NDA or other agreement in resigning?
▶️How do I outprocess (i.e., turn in equipment, badge, etc.)?
▶️Am I waiving severance payments if I become employed before the payments are complete?
▶️Have I had this reviewed by a trusted LABOR ATTORNEY knowledgeable in Federal labor law?
I worry that my former colleagues will take the bait and never see the pay out or admin leave that's being promised and if they resign, they'll have no recourse. This is haphazard at best. Maybe there should be a FOIA asking if Elon or others in the DOGE have REITs in some of these Govt buildings where employees are being RTO'd.
Well, yes, but none of this is terribly surprising, given the general tendencies of bourgeois habits of thought (shared by both Trump and Musk [I should copyright that one for a cologne: "Trump/Musk"]) about cost-cutting, what we've already seen of Trump's lack of imagination and laziness, and what I think is a pretty typical bit of social behaviour about "courtiers" surrounding and "manipulating" the "royal" center (to a greater or lesser degree depending on the personality of the royalty).
Am I supposed to be outraged by this?
I'm not a passive reader. Please, if you're a passive reader, I urge you to do something with the information you get from Substack writers such as Ken Klippenstein, Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell, and Heather Cox-Richardson. These people (and others) are working their asses off and doing their part to protect our democracy, and we should too! Please call your senators today, using this script (below). TIP: Input all your elected officials' phone numbers and email addresses into your contact list so you can quickly contact them to complain/compliment. Their contact info is here:
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
"Hi, my name is [Your Name], and I’m urging [Senator’s Name] to fight Elon Musk and Trump’s illegal funding freezes and cuts. I urge [Senator] to use every tool available to prevent the Senate from conducting business as usual, including:
Opposing all Trump administration nominees
Denying any requests for Unanimous Consent
Opposing all Cloture Votes
Requesting a Quorum Call at every possible opportunity
Shutting down the Senate"
I also recommend including your place of residence and/or the name of your district so that the official knows you're a constituent and not just some rando.
Why the request to "prevent the Senate from conducting business as usual" specifically? Requesting "Shutting down the Senate" seems a bit anti-democratic at minimum, what's the strategy there?
I saw this on Mastodon this morning: https://sfba.social/@DeliaChristina/113904395673138483
Here is the text:
A friend who's a fed employee sent me a msg about what's happening in their agency and it is so much worse than I thought.
It's not just that the Trump administration is breaking shit.
They're literally building their own dark infrastructure inside the one that exists. They brought their own personnel, yes -- personnel who aren't even being cleared. They just come straight from Heritage or Musk, and they're setting up shop. They're bringing their own servers - so there are no communications that can be traced through 'the system.' This goes against every rule. They're all going through their own offline channels.
That's what all that stuff about the meta data on those memos is about. No trace back to the WH.
The Heritagers + Muskovites have purged all the senior folks and sending memos in the name of powerless juniors who remain.
I don't want to sound alarmist but it's literally like those movies about evil fuckers taking over. It's another Jan 6 but with memos and communiques vs guns.
It's a coup.
**********************************************************
Has anyone else heard about this?
My former colleagues tell me that some of the leaders who were standing firm to protect their employees have been passed over and much lower-level people have been put in charge and are sending these missives to their workforce. It's not that those are "powerless" junior people--just spineless. It's easy to say you have principles until you have to prove it.
I mean, that it is happening to this extent, with secret networks, etc. Is this true in every area or only ones they deem critical?