As an engineer in the US Army’s engineers, Michael Garrett says he always knows that he can double his salary in the private sector. But when he became a federal employee for more than a decade, Mr. Garrett (not his real name) was thinking about more than money.
“[I] The engineer, who asked not to be identified so that he can speak frankly. Besides personal benefits, he had a sincere desire to serve the greatest good: “I felt that I could make a change.”
But now, he says frankly, everything you torn. Instead of job security and national pride, government workers, likewise, suffer from “nothing less than chaos.”
Why did we write this
While the government efficiency management in Elon Musk is trying to reduce the federal bureaucracy, many who have chosen public service jobs say it is a very difficult time – with consequences for the nation as well as for themselves.
Within a few short weeks since he arrived in his post, President Donald Trump and the new “DOGE”, led by billionaire Eileon Musk, raised the federal bureaucracy – and with it, the lives of more than 2 million federal workers. Follow -up to the promise of the campaign “to drain the swamp”, with an advertised goal Reducing up to $ 2 trillion From the US budget, Mr. Musk team moved quickly and cruelly that left the federal workforce.
Many say they feel unfairly treated, and even evil, for jobs that have never been profitable or easy.
“Many of us had offers to go to the private sector,” says one of the US Treasury employees. “We choose not to do so, because this is the way we decided to serve in the best way, and we want to serve our country. We are a kind of clarification … … We are an enemy.”
“Before the opening, we believed that Dog was a joke,” added a food and drug administration employee. “But it is no longer funny at all.”
“Thorn on the way”
The first sign that Duji was already dangerous note To the heads of the agency and the agency on January 27, they impose on all federal employees to return to personal work. For many federal workers, 80 % of them fall outside the country’s capital, which means long and costly transportation (Mr. Garrett lives 45 minutes from the nearest USACE office). For others, their office may not have a space to accommodate them. For example, the Food and Drug Administration employee (FDA) was appointed to work remotely in 2022 and has no dedicated office.
Then he came with a notorious “ThornEmail – the same line as the subject used by Mr. Musk when the workforce is executed on Twitter, which was renamed on X. I was offered to all federal employees, with Certain exceptionsThe option of deferred resignation, which would give them full salaries and benefits until September 30. For acceptance, workers were directed to send an email from their government account to the human resources at the Personnel Management Office before last Thursday. Write the word “resign” in the “Topic” line from email. Hit “Send”, “email order.
Indeed, more than 65,000 employees, according to OPM – about 2.5 % of the federal workforce, albeit less than 5 % to 10 %, Mr. Musk hoped. Late last week, a federal judge stopped the acquisition program until a hearing on Monday, after a lawsuit from the unions it calls.Illegal and short fusion“
“It is not a good deal,” says Randy Erwin, President of the National Federation of Federal employees. The Labor Union represents about 110,000 workers, starting with ancient warriors affairs to wild firefighters. “It is reckless to submit resignations to the entire federal government.”
Among the federal employees interviewed by the screen, one of them did not say that they considered the offer seriously, and no colleagues knew before him. Many of them said that they initially assumed that the email was mixed or unwanted, because it came with an external sender’s warning. Democratic lawmakers of the Capitol Hill immediately warned that due to the lack of authority in the Congress behind it, there was no guarantee that anyone would have already been paid. Mr. Garrett says colleagues remind each other in the collective text messages that Mr. Musk made with similar promises to the Twitter employees that he did not achieve.
“We have no guidance,” says the treasury employee. As a supervisor, he says he is particularly unable when it comes to relieving the uncertainty in younger workers. “They are like, my entire family moved here. Did he shoot? I have nothing to tell them.”
The United States Agency for International Development at the intersection
No agency has not yet been affected more than the United States Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration is trying to close almost completely, folding a small number of its 10,000 employees in the Foreign Ministry. As soon as it became clear what was happening, one of the big employees says she had colleagues asking whether it was safe to go to the office. “They were worried about what might happen to them,” she says.
It was not long before there was no choice: the US Agency’s International Development Agency employees were closed from their headquarters in Washington last week, and the site was replaced by notice from one page saying that all employees were placed on an administrative leave unless they were notified otherwise. On Friday, a judge issued a temporary restriction order that stops the administration’s actions against the agency, leaving the employees to fold the forgetfulness.
The American Greater International Development Agency employee says she is still able to log in to the computer system, unlike some of her colleagues. But it is not sure if it already has a job.
“I would like to try to make reasonable discounts,” she says. “But this – this is not the way to do this. It is not respected. It is Drakoni.” “It has been a living hell, if you want the truth,” she says in the past few weeks.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk indicated that more discounts are coming, including efforts to eliminate the entire Ministry of Education (which requires a law of Congress) sharply in the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Air Force Administration. In all agencies, while the courts sort the acquisition offer, the mass fire may be on the road. Last Thursday, OPM sent a memorandum of agencies to provide names to all employees who suffer from poor performance by March 7.
Will it make a deficit?
Critics of Mr. Musk Doge notes that when it comes to impotence, it is only Tampering around the edges. In 2023, the American Agency for International Development represents Less than 1 % of federal spending; Ministry of Education It represents about 4 %. The federal workforce has not grown in size since the 1960s, compensation for federal employees Less than 7 % The total budget. In contrast, social security, medical care and defense to calculate nearly half of the federal spending.
“If they really want to save money, then why do they start with one of the smallest agencies?” The American Agency for International Development says. “This does not make sense.”
Supporters of Mr. Musk oppose that every part of the waste that prevents real taxpayers, and they argue that his efforts find ways to reduce the deficit that the Washington Foundation has failed for years.
However, Federal employees say that the intended cuts in Duji for some of these younger agencies will get impartial traces throughout the United States and the world.
Some people wonder how Mr. Trump expects to implement all his own priorities with this hollow workforce. During the term of the first president, Mr. Garrett notes that the Army Engineers Corps helped build the president’s wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. It worries that this batch, which reduces its size, will strongly affect the United States government after the end of the term Mr. Trump – especially when it comes to maintaining a bright and dedicated workforce.
“Individuals who can leave [and find jobs in the private sector] This is likely to leave many people who are not the best and bright. So it is a self -realized prophecy, “he says.
Hinkeli’s story was mentioned by Richmond, Virginia. Ketlin Babakuk from Washington; And Sarah Matosic from Denver.
