[Official] Federal workforce reduction thread

Seems like there's a login wall. Honest question: doesn't context matter here? If the conversations were sexual in nature then I agree that they were out of bounds (and discussing polyamory at work definitely fits that bill. I can't imagine having the gumption to do that).

But, transgender people were found to be a protected class by the Supreme Court. If their discussions were clinical in nature then I don't see how this is a justified revocation. For example, if female employees were discussing birth control options covered by insurance I'd argue that topic is inherent to their protected class. Transgender employees discussing inherent topics like hormone therapy, surgery, etc. feels the same to me.

Explicit != Obscene

 

intel community is infested with blue haired marxist deviants

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tr...cale-reductions-force-reorganization-march-13

The Trump administration will direct heads of agencies across the federal government to prepare to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” and develop reorganization plans by mid-March, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the memo that will be sent Wednesday to agency heads by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Charles Ezell. The memo directs them to prepare to eliminate roles and submit plans for reorganization by March 13.

 

Why is this article combining sexually explicit conversations and transgender topics?

What does any of it have to do with DEI?

 

As Elon said, the main purpose of the "five things" email is to figure out which federal workers even exist. How many are getting paid that don't exist or don't even go to work? That's easy low hanging fruit cost savings.

 

Calling its workforce “bloated,” the Social Security Administration announced Friday plans to slash about 7,000 jobs, or roughly 12% of its staff. The potential cuts are part of a larger reorganization at the agency in line with the Trump administration’s drive to downsize the federal government.

“We’re at a 50-year staffing low, and we’re serving the highest number of beneficiaries we’ve ever had in the history of this agency,” said Rich Couture, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security General Committee. “All of this will adversely undermine the ability of SSA to fulfill its responsibilities to the American people for the provision of Social Security benefits.”

The agency’s swift reorganization is being led by Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner whom Trump named to the post less than two weeks ago. He was a mid-level career staffer at Social Security before being elevated.

 

What did you do at work last week?

1. Logged into Truth Social and read President Trump posts.
2. Bought some President Trump meme coins.
3. Browsed the President Trump White House website looking for ways to help.
4. Made a lot of deals...like...A LOT. Performance was really GREAT!
5. Ate some McDonald's for lunch.

Worker Employment Status: Safe

 

In the private sector, a weekly recap is pretty common.

 

That's micro managing.

Nobody likes a micromanager.

 

Who thinks this is a good or safe idea?

Elon Musk’s teenage high school grad staffer known as ‘Big Balls’ now State Department adviser: Report
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-mus...oB27kE2TezewvUlssGxnEKQNAYhexTqsJe_srBanVqzyu

So a high school grad with a record of leaking insider information, and connection to cyber crime, is now part of the team heading cyber security thanks to Trump and President Musk.

Where are all the people who were worried about Hillary's server?

Does anyone think this makes us safer from cyber attacks and makes our state secrets more secure?

 

This is efficiency?

The United States Department of Agriculture on Tuesday announced each of the 6,000 probationary employees it had terminated since Feb. 13 now has their job back, the department said in a press release.

“By Wednesday, March 12, the Department will place all terminated probationary employees in pay status and provide each with back pay, from the date of termination,” USDA’s statement said. “The Department will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty, and while those plans materialize, all probationary employees will be paid.”
https://wildfiretoday.com/2025/03/1...ionary-workers-forest-service-national-parks/

This, along with the other firings and shenanigans like $1 credit cards and a freeze on seasonal hiring, has put the wildland fire community (Fed/state/local--they are all intertwined) weeks behind the curve as summer looms. Unless we get a lot of spring rains in the SW, we can expect to start seeing large fires in April. Maybe even a few in the grasslands of Texas and Oklahoma before then. The indices are pointing to a tough year overall, and this meddling stupidity will continue to make things worse.


This image comes from the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook that is issues at the first of every month. I fear the March one will be the last as we know it, since it draws from many of the science offices in other agencies that have been decimated by DOGE. You should at least glance through it to see the level of detail and data that has been part of this product that helps us plan for and position for what's coming.

https://www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/predictive/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf

 

@Salvy
@Os Trigonum
@pgabriel
@CrixusTheUndefeatedGaul
this tactic was used on game of thrones

 

Agile methodology brehs

 

Trump official tasked with defending DOGE cuts posted fashion influencer videos from her office

By Curt Devine, Casey Tolan and Audrey Ash, CNN
Updated 2:49 PM EDT, Wed March 12, 2025


As the Office of Personnel Management oversaw the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and pressed others to justify their positions, the agency’s chief spokesperson repeatedly used her office for a side hustle: aspiring Instagram fashion influencer.

In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modeled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.

On the same day OPM sent a government-wide memo pressing federal officials to identify barriers they faced in their work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees,” Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer. Her Instagram account linked to a site where viewers could buy the $475 purple skirt she wore in the video.

One watchdog group said her videos could run afoul of rules restricting the use of government property for personal benefit because, while in the workplace, she was using a website that pays content creators commissions from the clothing brands they promote.

Former OPM staffers during the Biden administration also told CNN that they were offended by Pinover posting as a fashion influencer on government property while defending mass layoffs of federal workers – at a time when top Trump administration officials have accused career employees of being lazy and wasteful.

“Your number one job as a leader is to protect and support your people,” said Jack Miller, who preceded Pinover as the politically appointed OPM communications director under President Joe Biden. “So instead of fighting tooth and nail to keep your team, we’re posting fashion videos. It’s absurd.”

Pinover, who started her job at the federal government’s human resources agency in January, has issued numerous statements backing the Trump administration’s moves to lay off probationary employees and offer buyouts to tens of thousands of others. When OPM sent federal employees an email last month asking them to list five bullet points of things they had done in the past week, Pinover described it as “a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.”

Pinover did not respond to a list of questions. But she deleted her Instagram account, @getdressedwithmc, minutes after CNN asked about it.

Continued...

 

With Medicaid cuts looming, misinformation spreads on social media
Moves by Republican lawmakers to scale back Medicaid have led to misconceptions about immigrants, especially Latinos.

March 13, 2025, 4:00 AM CDT
By Paula Andalo | KFF Health News

Spending cuts, immigration and Medicaid are at the top of the Washington agenda. That climate provides fertile ground for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. Some of the most common are those surrounding immigrants, Latinos and Medicaid.

These claims include assertions that Latinos who use Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people and those with disabilities, “do not work” and exaggerations of the percentage of people with Medicaid who are Latino.

The U.S. House voted narrowly Feb. 26 in favor of a budget blueprint that could lead to Medicaid cuts of up to $880 billion over a decade.
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are part of the national safety net, covering about 80 million people. Medicaid enrollment grew under the Affordable Care Act and after the start of the Covid pandemic but then started falling during the final two years of the Biden administration.

Immigrants’ impact on the nation’s health care system can be overstated in heated political rhetoric. Vice President JD Vance said on the campaign trail last year that “we’re bankrupting a lot of hospitals by forcing these hospitals to provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country.” PolitiFact rated that statement “False.”

KFF Health News, in partnership with Factchequeado, compiled five myths circulating on social media and analyzed them with experts in the field.

Do Latinos who receive Medicaid work?
Most do. A KFF analysis of Medicaid data found that almost 67% of Latinos on Medicaid work, “which is a higher share of Medicaid adults who are working compared to other racial and ethnic groups,” said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF’s program on Medicaid and the uninsured.

“For many low-income people, the myth is that they are not working, even though we know from a lot of data that many people work but don’t have access to affordable employer-sponsored insurance,” said Timothy McBride, co-director at the Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy and Economics Research, part of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.

Neither the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health nor the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services responded to requests for comment.

Are Latinos the largest group enrolled in Medicaid?
No. White people who are not Hispanic represent the biggest demographic group in Medicaid and CHIP. The programs’ enrollment is 42% non-Hispanic white, 28% Latinos, and 18% non-Hispanic Black, with small percentages of other minorities, according to a CMS document.

Latinos’ share of total Medicaid enrollment “has remained fairly stable for many years — hovering between 26 and 30% since at least 2008,” said Gideon Lukens, research and data analysis director on the health policy team at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization.

In a Feb. 18 blog post, Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote: “The biggest myth in the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens — which includes illegal immigrants and those lawfully present on various temporary visas and green cards — disproportionately consume welfare. That is not the case.” They included Medicaid in the term “welfare.”

Although Latinos are not the biggest group in Medicaid, they are the demographic group with the greatest percentage of people receiving Medicaid. There are about 65.2 million Hispanics in the country, representing 19.5% of the total U.S. population.

Approximately 31% of the Latino population is enrolled in Medicaid, in part because employed Latinos often have jobs that do not offer affordable insurance.

Eligibility for Medicaid is based on factors such as income, age, and pregnancy or disability status, and it varies from state to state, said Kelly Whitener, associate professor of practice at the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

“Medicaid eligibility is not based on race or ethnicity,” Whitener said.

Do most Latinos living in the country without legal permission use Medicaid?
No. Under federal law, immigrants lacking legal status are not eligible for federal Medicaid benefits.

As of January, 14 states and the District of Columbia had used their own funds to expand coverage to children in the country without regard to immigration status. Of those, seven states and D.C. expanded coverage to some adults regardless of immigration status.

The cost of providing health care to these beneficiaries is covered entirely by the states. The federal government does not put up a penny.

The federal government does pay for Emergency Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals for medical emergencies for people who, because of their immigration status or other factors, do not normally qualify for the program.

Emergency Medicaid began in 1986 under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

In 2023, Emergency Medicaid accounted for 0.4% of total Medicaid spending.

Do Latinos stay on Medicaid for decades?
Experts say there is no analysis by race or ethnicity of the length of time people use the program.

“The people who stay on Medicaid the longest are people who have Medicaid due to a disability and who live with a medical situation that does not change,” Tolbert said.

People who use long-term Medicaid support services represent 6% of the total number of people in the program.

Many beneficiaries are in the program temporarily, McBride said.

“Some studies indicate that as many as half of the people on Medicaid churn off of Medicaid within a short period of time,” he said, such as within a year.

Are Latinos on Medicaid the group that uses medical services the most?
Latinos do not use significantly more Medicaid services than others, experts say. Latinos receive preventive services (such as mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies), primary care and mental health care less than other groups, according to documents from CMS and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a nonpartisan organization that provides policy and data analysis.

Latinos do account for a disproportionate share of Medicaid labor and delivery services. Latino families and white families each represent about 35% of Medicaid births, although white people make up a bigger share of the overall population.

While Latinos represent 28% of all Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, they account for 37% of beneficiaries with limited benefits that cover only specific services.

“They actually use health care services less than other groups, because of systemic barriers such as limited English proficiency and difficulty navigating the system,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and faculty research director at the university’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

Latino people also avoid using services out of fear of the “public charge” rule and other policies, Vargas Bustamante said. President Donald Trump expanded the public charge policy and strongly enforced it during his first term, though it was softened under President Joe Biden. The policy was intended to make it harder for immigrants who use Medicaid or welfare programs to obtain green cards or become U.S. citizens.

“The chilling effect of public charge persists, but recent orders such as mass deportation or the elimination of birthright citizenship have generated their own chilling effects,” Vargas Bustamante added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...isinformation-spreads-social-media-rcna196021

 

No it's not, its transparency and accountability. It's also a form of planning for the manager -- they need to know what got done or will be done in order to sequence other workstreams.

Bad employees or lazy employees hate accountability. And those are exactly who need to be weeded out.


GOOD DAY