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What will happen when the thousands of sacked US federal workers have no wages this month?

68 replies

Serpentstooth · 14/02/2025 22:38

Thousands dismissed. Can someone explain why this is a good thing? There aren't jobs for them to fill. Maybe it'll be fire and re-hire? Surely they can't have prevented their military from being paid? That would be a very bad idea.

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ThroughThickAndThin01 · 18/02/2025 18:44

Lifeasafish2 · 18/02/2025 14:17

@ThroughThickAndThin01 can I ask which forum you are referring to?

TIA

Not sure am allowed to say, starts with R, two syllables.

MILLYmo0se · 18/02/2025 18:26

Valeriekat · 18/02/2025 15:58

You do know many of them are getting 8 months pay and benefits.

Arent many of those in first round of losses people in the probation stage?

ShapedLikeAPastry · 18/02/2025 16:42

Valeriekat · 18/02/2025 15:58

You do know many of them are getting 8 months pay and benefits.

They almost certainly are not.

icelolly12 · 18/02/2025 16:28

I always think this when the Daily Mail, Telegraph etc rile people up and say the public sector is far too bloated, we need to cut it to the bone blah blah. All well and good. but how's making swathes of people unemployed going to help anything?!

BettyBardMacDonald · 18/02/2025 16:25

Valeriekat · 18/02/2025 15:58

You do know many of them are getting 8 months pay and benefits.

That's not much for people who a) loved their careers and b) thought they had a secure career with the civil service.

Furthermore what about the ripple effects on other citizens and on the economy?

I have a cousin in the midwest and she is jobhunting outside of the US now.

Valeriekat · 18/02/2025 15:58

You do know many of them are getting 8 months pay and benefits.

Abhannmor · 18/02/2025 15:28

You can buy a house for the price of a car in places like Arkansas. Of course you're going to need a car as well. Probably two cars....' out in the great alone'.

Trump has abolished farm management grants that were brought in by the post Covid infrastructure bill. Presumably because Biden introduced them? But who can fathom the labyrinthine logic of that man. A lot of people in the South and Midwest are going to feel betrayed. Then they will turn on Fox News and realise those pesky migrants and welfare queens are to blame.

REP22 · 18/02/2025 15:19

ShapedLikeAPastry · 15/02/2025 08:35

Indeed. Musk didn't honour the promised Twitter staff payoffs, so no idea why anyone thinks he'll honour these this time.

This.

And from Ask a Manager (US-based employment advice website) today:

"For people who don’t know what’s going on: Probationary employees in the federal government are being fired and are having it documented as being for “performance reasons” even when they’ve had glowing performance reviews and even when their managers oppose the firing. A slew of letters doing this to people went out on Saturday night (of all times)."

This may well affect their future job prospects, if they have to put on future job applications the reasons for their "dismissal".

Awful.

TemporaryPosition · 18/02/2025 14:59

Serpentstooth · 18/02/2025 12:41

It's not to do with competence, it's about money and power.q

It's not about that either.

BigDecisionWorthIt · 18/02/2025 14:40

CerealPosterHere · 18/02/2025 13:19

Apparently property prices in DC have fallen by 20% within the last few weeks/couple of months.

That isn't entirely correct.

Dependant on where you look, Redfin has median sale value in the DC market 8.6% down compared to Jan 24 and Zillow has it 2.0% down since Jan 24.
Worth noting, list to sale value of houses are still roughly 98.1% overall. So houses are still selling pretty close to list price.

It is still a stable market and some of this could be down to the type of property being listed, starter home etc.

Some of the real estate websites state that there is increased inventory. More houses for sale mean it's more likely the houses will sell for under list.

Lifeasafish2 · 18/02/2025 14:17

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 15/02/2025 08:04

I think it is immediate. There are many many threads on an opposing forum where people are scared shitless. Thousands of people laid off, a promise of payment to September but there seems to be some doubt as to whether this will be honoured, and few genuine jobs. Price hikes with the Trump tariffs imposed, cost of living crisis anyway, etc.

And isn’t the saying if America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold?

YANBU OP.

@ThroughThickAndThin01 can I ask which forum you are referring to?

TIA

CerealPosterHere · 18/02/2025 13:19

Apparently property prices in DC have fallen by 20% within the last few weeks/couple of months.

Locutus2000 · 18/02/2025 13:03

Chersfrozenface · 15/02/2025 10:43

Um...

Per the BBC News website, 11th December 2024
"Savings targets could cost 10,000 civil service jobs"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdek2ygzz8eo.amp

This would be over time and addressed mainly through 'wastage'.

Firing thousands of people at once is a whole different ballgame and not comparable.

DINGDONG23 · 18/02/2025 12:51

BettyBardMacDonald · 18/02/2025 07:51

I just read that Yosemite and their other national parks aren't taking reservations for the 2025 season as so many park workers have been laid off.

Closing those huge tourist destinations is going to adversely affect numerous local economies in the states.

One wonders what on earth they are thinking. Especially since the lion's share of the US debt was created by trump giving tax cuts to billionaires. Not routine spending.

I have just made a reservation for camping in June

Serpentstooth · 18/02/2025 12:41

It's not to do with competence, it's about money and power.q

OP posts:
MILLYmo0se · 18/02/2025 12:20

This page is a scary read, throughly has to read with fact we don't know who is behind it in mind. Re getting rid of inefficient staff and process, many of those let go for apparently not being competent had gotten excellent reports at their recent evaluations

What will happen when the thousands of sacked US federal workers have no wages this month?
LittleMissLego · 18/02/2025 11:53

Whimsicalgrape · 18/02/2025 08:14

It really is the epitome of stupid. You couldn't make this up!

I know! I had to double check the date to make sure April Fools hadn't sneakily crept up on me.

InWalksBarberalla · 18/02/2025 10:12

@telephonelady yes those are good points and not what I was originally thinking about - which was an efficiency drive and people needing to find a different job - as I do think the american civil service is bloated (the growth rates over recent years are huge). But yes indiscriminate sacking of people that are undertaking important work is a whole different matter. Not sure much can be done - Musk has always operated like this - reduce first, then see what breaks and rehire. It's wau quicker than the standard approach and possibly fair enough for a tech company but not an entire economy.

telephonelady · 18/02/2025 09:56

@InWalksBarberalla your comments don't justify what Trump and Musk are doing, though. Yes there most likely are people / positions in federal departments that aren't working efficiently and could be let go without any noticeable affect. That's an efficiency saving. That's not what's happening here. Look at the farce around the nuclear scientists. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall for that "oh shit!!!! moment.

Trump is taking about getting rid of the entire education department. He's fired scientists with specialist knowledge on disease control with no replacements.
This isn't coming from a knowledge and understanding of how to run a country and keep it safe and well. It's coming from a background of not having a fucking clue of how systems and departments run. If I were an American now I'd be absolutely terrified.

Moonlightstars · 18/02/2025 08:37

InWalksBarberalla · 18/02/2025 08:23

Of course I could. In fact I've got a meeting coming up with a government organisation that wants to discuss a report we produce that is very similar to one of those. They've invited their 12 people who develop theirs. I've invited my 2. Why should our tax payer money support inefficiency.

Oh do tell us what the reports are about so we can read them and compare and contrast.

TheKeatingFive · 18/02/2025 08:27

MILLYmo0se · 18/02/2025 08:25

Not including all those on probation surely, which seem to form a large % of the firings, in the Forestry and National Parks services. I've read of these people being tied to year long leases in expensive tourist towns and now suddenly no job

Probation is a more volatile time, that would be true of private sector workers being made redundant also.

MILLYmo0se · 18/02/2025 08:25

TheKeatingFive · 18/02/2025 07:42

They're on paid leave til September.

But regardless, people lose jobs everyday and have to get new ones. Redundancies are nothing new.

Not including all those on probation surely, which seem to form a large % of the firings, in the Forestry and National Parks services. I've read of these people being tied to year long leases in expensive tourist towns and now suddenly no job

InWalksBarberalla · 18/02/2025 08:25

TY78910 · 18/02/2025 08:15

So you would be perfectly happy to lose your job in a system that requires you and your family to have health insurance and stability to pay your rent / mortgage and swap that for a less than minimum wage car wash job?

I agree that the health care system in America sucks. As it sucked for all the blu collar workers who lost their jobs.

InWalksBarberalla · 18/02/2025 08:23

Moonlightstars · 18/02/2025 08:19

I'm sure you could do a civil servants job no problem. You seem very clever.

Of course I could. In fact I've got a meeting coming up with a government organisation that wants to discuss a report we produce that is very similar to one of those. They've invited their 12 people who develop theirs. I've invited my 2. Why should our tax payer money support inefficiency.

Moonlightstars · 18/02/2025 08:19

InWalksBarberalla · 18/02/2025 08:07

Not sure I considered civil servants that skilled. At least I'm not proposing to machine gun them.

I'm sure you could do a civil servants job no problem. You seem very clever.

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