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Original poster

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.

OP posts:
Wolfpa · 15/02/2025 09:13

Employment rights are notoriously poor in the US most people are always 2 weeks away from loosing their jobs. I think it is something they have to accept and just get on with.

Chersfrozenface · 15/02/2025 09:10

The same thing as happened to, say, steel workers in the US, I imagine. Between 1980 and 2015, 257,000 jobs were lost in the steel industry there. That's an average of almost 7,500 every single year for 35 years

Repeat for other sectors.

ExtraOnions · 15/02/2025 08:55

If we all wait for around 2 years, the government completly run out of money, and be unable to pay anyone ….

telephonelady · 15/02/2025 08:53

And what about their health insurance? Isn't insurance almost always linked to employment in the US?

I can't pretend for one second that I understand what it happening in America at the moment. It has, though, reinforced my view that I would never ever want to live there.

ShapedLikeAPastry · 15/02/2025 08:35

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.

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

FartyPrincess · 15/02/2025 08:33

USAID give food aid - produced by US farmers - to the tune of several billion dollars. Guess those Trump voting farmers are going to be a bit pissed off when they don’t get paid as the food aid’s no longer needed.

RhubarbThumb · 15/02/2025 08:21

Employment rights are notoriously poor in the US.

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.

Copperas · 15/02/2025 08:00

I think it is more immediate. Relatively few responded to the stop work now, get paid till September and no money has so far been approved for this. The ones on probation (so I’m the job but still in their probationary period) appear to have been fired wholesale for ‘poor performance’ without any assessment of this - so no payout? And no reference etc

Original poster
Serpentstooth · 15/02/2025 07:52

Thank you for replies and explanations. I thought it was all a bit more immediate than it appears that it will be.

OP posts:
BigDecisionWorthIt · 15/02/2025 00:49

The US military isn't part of any of the federal worker lay offs and there are a number of government entities that are not included, for example USCIS are not part of this.

Most were offered the voluntary resignation that would offer pay up until Sep IIRC.
A number of the lay offs will be those likely on their probationary periods too.

With anything governmental, they'll work out pretty much the minimum they need to get the output they desire and trim down from there.
So less breathing space for contingencies.

meganorks · 15/02/2025 00:48

Maybe some of them will wake up to the fact that workers' rights in the US are dog shite!

InWalksBarberalla · 15/02/2025 00:41

There's heaps of jobs in the US, and there will be even more if they deport all the illegal immigrants.

maddening · 15/02/2025 00:41

I thought it was voluntary redundancy with an 8 month pay package?

Devianinc · 15/02/2025 00:39

Actual it’s until the end of September

Aspasia2 · 14/02/2025 23:35

Chill, they get pay-offs.

SeaToSki · 14/02/2025 22:52

What makes you say there arent jobs for them to fill? The US is a big place, there are over 169 million employed people in the country..one report said there are currently over 7 million available jobs

Lambington · 14/02/2025 22:52

Hopefully a movement of extremely angry people will form in opposition to the ridiculous and dangerous Trump regime.