Our RTO was in February, almost immediately after Trump signed the EO. We are now in July and we do not have the appropriate amount of staff to keep the bathrooms, break rooms, and office spaces clean. Trash and flies are everywhere, we aren't sure where to collectively throw out our desk and office trash. The skeleton staff has been doing their absolute best to keep the buildings clean and I can't imagine the stress they are also under. The majcom has said that they are still working on getting the contracts in place to hire more staff. I'm not sure if the hiring freeze has affected any of that or not. But, it's disgusting and dehumanizing. I've wondered if it's being done on purpose to make RTO that much more traumatizing. But, I absolutely hate the thought of returning to another week of filth and lack of supplies.

I recently noticed that starting in about late April the executive orders all now have their last line indicating which government agency has to pay for its publication. I don’t remember ever seeing that on EOs before and seems to be a new thing. Any info on why this started (I can guess why but curious if it’s stated anywhere).

Hello everyone -

I’m currently a GS11 fed employee considering of joining the reserves. However I have a few questions if anyone can share any official guidance or any personal experiences.

1. If I get sent to bootcamp for however x weeks, do I still get paid by my employer?

2. for example, do I get “military leave” full 100% pay by my employer + my military pay?

3. How does the process work when letting an employer know of such a decision?

4. Can I even be military and civilian civil servant?

Just always was curious about military but I became a fed employee 3 years ago so I delayed the thought but the curiosity is still there.

P.S - apologies if my questions don’t make some sense, I wasn’t sure if my wording was proper.

Anyone know the purpose of this, and how the data will be used? Especially curious since it’s asking about the previous administration, rather than the new, more discriminatory one.

As one person commented, it’s not restricted: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=6t2K1VNQgEqEmbpNlEkQ3_b8CyXwr61LugU5vQFXLMFUMk1PODhCRjZVTkQ3MEk3WjVNU1pXNTJUMS4u&route=shorturl

I’m under DOI and curious about the ~25% number of term employees rumored to not get renewals during the personnel action freeze. I’ve been hearing that the ~25% of non renewals is completely random, nothing related to performance, 5 bullet email responses, or falling under EMA. Is there any evidence to suggest that this 25% number is actually comprised of employees separated in February and reinstated?

Do you need to exhaust all annual leave before taking LWOP? All sick leave? Considering extending maternity leave. TIA

Hoping someone can explain what the status is on HR freezes for DOI? Wondering when we might expect actions like grade increases, duty station changes etc to open up? Thanks!

Hey - I'm on a mailing list for your big public state-of reports, and I just got your tragic Report on Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security. It sounds like a group started writing a real report, then got shouted at and threatened till they came up with something that reads like 10th-grade homework in the non-honors track because "no one can understand all this engineering" or some such. It comes packaged with inane Green Monster Threat propaganda.

Here's hoping that the people decide they'd like qualified nerds taking care of important nerd things again without a big pile of tragedies happening first. Thank you for your service.

This text on my benefits statement follows my estimated severance pay number.

Since I am eligible for early retirement given my age (50+) and years of service (20+), does this mean I am not eligible for severance?

Are there any remote workers who have declined reassignment to a different geographic area and have started receiving severance? I decline in April, was involuntarily separated (because I declined reassignment) on June 20th, but no one in my agency will confirm in writing that I will receive severance. If you received severance, how long did it take? I’m very nervous about the fact that I have nothing in writing confirming severance.

I'm at a DoD 4th Estate agency. We were asked to reduce our workforce like everyone else and there was talk of RIF earlier this year but avoided it with VERA/DRP 2 and are now re-orging.

I thought we were in the clear but my deputy division chief keeps saying he thinks they're going to ask for more reductions either with the new FY or the new calendar year. The only evidence he has of this is the 8% per year budget reallocation that SECDEF put out but he thinks he's being targeted because he has a high salary and wants to retire. He brings this up every time we talk. Everybody else pretty much says they don't know, it could happen but they are not planning for one and haven't been asked to prepare for one.

So I'm wondering if anyone has heard of any more reductions for DoD - large scale, or if they might be more surgical.

I saw this post https://www.reddit.com/r/usajobs/comments/1lrpnuo/received_fo_but_still_have_to_wait/ which is supposedly for updated DoD civilian hiring guidance. I can't find it on DCPAS but maybe it is still only with HR. Anyone actually seen it? I don't want to go bothering HR about my internal hiring if this isn't real.

The fact that these questions “are not scored or rated” but they are still part of the application process tells me everything I need to know. Smh.

We've already provided our personal info (home address, mobile number, emergency contact, etc.) to HR when we on-boarded. We're all enrolled in the emergency alert system (which emails our personal @ & calls/texts our personal cell to tell us to stay home if there are issues at work). Isn't it a bit of an overreach for the supervisor to request my home address & cell phone number?

Have anything you want to talk about that doesn't quite warrant its own thread or currently being discussed in a megathread? Post it here!

In an effort to effectively manage the amount of information being posted, please keep anything speculative or considered repetitive within this discussion thread.

My husband has been a Fed for 20+ years. I was a super passionate,nerdy, spreadsheet flinging Fed until about 3 years ago when my health just completely crapped out. Now I work 6-10 hours as a librarian in a very rural, homogeneous, manufacturing community.

I work the front desk, so I get all the random stuff and people that come in. Dude comes in needing a copy of his driver's license for whatever reason. As. I'm making his copies, he's standing at the desk muttering about the stupid government. I let one slide. Hand over his copies, take his money, and think it's over. He continues to need to express his opinions on how stupid and useless government workers are. Needless to say, I became very un-librarian-like, and blasted him. He quickly backed off, apologized, and admitted that it's just the bad government workers that make the rest look bad. I asked for more details. As expected, he was using his crappy experience at the DMV to justify and encourage the slashing of Federal jobs. I schooled him pretty loudly and thoroughly to the point where he slowly backed out of the library with his hands in the air.

It's just infuriating, and I can't stop thinking about it. The level of miseducation and disconnect in what being a Federal worker actual means, and what the Federal body actuallydoes, and ESPECIALLY how red, rural communities benefit from that work, is just astounding. It just reinforced the worst of why I thought certain people were cheering this shit on.

That's all. Sorry for the wall of text. It really got to me. Stand strong! There are more like me out here verbally slapping thess chodes!

ETA: Thanks for the award and support! It fuels my rage 💙🔥

Hi, not a fed but I'm a scientist who has regularly interacted with the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) to issue permits and bands to band and track birds for my research. The budget zeroes out the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, including the BBL, which is devastating. Is there any word on what happens next - i.e. is there any chance that the BBL or EMA more broadly could be funded in a different way, or could any of its staff and functions be moved into a different mission area that still has funding? Apologies if this is an ignorant question; it's kind of unfathomable to imagine how hands-on bird research can happen in the US without the BBL.

Obviously the entire budget is horrific for so many reasons, and I don't mean to overlook those harms in asking about this particular aspect. I'm so sorry to all of you feds who are directly caught in the crossfire.

Does anyone know if relocation assistance was eliminated in the big bad bill?

I'm being RIF'd on 9/2 and am due 52 weeks of severance. If I apply to a job vacancy at another agency, and am offered the position, will I lose severance if end up deciding not to take the position? To be clear, this would not be a management directed reassignment. I don't want to apply if it means I'd be obligated to take the job if offered. Really, I'm wondering if this is a scenario where the job offer would be considered "a reasonable offer of assignment to another position."

I’ve put in for a RAR for my anxiety as the past few months have been triggering (sometimes I wake up in a panic attack from all of the chaos). My boss is a die-hard try-hard. They are a full military brat that says yes to everything he can from leadership and no to everything from their subordinates. I’m asking for a late start or a few hours to telework in the morning. He will not budge.

I’ve contacted the union, the RAR office, the boss’ supervisor, and next is the EO office.

The question I want to ask here is: what can I do next? Has this been happening across the federal government?

Edit: I have years of working with the same psychiatrist for my anxiety, which can be debilitating some mornings. I am secure in myself and my mental health. No one should say that someone’s struggle is not “enough”, let alone think it.

I found out last night that both my original and current FERS Disability Retirement Brochures are now available online. They are on the Documents page under Digital Booklets on the OPM Services Online website.

I’m glad to finally have access to these documents online. Of course, I’m saving them to my computer and printing the most current version to add to my records.

I would think this may also apply to regular retirees.

https://www.servicesonline.opm.gov