A veteran (and new federal employee) offers her view on the chaos the sudden government downsizing has unleashed

Yes, there are lots of federal workers who have been sitting at home babysitting on the taxpayer dime since Covid started. There are also lots of folks like this, caught in the undertow.

Everyone agrees: the federal government is an inefficient beast that needs shrinking — and that process may be painful to employees who have taken advantage of “work” from home rules for years.

That said, the current slash-and-burn chaos is not without innocent victims, particularly those hired with the explicit promise they could work remotely. One, a veteran, emailed me this week at my Proton email address¹ to explain her concerns. She’s has a mid-five-figure salary — she is not getting rich on this job.

Her concerns are worth hearing, even if you think Donald Trump and Elon Musk have no choice but to be this aggressive. I’ll let her speak for herself, unedited:

Alex -

I am one of the remote federal workers. I was hired in the last year.

The job was fully remote from the start. I review FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests and my page counts are tracked with requirements to process hundreds of pages an hour. I hit those numbers. Our jobs can be evaluated with metrics. There are dozens of us in these positions, half are veterans.

My entire "subagency" - USCIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services]- does NOT qualify for the September early resignation. No word yet on how that jives with a mandatory return to work. The agency is hundreds of miles away and ending a lease early results in a fee of thousands of dollars - to say nothing of those with mortgages and/or kids in school or a spouse with a job tied to their current location. The President's "deadline" is days away and no word on what will happen.

I was an early Trump supporter - registered as a R in 2016 to vote for him in the primaries, attended a Trump rally. I did not vote for him in this election. I didn't vote for Harris either - I felt like I was choosing between lethal injection and hanging. I'd like an option other than death please.

I understand the triumph of the victory and did not expect nuance from the victors, but - as we often do - the pendulum has swung too far. The sense of glee and gotcha-ism is a problem.

Not every woman or minority hire was a mistake or incompetent. Not every federal worker is a grifter. Not every person without children leads a meaningless life. Prom culture isn't a good thing. A woman helicopter pilot shouldn't be vilified strictly because of her biological sex.

I've been with you from the early days - you were a lifeline on Twitter, and I followed you to Substack. I appreciate your....doggedness. You filled a gap.

—

(Filling the gap. With your help.)

—

I'm not sure if you're the guy to fill the current gap, but I felt compelled to write something to someone. A correction was needed but let's not jump back to the 1950s in full. The left bears a lot of responsibility for creating the situation that led to the backlash. But the right's slash and burn mentality is simply going to lead to the next backlash. Hopefully, it corrects some things along the way and the collateral damage isn't greater than the wartime losses.

I'm glad that you exist and do the work that you do.

1. You can do the same, about any issue! Proton is very secure - alexberensonauthor at protonmail dot com.