Death by email
Fraud waste and abuse has been a federal government mantra (maybe that’s not the right word) since *I* worked for the gov’t in my “childhood” career (for a contractor, to be clear) and probably before that. I get that part of downsizing the federal government is to get rid of some not very productive employees.
But how do you choose who to get rid of? Does Musking an email to (how many people?) asking them to list five things they did in the last week seem like a good idea? My job is “brainy” (yes really 
). It’s really hard to come up with “metrics” for what I did last week or even during the last performance evaluation cycle. I do the same thing(s) all the time but the projects are always different. If I could even try to write five bullet points about what I did in the last week, I’m sure I could make up some sort of bullshit. Because *one* part of my job is to WRITE! Which I am not terrible at although I won’t be writing the next Pulitzer Prize novel any time soon. Or ever.
But how would Musk and his young crew evaluate whatever I might list in my bullets. Oh, they would use AI? Nawwww. AI may someday be able to analyze my bullet points but I don’t think it’s there yet.
Musing over. Sorry MAGA but Elon’s email is insulting to the vast majority of gov’t employees who are serious about their jobs. There has to be a better, more careful way that doesn’t yank people’s perfectly competent livelihoods out from under them with little to no notice.
This is a bit snarky but I can’t help wondering how many federal employees who VOTED for the orange idiot have lost their jobs. Is that what you voted for? Or did you vote for the “economy”, whatever that really means? I’m sorry that you lost your job but I DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM. Because I know what he’s all about. Which is himself.
The pic is from the day I returned to my office after my mom died. I did my best to work from the yooperland while she was dying but I know I wasn’t all that productive during that period. The LSCHP (my boss) welcomed me back anyway. There was a big ladder in my cube when I first arrived. The LSCHP thought I would find that funny and yes yes yes I did! I was ecstatic to still have a job.
This was in 2012 and another 13 years later, I am still employed at this company. I was valued enough for my boss to let me slide a bit while my mom was dying. This is how you treat valued hard-working employees. Not sending them an email asking what five things they did last week.
Love y’all, KW
February 25th, 2025 at 10:16 pm
The insensitivity, ignorance and cruelty blow my mind. Not surprising from the group in power right now, but still disappointing and disturbing.
February 26th, 2025 at 9:21 am
There’s so much to worry about if Musk gets his way with the federal work force. Add that to the worry about what trump’s big beautiful spending bill will eliminate. Air safety, food safety, military safety are all on my list of worries. But you know what keeps rising to the top of my worry list? All the thousands (millions?) of poor people in nursing homes on Medicaid. I would deem them the most vulnerable among us. Musk calls Medicaid recipients *parasites.* What will happen to all those parasites if they get tossed from the crummy nursing homes that shelter them? Or if the nursing homes close b/c of lower federal funding?
I heard a most interesting piece on NPR about getting rid of fraud and abuse in social systems. First, you need to hire people to track down the fraud. You don’t fire staff; you hire more staff. And Medicaid is a federally funded program but the money is dispersed by the states. So to find fraud, the states have to do the hard leg work. If they find fraud and recover money it doesn’t go to the state, it goes to the fed treasury. So the states have very little incentive to do much searching — it just costs them more money. Such a conundrum!
Meanwhile the IRS says there are billions of $$ owed to them by rich people who can afford the legal fees to hide their money. Biden wanted to hire more IRS auditors. Musk wants to fire them. Can I get anymore outraged??? I will: tomorrow.