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Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 11:22 am
by stilljammi
What do you think the future holds for the federal employee? If we survive 2020, the current/next administration will need to tackle debt. Do you think this means even deeper cuts than what we've seen in the past decade?

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 11:36 am
by 12squared
It may depend on both the agency you support and who is in charge at the top. Back in 1996 my conservative leaning boss suggested that a Democrat president was better for the DoD than a Republican because the former could not afford to look weak by suggesting cuts to the defense budget.

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 11:44 am
by userque
stilljammi wrote:What do you think the future holds for the federal employee? If we survive 2020, the current/next administration will need to tackle debt. Do you think this means even deeper cuts than what we've seen in the past decade?
Excellent question.

What really matters is the citizenry. If it wants the debt reduced, and votes accordingly and competently, then there will be deeper cuts and/or higher taxes.

If we elect a POTUS not skilled in politics, not skilled in people relationships, or not skilled in economics; someone that will appoint unskilled yes-men everywhere s/he can, or skilled yes-men everywhere s/he can; someone that will 'get rid of' and/or attack anyone that disagrees with them'; then things will get a lot worse, imo.

EDIT: This is especially true if the elected POTUS is a second term POTUS ... without having to be worried about being re-elected again.

_____________________
“In a democracy, people get the leaders they deserve.”

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 2:58 pm
by greengrass
I think we'll see cuts this year. My guess is 25%. We're easy targets when money is tight. Essentially, if you have vacancies near the end of the FY those will be gone.

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 3:09 pm
by Bubba
stilljammi wrote:What do you think the future holds for the federal employee? If we survive 2020, the current/next administration will need to tackle debt. Do you think this means even deeper cuts than what we've seen in the past decade?
One political party has neen trying to remove Fers, reduce fehb, lessen TSP benefits and more. This Civid thing might be enough for them to get us. People on this forum love them too. I don't get it. I'm missing something...

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 3:24 pm
by bloobs
Bubba wrote:
stilljammi wrote:What do you think the future holds for the federal employee? If we survive 2020, the current/next administration will need to tackle debt. Do you think this means even deeper cuts than what we've seen in the past decade?
One political party has neen trying to remove Fers, reduce fehb, lessen TSP benefits and more. This Civid thing might be enough for them to get us. People on this forum love them too. I don't get it. I'm missing something...
Bubba, i can help you "get it". Just ask and i will pull those answers out of them by the end of the weekend. :wink:

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 4:12 pm
by bosco7
I think the tooth to tail ratio is out of whack for a lot of agencies. However, I doubt the political will to increase unemployment is present now or going forward. Maybe personal attrition will be in force going forward.Those with a good technical skillset should probably have little difficulty finding other employment opportunities. This isn't a depression caused by business cycles, so I'd expect a large amount of organic growth going forward.

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 4:33 pm
by bloobs
bosco7 wrote:I think the tooth to tail ratio is out of whack for a lot of agencies. However, I doubt the political will to increase unemployment is present now or going forward. Maybe personal attrition will be in force going forward.Those with a good technical skillset should probably have little difficulty finding other employment opportunities. This isn't a depression caused by business cycles, so I'd expect a large amount of organic growth going forward.
You know what's funny: when I got hired a couple of decades ago, I had one job title, which was commiserate with me having one job I was hired for.

Every other year since, I've had to tack on one more job title to my email signature, each time a valued staff member retires or departs--and does not get replaced.

While the conflicting and diverse demands of the workload (which is mostly cognition-intensive) can be intense; it does make me feel valued and important--but I do get extra cranky on Friday afternoons.

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 4:49 pm
by tspwizard1
bosco7 wrote:This isn't a depression caused by business cycles, so I'd expect a large amount of organic growth going forward.
You couldn't be more wrong imo. Was a HUGE artificial asset bubble built on corporate stock buybacks. Don't blame the pin 'the virus' for popping a huge bubble. Markets go in cycles. We had gone up long enough. Market was saturated with needless businesses. I don't need another lunch option. There are a thousand already. I don't need another Dick's sporting goods. I shop on ebay. See my point. I personally will enjoy watching the market crumble. Maybe we can think of a better way to live in this country when we hit the bottom.

Re: Federal employees' future

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 7:53 pm
by bosco7
to be fair tspwizard1, the bubble didn't pop because of asset inadequacies, it popped because people are not buying. So yes, there may be destruction, and maybe most of it is good. When there's a forest fire, the soil becomes enriched for new growth. Maybe the pandemic is what the world needed to refocus, instead of reinforce bad behavior.