This is going to be long so read it if you want, but I am going to at least tell my story.
I made the decision to join the federal government last year around this time. I had been a state government employee for the previous 14 years and my dream job finally opened in the feds. This was a job I had dreamed about joining for at least 10 years. A job that I watched multiple times get posted, only to find out it wasn't open to the public and thus I wasn't eligible. So I kept grinding in my state job hoping for a chance one day. Mind you, this state job was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it, enjoyed the people I worked with. However, I wanted to move to the federal side because of the better opportunities for career advancement. Now some might read "career advancement" and think to themselves it doesn't belong in federal government. And that's fine if you think that way, but just remember to attract quality candidates you have to have quality pay. If you pay McDonald's salaries you will get McDonald's quality. Also, the type of work I do is not typically suited for the private sector. I'm not going to give specific details but let's just say it deals with the outdoors, and leave it at that.
So with that backstory out of the way, fast forward to this time last year when I started my federal career. I loved it. Loved the job, loved the people, loved the office. I'm busting my ass doing this job because 1) I have a fantastic work ethic that was instilled in me by my parents, 2) I'm passionate about the work I was doing, and 3) I was serving the American people and trying to do right by them. A couple of months go by and I find out my supervisor is making a lateral move to another state, a move that was better for his family and I'm proud and happy for him. However, that left a void in his position. I stepped into his role and tried to learn the nuances of my new position, plus his. I was essentially doing what I could to do both jobs. I would say that it probably ended up being more 80% his job, 20% the one I was actually hired for. This "new" position I was in didn't come with extra compensation, just a whole lot more stress and headache. Once again though, I loved the people I worked with and if I hadn't stepped in it would have hurt them. So I was glad to do it. And yes, there was the thought in the back of my mind that this would set me up nicely to get the promotion to his job once it was posted. I had been receiving glowing reviews from my new assigned supervisor and everyone else in the office. I will say it was nice for so many people to recognize the hard work that I was putting in.
Three days ago I receive a phone call and was told then that I would be terminated because I was still in my probationary period, meaning I had less than a year of service. In fact, I had 11 months 2 weeks of service in. That's right, I was 15 days away from being out of my probationary period. I was devastated, still am. The four stages of grief are real as I've been going through them. One of the biggest kicks to the pants of that phone call was I was told my termination letter would state the reason I was let go is because of poor performance. I was told in actuality that is furthest from the truth and that my performance had been outstanding. They can't do that right, that's a complete lie so there's no way right? Well I received the email the next day and sure enough it said "The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest. For this reason, the Agency informs you that the Agency is removing you from your position of ******* with the Agency and the federal civil service effective immediately." I have so many thoughts about this. First, note how impersonal that is and they couldn't even figure out the widget or whatever it takes to actually state the agency I worked for...just says "the Agency". Second I have never had a poor performance review. So please produce for me a document stating that. I will be calling HR on Tuesday (Monday is a federal holiday) and requesting it, which they won't be able to do because it doesn't exist.
I was not the only one in my office that received this exact letter, with wording about "poor performance", even though they had been receiving glowing reviews also. In fact, 99% of the people in my office receive glowing reviews. They are all extremely hard workers and care about the job they do. They aren't remote workers out playing golf on the clock. They are field staff who put in long hours when needed and truly dedicate themselves to their craft. I have been in contact with many that are still employed, at least at the moment, and they are devastated by our recent terminations. I have told them that I'm not trying to be an alarmist but they had better start looking for other jobs as well. Probationary employees are just the first round. No one knows what the next wave is going to look like, but trust that there will be a next wave.
I have no idea what the future is going to hold. I have no idea what this vaunted holy grail private sector is going to look like. Especially after the job market is flooded with recently fired feds. Once again I'll say, my career isn't exactly suited to the private sector. So it's either a career change where I've spent 15+ years gathering experience, or going back to the state. I'm perfectly willing to go back to the state, but the financial hit is going to suck. Having said that, maybe the state would give me more job security so that I'm not beholden to the wims of political administrations every 4 years. Of course there are governor elections every 4 years, so maybe that's wrong....a thought I would have never even entertained before the last couple of weeks.
I'm not posting this to garner any empathy, change anyone's political minds, or ask for any assistance. I'm an adult and can figure things out on my own. In fact I'm betting if you've been willing to read this, it might garner a "well that sucks for that guy" or "sorry you're going through this", and then you'll move on. That's to be expected. We are strangers on a message board. You don't know me any more than I know you. I hope that this never happens to you though because the human element is real. I guess I'm posting this to vent. Typing this has almost been therapeutic and allowed me to use this forum as a sounding board. But perhaps more importantly I'm posting this so that people can see the actual truth behind this chaos. This isn't firing people for actual poor performance. It's hiding behind the idea of poor performance to justify terminating thousands and thousands of people. It's appealing to the masses who see these firings and think to themselves "yeah let's get rid of these wastes, these weeds". Just know you are being fed lies about some of the actual waste.
Having said all of that, I have one question for the folks on this board. It's pretty simple and I don't want to get into big debates about government waste and fraud. My question is...when you were told by this administration about cuts, is firing 100s of thousands of people what you had in mind? That's it, that's all I want to know. I'm a taxpayer and I'd like government waste to be rooted out. But I damn sure didn't think that the federal employees were that waste.
I don't understand why federal employees have been vilified to the point where 100s of thousands of people losing their jobs is cheered and celebrated. I don't know what we did to anger so many people just because we had the audacity to have a career in the federal government. I don't know how we got to a point where people can no longer disagree without hating each other. I just hope we can come back from this point before it's too late.
Edit: I wanted to also mention that probationary employees that decided to take the "generous" severance package and replied resign to the email are now being fired instead and told they won't be receiving the severance. Also, if an employee promotes to a supervisor's position they are entered into a supervisor's probationary period for a year, no matter how long they had been on with their agency beforehand. There are multiple people like that who had 10+ years experience that recently promoted that were terminated. Again, just putting the facts out there from someone who has firsthand knowledge of the situation.
