Summary

Trump reversed his directive to fire thousands of probationary (newly-hired) federal employees after a judge ruled the mass terminations were likely illegal.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) clarified that agencies are not required to comply with previous instructions to fire employees who have held their jobs for a year or less. Instead, agencies have until September 13 to develop their own staffing reduction plans.

Some agencies, like the National Science Foundation (NSF), are now rehiring previously fired employees.

Federal labor unions have sued, arguing the firings violated procedural rules and congressional authority. The administration’s sudden reversal still leaves uncertainty about affected workers’ status.

  • whyrat@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Imagine the loss in productivity from having so many people fired & quickly re-hired. Not just from those people; but the HR & administrative effort; the re-org of responsibilities among the other employees; and the nonsense time it probably took up in so many “mandatory departmental meetings” discussing what was happening…

    • kungen@feddit.nu
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      11 days ago

      Plus the morale kick. “Oh yeah, we fired you a couple weeks ago without making too much of a fuss… but yeah, now get back to work!”

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        No no no.

        First you make a meeting to discuss the need for a taskforce.

        Then a meeting to discuss the potential budget of the task force.

        Then a meeting to select the members of the task force.

        And so on until you don’t even need the task force anymore.

        Problem solved.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Let’s be very clear: this is extremely atypical. There is nothing even slightly normal about it.

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      At my site in the VA we lost a essential employee who we probably won’t get back.

      And we were also forced into a hiring freeze at the start of the year so I hope they see this and try to come back, because we won’t be able to hire someone else to replace them.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    So… funny story (well not funny, horrible).

    So a friend of mine recently (within the past 3 years) was motivated to go back to school and get their degree in conservation biology. They had been a chef for a while and were sick of it. I pushed them to quit their job and get back into it, and they did.

    They ended up getting an internship with a federal department, and are still technically a probationary employee (not career or term). They are still in school but the work was what they wanted to be doing, so they went for it.

    So it turns out, almost all the career and term staff have now been let go. But they, as a probationary employee, are still there. Like somehow they were missed or forgotten. So now, somehow, they are in charge or at least responsible… for almost everything?

    Its the smokey the bear meme about “only you; no seriously its just you now” in real life.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      So it turns out, almost all the career and term staff have now been let go. But they, as a probationary employee, are still there. Like somehow they were missed or forgotten. So now, somehow, they are in charge or at least responsible… for almost everything?

      His last co-worker as they walked out the door:

  • TheEschatonSucks@sh.itjust.works
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    12 days ago

    Jesus Christ what a fucken shitshow

    I guess he’s finally running the country like a Trump business, I just don’t get why the yukyuks think it’s a good idea

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      12 days ago

      legitimately the apprentice convinced them he’s a business genius even though that was all manufactured, and the true trump is a nepobaby shitstain who can’t outperform an index fund. he’s always gambling, always losing, and always having someone bail him out. first it was daddy, then the bank, then the mob, then the russian federation, and now it’s us, the poor

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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        12 days ago

        I never understood why people liked that (shit) show. I tried watching it once and couldn’t stand listening to his fucking stupidity.

        • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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          11 days ago

          I grew up watching it. In the era of linear TV, even with cable we had maaaybe 2 or 3 other legitimate options for family TV time on that night, at that time. It was non-offensive (funny saying that about Trump now), family friendly, reality TV. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it was well produced, and mindlessly entertaining.

          Now, at the same time, while I understand for many people, “the apprentice convinced them he’s a business genius,” that’s SOOO frustrating. I completely agree with you about “his fucking stupidity.” I think the first few seasons, they cut it well to make him appear intelligent. However, as the show went on, I suspect he wanted more and more screen time, and that distracted from the actual show and that’s when we started to notice “his fucking stupidity” showing.

          • alaphic@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            I never watched the show (thankfully), but I always thought that having Trump ridicule/fire these people was part of the ‘entertainment/joke’ aspect of everything because he himself was widely regarded as a joke of businessman… person… Ya know, just a joke in general.

            Imagine my surprise to find out - decades later - that apparently not everyone was in on the joke…

        • cyphear@lemm.ee
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          11 days ago

          The only one I watched was the one with Gene Simmons. The “goal” was to make I think like $5000 by running a hotdog stand. So Gene, a real businessman, sold one hotdog with his signature to a fan. At the end of the episode Trump fired him. Because of some bullshit reason. I think it was because Trump didn’t like that Gene was more popular than he was and knew how to do marketing.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      Trump businesses were grifts or fronts for money laundering for the Russians, so yeah, that tracks.

    • xorollo@leminal.space
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      11 days ago

      Gaslighting. Now when feds complain about loosing their jobs, trumpets will say they’re spreading fake news. Also, I know some feds who are also trumpets. Watching their brain explode isn’t worth the apocalypse.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    11 days ago

    Some agencies, like the National Science Foundation (NSF), are now rehiring previously fired employees.

    Trump’s power derives from the fact that he is running an organization that consists of three million people. He has started off his second term by ensuring that a not inconsiderable number of these have a grudge against him, and are now back where they were. Possibly not the move most-likely to ensure that his agenda is effectively-enacted.

    Instead, agencies have until September 13 to develop their own staffing reduction plans.

    That’s probably more-reasonable simply from an organizational standpoint. That being said, that’s about half the distance until midterms, at which point the Democrats might take the House. If they do, they are probably going to punch holes in attempts to mass-fire federal employees. Plus, if they can take actions that trigger re-hirings, if someone is laid off for a brief period of time, even a layoff for a few months may not last. Historically, the party of the President usually does poorly in midterms.

    There’s a window of time that Trump has to really produce a lasting effect, where he can blow away a big chunk of the federal government and it would be hard to reconstitute it, and I think that this has probably caused it to significantly shrink.

    Also, usually you don’t, as a President, want to take unpopular actions right before elections. Better to do them immediately afterwards, as he is here.

    Basically, if the bureaucracy can manage to stall for the better part of a year on top of this, I suspect that Trump’s going to have difficulty slicing a lot of the Executive Branch away permanently.

    • Benjaben@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      Thanks for the optimism. I sure hope you’re right, this does feel at least plausible to me.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    This constant “asking the crowd if he is doing a dumb” kind of feels like on idiocracy, during monday night rehabilitation when the executioner is at first seemingly pandering to the crowd, and then you start to realise he actually needs their help to find Not Sure.

    • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      plausible explanation for this level of incompetence

      Competence is irrelevant. He’s not here to “govern effectively”, he’s here to dismantle the U.S. and its allies and turn them into vassal states for the CCP, Putin Regime, the House of Saud, and any other authoritarian who wants in on the action.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Wait wait wait! Innersphere or Clan? Not Comstar…

      Ah! The Word of Blake!

      All Word of Blake factions agreed on a few points. They decried ComStar and its members as heretics for defying the ancient doctrines claimed to be in the writings of Jerome Blake. They denounced as forgeries the recently discovered writings of Blake and mourned ComStar as being destroyed from within, claiming that salvation was only possible by fleeing from ComStar’s “corrupted vision” and joining the Word of Blake.

      source

      • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        I feel Word of Blake could work for the Trumpers but part of them seem similar to Katherine Steiner-Davion sycophants.

        As an aside, I always preferred House Davion in the Inner Sphere, however my first loves were the Warden Wolves and the Ghost Bears. Honorable mention to the Nova Cats and a hale shout-out to The Wolf’s Dragoons.

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
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    11 days ago

    Is this the infamous flip-flopping that Republicans constantly accuse Democratic leaders of? In the case of Democrats it’s quite often a change in policy because of new information or new conditions. But it shouldn’t be happening over a span of days, the hell are y’all doing in DC you idiots?

  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    At the courts still hold some power as a check and balance.

    He wouldn’t be doing this otherwise.

    • alaphic@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      Your first mistake would be believing this has anything even renotely to do with cost reduction