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
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    21 hours 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…

    • @trumpetmouth
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      713 hours ago

      not very… what’s the word?

      oh yea: efficient.

    • @ghostrider2112
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      21 hours ago

      No doubt. I recently left corporate America (giant global orgs) after almost 30 years. I was involved in these bullshit fire drills with increasing frequency through most of my career. Without fail, they provide short term illusion of savings at the expense of higher long term costs and pain. These people always forget that a lot of smart people put a lot of effort into the existing systems, orgs, etc.

      • @Benjaben
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        615 hours ago

        Not to mention every ladder-climbing prick who changes positions in those orgs’ mid to upper levels has to make some big splash in their new role, so they can scheme their way to the next one. AKA each of these decision-making dickheads are incentivized to blow shit up with each new role, and with the express intention of not being there when the chickens come to roost. Seen it quite often, firsthand.

        Such an idiotic way to run the biggest coordinations of human effort on the planet, but HEY what the fuck do I know? Stolid, predictable leadership with a commitment to improving outcomes for all stakeholders? Wouldn’t that mean shareholders would do a little less well? Those gaudy yachts and mansions don’t buy themselves…

        • @[email protected]
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          214 hours ago

          I swear CRPGs need to be made mandatory for corporate leadership. You will respect the long term 0.05 increase to damage every level you motherfuckers.

          Joking aside I do think there should be a dedicated gremlin who’s job is to beat corporate dipshits with a stick everytime they try to pull short term fuckery. Rome wasn’t built in a day, it was built in generations and what do ya know it lasted over two thousand fucking years.

        • @ghostrider2112
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          15 hours ago

          Don’t get me started LOL! Yeah, let alone all of the mental health issues caused by the continued uncertainty. I estimated my last company lost almost 10,000 YEARS of IT/company experience in just TWO years of such churn with new leaders brought in from the outside.

          • @Benjaben
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            214 hours ago

            God DAMN, when your executive leadership sounds like part of some biblical scourge lol

            “…and asunder shall be cast 10,000 seasons of thy most learned men, and…”

            • @ghostrider2112
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              14 hours ago

              It felt like it at the time. ChatGPT came out during the height of it. So, I was able to draft some great versions of the antics as if they were episodes of The Office.

      • The Quuuuuill
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        2321 hours ago

        the top level doesn’t care. our suffering is their joy. they know they must be rich because they are insulated from the problems they cause us

        • @ghostrider2112
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          1721 hours ago

          yes, that is why we need to remember that billions of lambs can easily take on millions of lions. our problem continues to be lambs that want to fight lambs in the hope that they may someday join the lions. so, we all continue to be hunted.

    • @[email protected]
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      1317 hours 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!”

      • @grue
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        616 hours ago

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

    • @SoftestSapphic
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      17 hours 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      620 hours ago

      That sounds super inefficient. Someone should create a taskforce to look into that inefficiency.

    • Ghostface
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      420 hours ago

      This is partof the point