"RIF" Reduction in Force - 10 Gov bureaucrats doing the job that 1 can do - Would be nice to cut it in Half !

I hate to see hard working Americans lose their jobs, But as I remember growing up. You got a government job for the pension and you knew the pay was going to be low.

I know someone with a gov job. Tells me all that goes on. Its like once your in, everyone educates each other on how to get "scam the tax payers" the most out of us, of course they do not see it like that. Makes me angry. Overtime is a big scam, they all figure out how to stay for extra hours every day. By the time they retire, they get well over $70,000 a year pension for life. add onto that free health. Don't forget there are at least 2 or 3 people who have retired in that job already collecting the same give or take. No wonder our taxes keep going up.

I live on long Island NY, one of the highest tax counties in the US.

I have a close family member with a gov job. Here is what I have learned:

1. He is not allowed to work overtime, and is not allowed to "donate" his time to the gov if he does need to work more than 40 hours in a week. Therefore, every minute he works over gets banked so he can take it off later. Staying an extra 15 minutes or so a day, he can build up about one free day off every month. No need to dip into vacation days when you have free days building up, right?

2. He can bank vacation days if he doesn't use them. Some people bank hundreds of them during their careers, which means they can call them in at the end and retire early. If he is getting free days built up by working "overtime," banking a few vacation days is not a problem. Not to mention, after a few years, they get more an more vacation days (like 15 per year), so it's pretty easy to not use them all.

3. Workers who are really pathetic and need to be fired instead get all kinds of counseling and nonsense to help them get back on track. Some lazy people milk this for months, and usually end up transferred to another department where the whole process starts again.

4. Workers who need to be fired never have anything negative put in their reviews because the managers don't want to scare off the next department to whom they are trying to transfer the worthless worker. Why would another department take someone who is terrible? So no one mentions it, and the person moves on (and often up) with no negative reviews. Then the next department realizes they were duped, and they do their best to pawn them off on the next unsuspecting department.

5. Workers in his agency are encouraged to get a master's degree. They can take off a year PAID to work on it, PLUS the government will pay the tuition. He was teased mercilessly because he already had a master's degree when he took the job. (He scrimped, saved, and worked his way through his degree, like a sucker, they tell him.)

6. The department he is in does not have critical 8-5 hours, so workers can arrive any time between 5:00 am and 11:00 am and leave 9 hours later (minus an hour for lunch). Some workers come super early to avoid morning traffic and/or to get off when school gets out for their kids; some people come in late to avoid morning traffic or because they are night owls. How in the hell can anyone schedule meetings and such when there is only about a 3-hour window (around lunch time too) when everyone is supposed to be there?

There is so much more, but you get the idea.

Fire them all.

Hire back those who pass the NSA social media check to weed out the 5th columnists.

Government now reduced and swamp swept out.

The hard working Americans aren't the bureaucrats.

There are some that work hard ontil they are chastised by their fellow bureaucrats to stop it.

It seems like a lot of these departments would welcome a round of RIFs for the "non essential people". They just label the good ones essential, then let the others get RIF'd.

You are exactly right. The good people get super frustrated and would welcome an "easy" way to ditch the leeches.

We should start a list of all the ways gov bureaucrats scam the system.

Inside info. My friend is in law enforcement, Which is one of the expenses "taxes" I believe in. But come on with the abuse of tax payers with things like:

Pulling people over at 10 mins before their shift ends for the littlest infraction "not singling a lane change". Then taking upto an hour over to do paperwork to get that overtime. Add up at the end of the year. A Scam !

This is basically true.

Administration 44 went on a massive hiring binge for Federal workers to help prop up the dismal job numbers. Most of these are useless and very much anti-45. There is some strategy going on here, and I am curious to see what happens in the end.

As a lifetime federal worker, there is 80-85% waste from what I see. I have been in "essential" positions, and these folks are very dedicated, and most don't care who is in office and will risk life and limb to do their jobs. God bless them.

Possible true story: In early 90's, fresh out of college, joined a new deal agency. Kicked butt, solved problems, automated stupid jobs (that this person now realizes were designed as "busywork" to fill up the hours.)

Marvin Runyon appointed by Bush Sr. to clean up agency, offered volunteer RIFs as part of the first round. Kid took it and went to private sector. Later found out that prior to taking the RIF there were many letters of written by customers prising kids work, never shared with the kid and kid was never promoted over the 2 years there (the deadwood actively supressed success.)

RIF them all.

Last Edited by DarthPaulson on 01/21/2019 09:28 AM

In 1988, Runyon was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to head the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA, America's largest electric power producer, was struggling with enormous debts from its failing nuclear power program. A creation of the New Deal era, TVA had also been the Congressional dumping ground for a multitude of unrelated Federal programs and projects. TVA managed not only nuclear plants, but ran recreation facilities, tested electric cars, produced fertilizer, and even owned a herd of buffalo—in all, more than 186 separate business units. TVA's electric rates had skyrocketed in past years to pay for uncompleted nuclear plants, and high electric rates were threatening the region's economy.

Runyon, a serious-minded technical manager, believed that TVA's management had too many distractions from TVA's wide-ranging activities, so he ordered non-essential business units closed. Runyon's aggressive cost cutting began with a promise to residential and commercial customers that TVA would not increase rates under his watch. This pledge forced TVA management to reduce costs in order to keep electric rates stable.

Although popular with homeowners and the business community, Runyon's cost cutting included massive layoffs—more than 7,000 employees were let go on one day alone. The staff reductions earned him the sobriquet "Carvin Marvin" which inspired a satirical song played on local radio stations.

On the other hand, the TVA Runyon left behind was much leaner, more focused, and had begun paying down its massive debt load. Many experts believe TVA would not have survived without the restructuring Runyon accomplished.

Last Edited by DarthPaulson on 01/21/2019 09:50 AM

From what I read about the RIF, tenure is one of the criteria for firing. Therefore, all the newest hires would theoretically be gone first, right?

If that's the strategy, I like it!

My source was hired either at the end of admin 42 or the beginning of 43, I forget. He has gotten a raise pretty much every year I think, which I forgot to mention. Another perk the rest of us don't get!

I've been freelance/self-employed for 25 years and have not raised my rates in at least 15 years. This is partly my own "fault," but the reality is in the private sector which will not bear it. Sorry, no sympathy from me for these folks.

There are some really great workers that I know, and I hope they stay and are able to continue to do their work unimpeded by the slackers and nonsense around them. Remove the slackers and the nonsense, please!

Last Edited by Renaissance Woman on 01/21/2019 10:08 AM

Pres. Trump: Please start firing them all tomorrow!

At least let them star RIFing the deadwood.

Awesome plan.

Give the ones laid off their backpay from date of shutdown to date of layoff - THE END.

TVA scholarship paid for my 1st year of college in '78.
Three Mile Island "accident" was March '79.
Congress killed the Clinch River Breeder Reactor in '83.
It was designed to recycle the "spent" fuel, but was deemed "wasteful."
Instead it all piled up in storage ponds. Wasteful???
Similar reactors in other countries have been sabotaged.
Chernobyl and Fukushima come to mind.

Last Edited by hillbilly on 01/21/2019 10:42 AM

Nuclear power is only economical by kicking the can on waste that has a half life of thousands (millions?) of years. Yeah, that cost is like pensions for people who never die.

This is as close to reality as any post on government workplace that I have ever seen. With regards to point 6 managers can require employees to be at work at certain times with advance notice. Also, we were required to work 40 hours per week. That means we could work 4 10-hour days, and take off Fridays. Many did.

The Breeder would have extracted energy while cleaning the fuel to be reused again.
Eliminating the massive costs of storage/disposal.
The internet has allowed sharing this info that wasn't publicly available back then.

Last Edited by hillbilly on 01/21/2019 10:49 AM

I'm curious as to why you would want the new hires out. From my perspective they are cheaper, more inclined to work harder to prove themselves, and not trying to just hang on to collect a pension.

Hard working Americans have nothing to do with government leeches. The best outcome of all of this could be a 90% decrease in government employment and all pensions cut. The people who actually work are tired of paying for the welfare employed.

None of that is true in my agency. Overtime is strictly limited although anything over 40 hours worked in a week becomes comp time. My pension is nowhere near $70,000, and I share my healthcare costs with the taxpayer.

A major reason I get pissed at mainly idiotic liberals who complain about taxes not being higher on affluent Americans is because they never bitch about taxes being too high on modest-income Americans---particularly when federal, state and city taxes are added together.

Such people also tend to bitch about the greed of corporate America more than they do about the greed of government America. Even though most companies, with a few exceptions like utilities providing electricity and water, don't mandate that its customers pay for their goods or services and employees and executives.

The IRS is like a version of Walmart that requires X number of dollars from its shoppers per year.


.

You work "inside the box" but the shutdown has you thinking "outside."
Good, your "company" is bankrupt, welcome to the club.
Eliminating foreign-owned banks in all countries is the only effective start.
Sounds straight out of the training manual.
My bubble popped 30 years ago when I became self-employed.
We share our costs with all of the government freeloaders.
And our taxes are sent "overseas" to the 51st (or 48th actually) state.

Last Edited by hillbilly on 01/21/2019 11:41 AM

Agreed

State government should have more ruling authority over the Fed.

States should be governed like mini nation's under a United union.

One reason to want them out is that Obummer supposedly hired a lot of non-America-first types, with his supposed ties to MB (Huma) and whatnot. Perhaps this is all rumor; I'd be curious about your perspective from what you have seen. Either way, I don't trust him or his people one tiny bit.

(I'd rather have cynical "old" Gen-Xers who still happen to love America than a bunch of MSM brainwashed Millenials chosen by the previous admin, but maybe that's over-generalization.)

A previous poster also said that 44 (Obummer) quickly filled a lot of unneeded jobs just for the numbers, which implies to me that they are not necessary and could go. Were these the best people possible for these magic new jobs, or did they say the things the previous admin's people wanted to hear?

In general, anything that undoes anything Obummer did is fine by me.

Your perspective and experience with this would be appreciated.

What does RIF and SES have in common....

[link to www.opm.gov (secure)]

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More like 50,000-1