Thank you to everyone who approached me at the PNER convention and appreciated my writing. I wish this was a happy post focused on the amazing time Kade and I had there. Alas, a steady diet of doom scrolling while fully sick wasn’t helpful at all. It did help clarify some things for me. As Jim Wright pointed out awhile ago, “The cruelty is the point.” Watching the civil service be decimated and the entire federal workforce (and related contractors and non-profits and all their families and local communities) dealing with pain and uncertainty and a total lack of understanding from the DOGE horror buzz cutting crew, I also realized: The American people, as a whole, are terrible bosses.

Before you dive into my thoughts about all this, take a side trip to read some folks that are bit more cohesive than I am right now: 

• DOGE is the Theranos of Cost-Cutting, Paul Krugman
• The Purge: Wrecking the Civil Service, Dan Rather
• This is How We Fall Out of Love with the World: The Twilight of the American Passion Job, Anne Helen Petersen
• Questions from Federal workers who are currently under attack, Ask A Manager (spend some time, read the comments)

The civil service of “faceless bureaucrats” work for America. Park rangers, IRS accountants, FDA inspectors, air traffic controllers, they all work for America. For decades plenty of folks have entered civil service, not only for a steady paycheck but to work for the betterment of the country, in a huge variety of fields and departments and non-profits and contractors, some in uniform, plenty without. In return for probably making less than they would in the private sector, they plugged away at implementing laws and edicts from Congress and the President, long steady work through administrations.

Then, at some point, it became more and more popular to blame the ills of the world on the those “faceless bureaucrats” than on the folks who make the laws. Public sentiment shifted and now we’re at the logical end of blaming the federal workforce for all our problems: electing the grossest, most evil men to burn it all the ground and damn the pain it causes. The rug is being burned under the feet of the federal workforce, a complete bait and switch. Instead of identifying with that one dude in Office Space, the American people are that boss asking for TPS reports. 

I do see folks posting “Don’t complain about accountability!” regarding the latest attempt to demoralize the Federal workforce. Basically, respond to a random ass email from “DOGE” five things you, as a Federal government employee, accomplished last week. If you don’t reply, they (DOGE) will consider it a resignation. There are so many things wrong with this narrow view of this email. First, pretty much any even semi functional workplace (be it private or public) already knows what each employee or position is responsible for, and there’s a process in place to ensure those metrics are met. I’d argue that Federal and State government employees tend to be more accountable, on average, than private company employees, because of the public scrutiny and expectations. But say a random Federal employee replies to this email, uncomplaining and fulfilling the requirement. You can’t view this email without the context that it’s being delivered in. What about the processes already in place to ensure work is being completed? Why is there so much “stick” (respond or your fired) with just one email? Why should one week of work and your summary of it determine if you keep your job in public service? Who is receiving this email? Will they understand the context of your work? Will this be reviewed by knowledgeable humans, or AI? Let’s not forget to mention how much of what a lot of Federal employees do is various levels of classified/need to know that shouldn’t be spread around. It’s not about the email; it’s about the demoralization and trying to slice public service to the bone. 

When did we switch over from the general consensus that some things should be for the public good, and there should be a workforce to support that? When did we start assuming that anyone accepting tax money directly was somehow trying to cheat us, rather than provide a service?  Why is it so awful for a FDA inspector, or NIH researcher, or nurse at a VA hospital or an aid person on the ground outside the States to receive tax money in exchange for their service, but not so awful for a giant private company to receive a massive tax break in exchange for building a new warehouse somewhere? Think about the things and people you interact with on a daily basis, based on that “Day in the life of a voter” meme. You wake up and make breakfast that you know is safe to eat because of Federal or State food laws and inspectors; you drive a car that is safe and spewing less harmful emissions than 30 years ago because of multiple layers of Federal and State laws and inspectors, engineers and lawyers; you drive that safe car on safe and relatively pothole less roads and bridges and traffic lights because of more Federal and State engineers and contractors; sit in an office with reliable power provided by a public utility or a private company that still operates under Federal and State laws; stretch your legs at lunch time at a public park where a public employee of some stripe is picking up garbage and cleaning the bathroom (a job I’ve held before); that list goes on. This holds true for every American, whether you work an office job in a city or run a ranch or farm in the boonies. That farmer or rancher? Plants crops or moves herds based on weather data that all comes from Federal meteorologists, and all the workers who support them; ship cattle under Federal rules and regulations that aim to minimize incidents and harm to the cattle in transit; dig wells, rotate crops on a certain field, vaccinate their animals all based on Federally funded or run or published research. Federal and state laws, and the Federal and state and other public workers and contractors, impact your daily life a heck of a lot more than fully private companies do. 

This focus on workers also entirely ignores that fact that the budget of the entire Federal workforce is not what is currently leading to overspending and America’s governmental debt being so high. We could pay triple the amount of folks on the Federal dole and still wouldn’t add that much to the debt. To really address that is in Congress’s hands (power of the purse ya’ll) and man are they…going 1000% in the wrong direction with it. We need to get real in the weeds and look at money coming in, and a much better question than “Is a random Federal employee at the IRS getting paid for 40 hours of work but technically living high and only producing 30 hours of work widgets product?” is “Are billionaires and millionaires paying their fair share into the tax base?” Or even, “Does our current tax code support the public services (National Parks and Forests, food safety, immigration enforcement/processing, transportation infrastructure and travel safety, defense spending which is a whole other kettle of fish that it’s rather curious DOGE hasn’t touched yet) in a equitable and straightforward and easily trackable way?” Ask those type of questions, and we might be able to work towards that more equitable society most of us are hoping for.