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US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

bbc.com

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Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#221

Post by joshstrange »

setr wrote: post #139
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the twitter employees come back at the same pay or did they ask for much more expensive packages since they'd been identified as crucial to operations? Sounds like the kind of thing that could end up increasing costs rather than reducing them.

If it ends up being something like 80% non-crucial and stays fired, the other 20% return with double-pay, you’re probably still running a net-positive with better resource allocation

Except in reality the 20% coming back are probably not the best. Some will be but at least some of your best employees are going to be smart enough (or have enough self-respect) to go elsewhere. And/or those are the people skilled enough to find a new job quickly (or know they can find one quickly) and aren’t willing to come back.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#222

Post by alimw »

refurb wrote: post #172
alimw wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be talking about this one claim? Your comment reads as if you are dismissing the whole article. > That included staff who are stationed at facilities where the weapons are built, according to CNN.

No, that’s the claim of the source on who was fired. Which may be true, but being true doesn’t make the headline true (I.e. the people fired at the facility could be secretaries and other support staff).

What?

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#223

Post by ty6853 »

derangedHorse wrote: post #195
ProcNetDev wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have provided no evidence that the fired employees provided zero productivity. Firing thousands of people should not be the decision of one unelected man. Congress funded those agencies congress has to defund them. The middle class pay the vast majority of the taxes. The mega-rich pay very little as a percentage of their wealth.

> The middle class pay the vast majority of the taxes. This is objectively false [1]. > The mega-rich pay very little as a percentage of their wealth. This statement is a very different one than the previous and it’s expected since there’s no wealth tax. [1] https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-in...

It is objectively false in the same sense it is 'false' to suggest renters pay property tax.

They don't sign the check, but the costs of tax burdens are often captured in the prices of goods/services offered by rich company owners.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#224

Post by sillyfluke »

surgical_fire wrote: post #130
m_fayer wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that a reasonably free, vital, innovative, and prosperous society was compatible with a fundamental respect for human dignity. That's why I moved to Europe. Now it seems I was overoptimistic, but that doesn't mean we should wholly embrace backsliding right into the 19th century version of "progress".

It is the same reason I moved to Europe. I don't think I was overoptimistic. It was literally the best decision I ever made, in every aspect I can think of.

I took the "overoptimisim" to mean that the parent thought Europe could defend and maintain this outlook well into the forseeable future, an assumption that is being tested by Europe's own rightward slide. The way things are right now in Europe, to say that it might have been overoptimistic to think that Europe will continue as it has makes sense to me. At the moment, it is unclear to most people who live there how much of their way of life (if any) is subsidized by the US.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#225

Post by tremendoussss »

tossandthrow wrote: post #60
PaulRobinson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is, it’s not backfired - the example you cited “worked”, because it rapidly identified key personnel without weeks or months of subjective analysis and political posturing by workers and their supervisors. I think in federal government the risks are much higher, and Musk is being an idiot by exposing the America public to those risks, but the feedback loop for him on these previous experiments has been positi…

It only works because you allow yourself to sorely disrespect human beings, their livelihood and their feeling of safety. A strategy that seems to be hot in the US, but is an utter ethical abomination and shameful.

Government employees shouldn't be immune to layoffs. If the government goes bankrupt, everyone is much worse off. The longer these systems stay down the worse things can go, this is the most humane way to do what needs to be done. Which is take away the power (money) that the parasitic relationship between business and DC is built on and make sure we don't go bankrupt.

They will be able to collect unemployment, do we know if they are getting severance?

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#226

Post by jeltz »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72
PaulRobinson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is, it’s not backfired - the example you cited “worked”, because it rapidly identified key personnel without weeks or months of subjective analysis and political posturing by workers and their supervisors. I think in federal government the risks are much higher, and Musk is being an idiot by exposing the America public to those risks, but the feedback loop for him on these previous experiments has been positi…

Did the twitter employees come back at the same pay or did they ask for much more expensive packages since they'd been identified as crucial to operations? Sounds like the kind of thing that could end up increasing costs rather than reducing them.

I don't know about Twitter but for the companies I know of that have done this people generally can't vack for 1.5x to 2x their old pay.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#227

Post by [deleted] »

b112 wrote: post #52
clort wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I don't really understand how they delivered letters letting people know that they had been fired but were struggling to rescind the letters because "we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel" Did they just hand them a note saying "your fired" and escort them out of the building?

From what I read elsewhere, resignation letters were sent via corporate email. Once "escorted out" of the building, naturally their corporate accounts were cancelled. This article says: Attempting to reach the workers, the email, which was sent to current employees, said: "Please work with your supervisors to send this information (once you get it) to people's personal contact emails." (FYI, your != you are. use you'…

[deleted]

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#228

Post by scarab92 »

daghamm wrote: post #210
scarab92 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You are wrong on two accounts. There are plenty of ways for getting rid of underperformers in a goverment organisation. I've seen entire teams being sacked, and also some of the hardest working people I know work for goverment organisations. Also, you cannot run the goverment like an startup that is always running on the edge. A majority of startups fail and that's fine, but one goverment organisation failing could c…

[flagged]

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#229

Post by tremendoussss »

suzzer99 wrote: post #153
tossandthrow wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only works because you allow yourself to sorely disrespect human beings, their livelihood and their feeling of safety. A strategy that seems to be hot in the US, but is an utter ethical abomination and shameful.

Before the election, Vivek or Elon or one of the galaxy-brains floated the idea of firing every other employee in the federal government based on the last digit of their social security number. The cruelty is the point.

I think being fair is the point. Instead of using any metric that might infringe on a protected class, let's use math?

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#230

Post by bagels »

jononor wrote: post #171
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very similar to the story about the Supercharger network. Apparently the boss of the team was told to make layoffs, she did some but not enough to please Musk, so Musk in a face to face meeting demanded she make more. She said they couldn't without affecting delivery. Musk fired her. Then fired the team. Then hired the team back because she was correct. But not before lots of ongoing projects got stalled because cont…

One goal is to get rid of any critical voices. Only yes-men (or women) will be left standing. It is a test of allegiance, and those that care more about the mission of the organization, or team, customers, users, general public than the boss - are considered to fail. It is core to authoritarianism. Kneel before the king :/

As it was at Twitter.
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