US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by scintill76 » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

scarab92 wrote: post #228

daghamm wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

> you can't blame him for not wanting to wait 2 years

I do blame him. What harm of 2 years of status quo could be greater than the risks of completely breaking safety organizations?

> Elon who has to get rid of underperformers without credible data

No, this is not a valid solution to the problem, if there even are significant performance problems. “We don’t know exactly who the problematic people are, so let’s just fire every probationary employee, you know the ones who haven’t even been around long enough to be chronic underperformers?”

It’s either a very foolish attempt to solve the problem, and/or he actually just wants to destroy government.

> the real blame for this is with the previous administrators who neglected this problem for years

Trump was in charge 5-9 years ago, does he get some blame too?

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

#332

Post by digdugdirk » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #291

yeyeyeyeyeyeyee wrote: post #254

The US is busy making the biggest own-goal one could imagine. From a position of world-wide dominance and respect, it is being destroyed at a rate that is too quick for most to even start to comprehend what the outcome of these actions will be. I suspect the consequences of these actions will be carried for the rest of our lives, as they are not so easy to turn back. Lots of other countries are standing by watching w…

[flagged]

It's not embarrassing reversals, that's the problem. People who want the government to work well for the general population will leave, and those that can't find employment in the private sector will stay. So we're immediately left with a less capable government.

Those who stay will be doing so with the full understanding of the vindictive nature of the current administration. What makes you think these employees will stand up to illegal requests? What makes you think they'll go the extra mile? It's a bad situation all around, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

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

#333

Post by ben_w » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #219

TeMPOraL wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but then burning everything around the billboard doesn't necessarily make you a shitty person, and also opinions of people siding with advertisers aren't somehow the definitive ones. I mean, why do people who hate what Twitter is now care about it's lost revenue? Especially given what it was, and where the revenue came from, this isn't exactly an argument that generalizes well.

The real question is why people think Twitter's lost revenue is linked to Musk's management. There doesn't seem to be a theory about a causal link. If anything the argument is "Musk is a bad person -> Twitter lost revenue" which suggests his management practices had no effect on the company's operation.

FWIW, I absolutely blame his management of Twitter rather than his political alignment or questions of morality.

Reason being, look at Tesla stock price: Musk's gaffes have a short term impact, but overall the price is way up since buying Twitter.

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

#334

Post by joyeuse6701 » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

tremendoussss wrote: post #229

suzzer99 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In another time it was called decimation, and was used as collective punishment.

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

#335

Post by bix6 » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

chinathrow wrote: post #297

mschuster91 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are stumbling fools without systems and rules (organizations, institutions, laws, regulations, ...) to rely on. The wide masses yes - the 1% who is looking to profit immensely from the upcoming chaos not. DOGE is not about trimming government costs, it is about allowing the large companies to rip off the masses without repercussions (e.g. the planned demise of CFPB or OSHA/DoL) and it is about preparing the tran…

The rich are endangering their riches in this experiment. The pitch forks will have their field day eventually. 2014 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchfor...

Almost 10 years later and still no pitchforks?

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

#336

Post by holowoodman » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

throw0101d wrote: post #193

surgical_fire wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 don't think I was overoptimistic. It was literally the best decision I ever made, in every aspect I can think of. A lot of folks mention the lower salaries in Europe (generally, and especially for tech): has mattered much in your (personal) experience for quality of life and happiness?

What imho matters more is culture. There is less of a salary, but a culture of safety and stability.

However, this is not for everyone: While you can be more sure of keeping your job in rough times, you can also be sure that the lazy idiot 2 desks over will keep his job. And you can be sure that any change will be resisted because change is seen as inherently bad and threatening, and reasons will be found to shoot down your new-fangled fancy ideas. YMMV, to each his own, etc.

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

#337

Post by throwme0827349 » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #291

yeyeyeyeyeyeyee wrote: post #254

The US is busy making the biggest own-goal one could imagine. From a position of world-wide dominance and respect, it is being destroyed at a rate that is too quick for most to even start to comprehend what the outcome of these actions will be. I suspect the consequences of these actions will be carried for the rest of our lives, as they are not so easy to turn back. Lots of other countries are standing by watching w…

[flagged]

Laws are being broken to make the omelet. Will the executive constrain itself to breaking only the laws you don't like, and stop when you want it to? Will the legislative branch cede it's authority and responsibilities only temporarily?

It might hard to unscramble that omelet if we want the rule of law back later.

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

#338

Post by James_K » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

ty6853 wrote: post #259

someothherguyy wrote: post #201

If anything this whole DOGE scenario has illuminated is how confused and overconfident many in this country are. We are stumbling fools without systems and rules (organizations, institutions, laws, regulations, ...) to rely on. I wonder how much behavior like this stems from weak regulation in the US to begin with. It seems like it would reinforce the rise of agents that assume they can ask for forgiveness after acti…

Feds consumed It's hard to take these apocalyptic premonitions about federal government reduction seriously.

So you're telling me that government spending was continually going up, and while this happened our quality of life massively and suddenly improved? I feel like reversing this process is very bad.

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

#339

Post by tremendoussss » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:40 PM UTC

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #281

tremendoussss wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right it's not a startup. It's an organization in a town that voted 90%+ in favor of keeping their jobs, not being prosecuted, or some kind of "threat to democracy". You can't run an organization if the ground troops are resistant to executing the vision of leadership

Pesky things, these laws.

Honest question, what laws in this context?

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

#340

Post by scarab92 » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:40 PM UTC

ageofwant wrote: post #312

scarab92 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A grudge? They've just been put into a strong negotiating position, because now both parties acknowledge that these are key employees.

Yes good, and now because their value is appreciated they can be paid what they will be paid in the private sector, perhaps ~180k/y instead of 60k/y. So if you fire 2/3 of the workforce and pay those that remain what they are "worth", you have saved exactly what ?

In your hypothetical scenario, it would be a no brainer to proceed.

Your key workers are now paid at market rate, and those who were unnecessary will find other jobs.