Live data from Hacker News

Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

cnn.com

211–220 of 380 posts

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the people I talk to seem to have one thing they are holding on to as the thing they'll get out of their vote. Like "he's going to eliminate the income taxes I pay on my social security" etc The thing is almost never true, and even if he were is a horrible self centered justification.

He already passed tax cuts, but only for the wealthy. Literally reversed Robinhood.

> he already passed tax cuts, but only for the wealthy

Well, they’re about to expire and their extension hasn’t been passed yet. But yes. I’m getting a tax cut while the farmers who voted for him get tariffed out of their export markets. Sort of wild.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#213
post #10

The disruption is (part of) the point. Degrading the ability of government employees to do their jobs leads to greater inefficiency and more failure, which can then be pointed at to validate assertions that government isn't efficient and produces bad outcomes.

Absolutely insane that this is what we've come to. It is mind blowing to me that this is what people want. We are regressing this country so rapidly that we are likely to become one of those shithole countries the president so loudly proclaimed Haiti, El Salvador and others were.

Getting into government to make it worse to show that government is bad has been a pillar of the Republican party since Reagan. They just used to pretend about it.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Russia is destabilizing the US and winning which is why I think we're acting like that. And it seems all of our military and counterintelligence capabilities can't stop it. Too much offense, not enough defense, it seems.

Russia is surely involved, but it's pushing on an open door - there's a huge streak of the American right that actually wants this massive catastrophe to befall the US and for the US to become ungovernable and largely ungoverned.

Those people get their news from Russian propaganda outlets.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#215

> (...) returned to ethernet cords in piles around the floor, random wires sticking out of walls, and motion-sensor lights that weren’t working correctly I don't understand that part, maybe I'm missing something - what happened there? Why would the abandoned workplace not look exactly the same as they left it? Where did the ethernet cords appear from? Someone stole TVs from the walls?

> I don't understand that part, maybe I'm missing something - what happened there?

It's hard to think, I know. But don't worry, I'll give you some ideas.

> Why would the abandoned workplace not look exactly the same as they left it?

There might have been some animals who came along and decided that the TVs were very important. Maybe there was a hurricane or a tornado which decided to fuck this place in particular, but only by taking the desks and TVs.

Or, maybe the workers who used the office weren't the last people in the office.

> Where did the ethernet cords appear from?

They were always there. Some people actually know how to have a reliable, secure, and fast data connection. Protip: it's not wifi. Usually when the TV or computer is installed, all of the extra wire is hidden in the wall. But after the TV or computer has been removed, the extra wire length is often left on the ground ready to be tested or installed with the next device.

It's just very annoying (read: time-expensive for little profit) to pull the wires all the way out of the walls to be taken, and even more expensive to re/install in a new location (it's significantly cheaper to just install new wiring instead).

> Someone stole TVs from the walls?

It's possible, but not likely. Those TVs were most likely g(r)ifted to the managers and/or executives. You know, the same people who actually own the building. That's not the same as stolen. Also, the missing TV can now be written off of taxes as a loss for the business. Everyone likes double-dipping, right?

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#216
post #13

[flagged]

An organization allegedly about reducing waste is creating it instead, by arbitrarily forcing a tight timeline and using heavy, specific, and inflexible top-down mandates that don’t let those closer to the work use the information they have (say, that their offices aren’t ready to work in). Spending freezes, blanket firing of tons of provisional workers (fun fact: the recently-promoted are also provisional, this does…

[dead]

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even sure it's true Russia is doing this. I think our elected officials might just be really stupid on their own.

It's going to be difficult to get more of a smoking gun than a plan to drop sanctions and ceasing offensive cyber operations against Russia, as well as the US's lopsided Ukrainian peace deal and pulling financial support for Ukraine. Russia has no military advantage against ours, so there is no reason to placate them due to a threat of war (nukes excluded here, unless Russia has rapidly outpaced us). The only thing t…

>Russia has no military advantage against ours

Recent battle experience is kind of an advantage.

Russia is running a full-scale war against US and NATO weaponry in Ukraine for three years, studying it and refining its tactics.

What was the last battle for USA? Houthis in Yemen? Few airstrikes and limited engagements.

It is very naive to believe Putin doesn’t want to cripple the US economy or that war is not a real threat. The US is critically dependent on semiconductors, and TSMC is much closer to Russia than to America. Think it through.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#218
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[citation needed]

For what it's worth, while I don't agree with the moron bit of what OP said, I have felt like I have seen HN leaning more pro-Trump. And it does also feel like saying anything critical of him can be heavily downvoted. There really does appear to be a large contingent of pro-Trump people on here, at least in my experience. I don't have citations, just my own experience, so, obviously take it for what it is.

Pay attention to usernames. There are some pro-Trump, pro-Russia people here, but honestly not that many. Maybe six or eight, total. They just tend to post 50 times each in any thread that touches on the subject.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#219
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

JFYI federal government headcount of 2M people has stayed constant over last 100 years with ever increasing population and things to take care of. I wouldn't call that bloat, honestly. What has been growing a lot are mostly municipalities, which I guess boils down to more people helping disadvantaged kids in schools, which I guess is nice and more policing, which many are calling to shrink and replace with something…

> disrupting or bribing competing nations, ... and protecting your fucking imaginary property everybody in the world fucking hates.

Wait, I'm confused. Are you upset that Trump might stop the CIA from disrupting foreign nations? Because that's something I've always been ashamed about as an American so I'm having trouble being upset about the intelligence apparatus that everyone hates worldwide apparently getting fired. The media is telling me that it's the end of the West but I just keep thinking about the Tuskegee experiments and South America and I just don't feel sad for these organizations

> US government is not bloated.

Regardless, it has come to the point where we cannot afford the interest on our debt

Post reply on HN