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Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

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Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#41

Post by steveBK123 »

jisnsm wrote: post #29
_fat_santa wrote: post #24

I find the reaction to DOGE quite fascinating and it's really exposed just how different some work cultures are. In tech we face layoffs constantly, so much so that's not a huge shock when a FAANG lays off hundreds or even thousands. We might get a couple of stories if the layoff is particularly large but the general consensus is "this is the way of the world, go find another job". Contrast that with the stories we a…

It could be worse. I live in southern Europe and not only are civil servants virtually unfirable, they also have much better salaries and benefits than they would have in the private sector.

In the US civil servants are generally hard to fire, and get good benefits, but their salary is far lower than private sector in most cases.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#42

Post by pmg101 »

Bhilai wrote: post #31
_fat_santa wrote: post #24

I find the reaction to DOGE quite fascinating and it's really exposed just how different some work cultures are. In tech we face layoffs constantly, so much so that's not a huge shock when a FAANG lays off hundreds or even thousands. We might get a couple of stories if the layoff is particularly large but the general consensus is "this is the way of the world, go find another job". Contrast that with the stories we a…

There will always be dumb shit in every kind of spending. Heck, my family and kids spend on dumb shit. I bet half of the Amazon orders going to people's places is dumb shit. Can there be cuts in spending and expenses of the government, the answer will always be yes but treating the federal government like a startup is the next level of dumb shit. Its specially being done by people who have no knowledge of government…

Unfortunately the people doing the fucking around will not be the people finding out.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#43

Post by localghost3000 »

alecco wrote: post #33
arlongparker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s very different in tech where we are compensated quite well and losing a job doesn’t mean falling off the face of capitalism. Most of us are able to have modest savings but most Americans are barely hanging on.

Good luck going past 40 in tech.

I'm almost 50 and doing fine. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if I was less experienced though.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#44

Post by RandomBacon »

Molitor5901 wrote: post #32
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

My Facebook feed is full of unhinged content from random pages I never followed or interacted with. I'd be fine with some edgy content, but there's limits to what I'd consider acceptable. Most recently I see these "memes" where it's literally just an image of Elon with a hand pointing a gun at him, and a caption saying suggesting he should be murdered. The most worrying part is that I don't know if this sentiment is…

I loathe the AI and suggested content. I only want to see the content posted by people I have explicitly followed, I do not want to see what some random group or person posted. The inability to turn this off is the reason I stopped using Facebook. If I want to seek out groups and people I will do so on my own, I do not want a fire hose flooding my personal feed.

Facebook feed of just your friends' posts in chronological order: https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#45

Post by scarface_74 »

alecco wrote: post #33
arlongparker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s very different in tech where we are compensated quite well and losing a job doesn’t mean falling off the face of capitalism. Most of us are able to have modest savings but most Americans are barely hanging on.

Good luck going past 40 in tech.

50 here going strong and still an IC and I got my first job in BigTech at 46. When I lost my job in late 2023 I had three offers within three weeks including one that would have paid more than I was making - in cash - at BigTech. I didn’t want the stress and I wanted to get back to smaller companies.

When I was looking again last year it all took 3 weeks to get the offer I have now. It only took that long to get scheduled for all of the interviews from an internal recruiter reaching out to me.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#46

Post by lesuorac »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #36

This whole situation is absolutely stunning to watch. Sleazy government officials illegally order sleazy Facebook employees to censor people. Predictably, the government was caught because large groups of people conspiring to do something nefarious for extended periods of time ("conspiracies") are difficult to hide. When the government is caught illegally and unconstitutionally censoring its own people, the people ge…

> This whole situation is absolutely stunning to watch.

It is but not for the reason you think it is.

The twitter files are about a period of time where _Donald Trump was president_!

People go on-and-on about how twitter shadow bans people and lies about it. They never did any of that! "Shadowban" has a specific meaning and by that meaning they weren't shadowbanning. It'd be like saying a missed field goal is a "roughing the receiver penalty". It's just not what the words mean. When Twitter was asked, by Congress, if they artificially lowered the rankings of posts Twitter said yes. There is nothing hidden about this besides that fact that nobody watches congressional testimony and your hivemind doesn't surface any highlights opposing the hivemind's view.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#47

Post by Jtsummers »

steveBK123 wrote: post #37
_fat_santa wrote: post #24

I find the reaction to DOGE quite fascinating and it's really exposed just how different some work cultures are. In tech we face layoffs constantly, so much so that's not a huge shock when a FAANG lays off hundreds or even thousands. We might get a couple of stories if the layoff is particularly large but the general consensus is "this is the way of the world, go find another job". Contrast that with the stories we a…

FAANG employees & Fed employees took a very different trade though. FAANG - You can have sky high compensation with moderate job security and roll-your-own (401K+savings) retirement. Note you mention 40-50% taxes which would imply you are in the sky high compensation bucket. You can also job shop and switch to any of a dozen competitors doing similar stuff. Fed - You can have moderate compensation with sky high job s…

> You can't go work for a competing government like China or Russia, legally.

https://dodsoco.ogc.osd.mil/DoD-Personnel/Ethics-Topics-for-...

Feds can also be limited on who they work for or the kind of work they do after they leave government in the US private sector.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#48

Post by woooooo »

username332211 wrote: post #34
spiderfarmer wrote: post #12

It's never a good thing when the people who take on jobs in the public sector have to fear their own government. Especially when that government wilfully installs under-qualified and downright untrustworthy leadership.

Is it? Qin did conquer the 7 states. After the French revolution, France resisted the combined might of the rest of Europe by being unafraid to murder it's generals when they underperformed. The Soviet union is said to have reached it's apogee under Stalin. If anything, history shows that ruling government officials by means of fear is very good sign for the nation, but tends to be harmful to the rulers.

Counterpoint there would be Mao. Lots of fear and starvation, less impressive results until Deng started fixing things.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#49

Post by pjc50 »

_fat_santa wrote: post #24

I find the reaction to DOGE quite fascinating and it's really exposed just how different some work cultures are. In tech we face layoffs constantly, so much so that's not a huge shock when a FAANG lays off hundreds or even thousands. We might get a couple of stories if the layoff is particularly large but the general consensus is "this is the way of the world, go find another job". Contrast that with the stories we a…

The government, and especially places like USAID, CDC, NIH and so on, tends also to have a sense of mission that's very different from the Silicon Valley one. People often accept the lower salaries and bureaucracy of the public sector because they want to make a positive difference in the world.

The UK civil service "fast stream" graduate training programme actually requires people to change roles every six months. I believe there are similar rules with a longer timeframe that cycle people through job roles later on in their career. These play a similar role to bank rules which require people to take two weeks contiguous holiday every year: it tends to expose any fraud that requires continuous coverup.

The libertarian anti-government position denies the possibility of these roles improving anything, which is why this conflict arises.

Re: Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

#50

Post by jhedwards »

_fat_santa wrote: post #24

I find the reaction to DOGE quite fascinating and it's really exposed just how different some work cultures are. In tech we face layoffs constantly, so much so that's not a huge shock when a FAANG lays off hundreds or even thousands. We might get a couple of stories if the layoff is particularly large but the general consensus is "this is the way of the world, go find another job". Contrast that with the stories we a…

> But on the other hand, something like 40-50% of my paycheck goes out in taxes and I would prefer if my government actually spent it on things to improve my life versus dumb shit domestically or abroad.

I agree here, but one thing that has come to light recently is that the federal work force is only ~6% of the federal budget. That means that most of those taxes are not going to pay the salaries of government workers.

Also, a lot of the money from our taxes goes to public health, safety, resource management, and infrastructure. I'm happy to pay for things like that. I don't doubt that there is significant waste as well, but there have been a lot of egregious lies lately about how much waste there is and _where_ that waste is located.

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