#go through the federal

[brewscoop]

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[lostinthewoodsomewhere]

This room is so pretty, but also just so funny to me. Like, somebody had to make this, there was probably a team of people dedicated to creating what is essentially a theatre backdrop for an astral entity! You go to work for a government agency so secret most people cant even see the building, and you end up doing this...

Oh FBC I love you! You do need to change some things, but not everything...

[loveisparpall]

[shootingstarpilot]

saw your post last week about your job i hope it went okay!

First off, thank you so much for checking in, that is genuinely so sweet of you and I appreciate it tremendously. Now, am I answering this three weeks late because I wanted to have an actual resolution for you?

Yes. Yes I am.

Am I also about to vent for several paragraphs, screaming incoherently into the void as the insane stress of the past few months searches desperately for an open valve?

Yeah, that too.

So. February 14, 2025. With no formal warning and only 24 hours of informal warning from other rank-and-file staff, myself and several thousand other probationary employees (meaning those with less than a year in their current position) were unceremoniously and illegally terminated. Termination notifications stated that our "subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department's current needs." This comes into play later, because this is patently false. Myself and many others had promotions to permanent status in the works before the federal hiring freeze condemned them to the void. These terminations did not involve any of our direct supervisors or anyone who had actual knowledge of the quality of our work.

These notifications were rolled out by region. Sitting at my computer, watching the texts roll in from friends at parks across the country, knowing mine was coming and not being able to do a damn thing about it...

Yeah. That was fucking miserable.

I get very lucky. My boss goes to bat hard for me and gets me a position with our partner organization; I am unemployed only for the weekend. A lot of national parks have these (most libraries and the like have them too). These partner organizations are often vital to the functioning of the park. As an example of what they can do- because they're non-governmental non-profits, they can assist in fundraising efforts and solicit donations that federal regulations bar parks (as federal entities) from participating in.

I am, again, tremendously lucky. Other probies have families to support. Other probies are left without paychecks entirely. We are supposed to have access to our benefits for a month after being terminated; many find their health insurance is now inactive. Other probies, after uprooting their whole lives to move to remote locations for their dream jobs, are suddenly left isolated and unmoored. Many have to move back home, closer to friends and family who can help support them.

And then March 13 rolls around, and two separate judges (US District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco and US District Judge James Bredar of Baltimore) order the Trump administration to reinstate all fired probationary employees by March 18. Fully reinstated, meaning they can't just put employees on paid admin leave and call them "reinstated."

I don't know how the other agencies handled this, but just for the DOI:

Going completely against the court orders, the DOI splits all probationary employees into two groups. Group A are mostly front-line probies, those involved in visitor services, maintenance, etc., and are to be reinstated immediately. Group B are mostly back-of-house- admin, resource management, and the like- to be placed on paid admin leave. I'm in cultural resource management, so I was placed in Group B. Also worth noting- all of those notifications about group designations and reinstatements? We got absolutely nothing in writing. All of this is conveyed by phone calls from our direct supervisors, who are as baffled and furious as the rest of us.

(If you had any faith left that "oh, they're doing this to save money!", let that put those to rest. Paid admin leave means you're paying people to do nothing. We all were chomping at the bit to GET BACK TO DOING OUR JOBS.)

So, of course, this sets off a ruckus. We are contacting the courts, we are contacting our union reps, we are contacting our congressional reps, those of us who live or work in one of the 19 states that filed the lawsuits are contacting our attorney generals. We care about the work we do. We are not content with paid admin leave.

And the ruckus works. The next day, we receive notice that the group designations are no longer valid. Everyone is being reinstated, effective immediately.

Great.

Until the Supreme Court strikes this down on a legal technicality, saying that the states and the union do not have "standing" to sue. Importantly, they're not ruling on the legality of the firings themselves; that question is still making its way through the courts.

The Department of Commerce, which includes agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, immediately re-fires all their probationary employees. This is because DOC leadership is full of a bunch of stupid cunts.

DOI leadership does one thing right and decides not to re-fire their probies until the legality of doing so is decided. This is good, because it gives more time for current probationary employees to make it to a year of service, thereby taking them off probationary status. This is also what happens to me- three days after the SC ruling comes down, I make it off probationary status and breathe a (very tentative) sigh of relief.

Now I am faced with a different problem.

There are a few different categories of employment. You can be permanent, which is exactly what it sounds like. You can be seasonal, which is also exactly what it sounds like. Or you can be term. Term employees function on an annual renewal; positions can be renewed for up to four years. Normally, while the renewals themselves are only processed the week before your term is up (for some godforsaken reason), you'll usually know whether or not you're getting renewed a few months beforehand because your supervisor will tell you whether or not they've filed the paperwork to extend your term. This is generally fine, because having the advance notice lets you prepare and search for new jobs. HR basically rubber-stamps your supervisor's decision.

However, in this new hellscape, whether or not you get renewed is no longer up to your supervisor. It's up to the Office of Personnel Management, led by the guy who said he wanted to "traumatize" federal employees. Also, I cannot stress enough-

THE GOAL OF THIS ADMINISTRATION IS TO GUT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

So. You know. We're all having a great time.

There is no uniformity and no guidance. Some terms are getting renewed. Some are not. These are scattered across regions and divisions and offices; there is no pattern to be found. This is becoming the depressing norm.

Again, my boss goes to bat for me. He tells me he filed the paperwork for my renewal the moment he found out I was getting reinstated. He is arguing that in order to meet the new order to "prioritize keeping parks open" (I'm not even fucking touching that right now), he needs to be allowed to keep his staff so he can reassign them if necessary. He is giving me multiple long-term projects to work on. He says he is optimistic, even though he doesn't look it.

I am not.

I am back-of-house, meaning that I do not directly impact the visitor experience the same way a staff shortage of front-line rangers would. I work in cultural resource management, which this administration is aiming to demolish. I spend the next few weeks tidying things up as much as I can for my successor, trying to process the grief of losing a fantastic job, doing very bleak math with my meager savings to figure out how far I can stretch them (the answer: not very), and applying for other positions. I try to take some sick time and fail because I actually really love my job.

This would all be so much easier if I hated my job.

Fast-forward to today. It's the last day of my term. I resigned myself last week to not being renewed. I still have not heard anything, not even about a termination notice- non-renewal of the term still requires paperwork actions. I am plodding along and trying to prioritize the most enjoyable parts of my job.

Then, with less than six hours of my term left, I find out that my term has been extended.

I have so much work to do.

I can't wait.

[70x1cnature]

I have thoughts about q!Cellbit and q!Tubbo.

These two characters from the very beginning have had pretty similar situations. Causing problems with the Fed, getting attacked, going on mystery solver on their asses, whatever. The interesting thing to me is how they're different, and how much they've diverged from each other.

When Cellbit was fucking with things initially, Cucurucho terrified him by chasing him with a chainsaw. From then on Cellbit absolutely hated the Federation. He tried to infiltrate them, figure out a way to take them down from the inside. He got kidnapped, and he half went along with the assignments given to him.

Tubbo on the other hand just doesn't give any shits at all, and makes it very clear from the beginning. He does illegal big things, goes against Cucurucho, and when threatened with a gun he's not scared. That mother fucker taunts him and runs away because he's not scared of death. Death in this world is not permanent, so he doesn't give a shit. He couldn't be threatened in any way that truly mattered. Tubbo briefly considered joining the Fed but decided fuck that, he doesn't give a shit about the Fed, and let's that be known.

Then Tubbo went and befriended Fred, talked to him and learned about the Federation slowly through a growing friendship and love. Cellbit was finding things out secretively, trying to be covert while also doing his job.

This is the major difference of where their characters diverge. Cellbit was isolated from the other workers, just doing his job and only interacting with Cucurucho- who he's hated sense he chased him with a fucking chainsaw. Tubbo was on the complete opposite of this. Not interacting with the Federation at all (other than Cucurucho trying to get him to stop doing illegal shit) while interacting and getting close to a worker.

Now we've gotten to the point where Cellbit has snapped, he doesn't give a shit anymore and he will kill anyone who says on the side of the Federation. He won't listen to reason, he doesn't care anymore, he just wants the Federation dead, and he'll kill every single worker to make that happen.

Tubbo is closer to the Fed workers than ever. His love is dead, he held a funeral for Fred where only other Fed workers showed up. He's vowed to help them if they ever need it, and they've promised the same. He still doesn't give a shit about the Federation, but to the workers, he's the Hero of the Village.

[qsmp-yaoi-island]

One of my biggest hopes when the server gets back into lore mode, is that we start to see some stress testing on where people's alliances lie.

I feel like for a while now, people have been too complacent in being apart of their respective factions but are rarely being tested on their allegiance. For the most part, Fit, Etoiles, and Bagi are all pretty fine working for the Resitance. They get some info on what the Fed are up to and get to do fun missions sometimes. But this is also the organization that have tried and successfully killed eggs in the past. They sent Cellbit into a mental breakdown, and subsequent killing spree (somewhat of an accident on their part, but they still caused it). Not to mention they actively hold information over people's heads, like they did with Bagi and her parents.

They really aren't good guys, and I feel like they can expand on that. Could you imagine if the Resistance started asking the members to do something that could put the eggs in danger? Or maybe make them capture and torture an innocent worker? As it stands right now there isn't a downside to working with them, despite the Resitance very much not caring about the islanders, as much as they care about destroying the Federation.

I feel this with the Fed aligned people too, but to a lesser extent because at least working with the Fed has caused a tear in relationships with the other islanders. They are supposed to be the evil corperation behind all this (and we know they're capable of messed up things, like egg A1) but no one working with the Fed has had to make a sacrifice for anything, besides betraying their friends a little.

I want to see more moral dilemmas, people questioning if they're doing the right thing or for the greater good. There is no good or bad side, and I want to see that reflected in people's alliances more.

[hylianengineer]

Work is forcing me to read executive orders on environmental stuff I can't do this I'm gonna fucking explode.

[theragamuffininitiative]

Slightly nervous about at what point Andor spoilers will start appearing on my dash.

In related news.

I still love Cassian Andor.

[the-hwaelweg]

Oh god I've been so exhausted by this day, but we had orchestra tickets so I was gonna suck it up and go, but when I looked at the tickets just now they were for 11am this morning (instead of 7pm tonight), and it's like the universe itself said, "hey I know it's been shitty lately and you're exhausted, this one's on me girl. You can go to bed at 8pm tonight."

[mushroompollution]

so, i have some really good news. the case against me has been completely dropped. in addition, the king is preparing to make a formal, public declaration pardoning the Baskervilles for their involvement in the Tragedy and officially placing the blame on Jack Vessalius instead. it's not every day that a nation's government has to admit they had history all wrong for a century, so it's sort of a big deal.

[zestyzigzagoon]

If any non-writers want to have a glimpse into what it's actually like to write, then here. I've been stuck on this lame half-sentence for approximately thirteen days now.

[toughtink]

the genshin/hoyo sag-aftra strike situation is depressing and complex and i wish everyone stopped pretending that it’s easy because the more i learn about all the ins and outs of these agreements, the more i see why this has stalled out for so long. can people at least stop harassing VAs over it, please???

[butchshevik]

in case anyone is wondering how being a fed is going today, up until about thirty minutes ago the Department of Housing and Urban Development HQ office builing in DC was on a public-facing non-core property disposition list (a process culminating in public sale) on the General Services Administration website, along with the Department of Justice building, the SSA building, and all the IRS buildings and processing centers

[tvmusiclife]

Honestly, pissed on behalf of the players!!! Seriously, what is up with federations and coaching teams falling to protect, respect, and help players in this sport? Instead federations and management want to abuse, humiliate, and undermine players! Take Spain WNT last year at the WC final. Zambia WNT is already having to play with a coach with an ongoing SA case against him. Now Canadian soccer players' years of working to achieve what they did, and get here, and build the sport for Canada is now tarnished. Once again, players play for the federations but they are NOT their federations. And here again is a case of "to play/achieve in spite of."

[a-swiss-and-a-spaniard]

[which-qsmp-egg-would]

I have so many thoughts about my egg ocs and no way to convey them. aaaaaaaaaa