Latest news with #governmentefficiency
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Life after DOGE
When Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency took a chainsaw to the federal workforce this winter, the dust felt like it might never settle. The administration said the initiative was designed to "streamline the Federal Government, eliminate unnecessary programs, and reduce bureaucratic inefficiency." Chaotic rollouts, weekend emails, contentious court battles, tech wunderkinds let loose, and muddled directives came to define the early months of the Trump administration's cost-cutting effort. Nobody knew what the next week might bring. Now, as the initiative's six-month mark approaches — and a Supreme Court ruling allowed the stalled firings to proceed — many former federal workers have had time to reflect on what it all meant. "It's always going to be part of who I am, regardless of what my jobs entail in the future," former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee Tom Di Liberto told Business Insider. "I'll always be known as that, as part of that group of people." In a series of conversations with BI, six former government employees spoke about their career shifts, their advice to other workers, and what life is like outside the government. Egan Reich, 45, Department of Labor Reich joined the Department of Labor in 2010. He worked in a variety of roles, including director of media and editorial services. During Trump's first term, Reich said, federal workers were largely left alone to do their jobs. When the president's second term came around, the energy across federal agencies was noticeably different: Reich said that press inquiries revolved around DOGE, HR, or IT, rather than grants, policy, or enforcement. "For a couple months, as appointees trickled in and DOGE started to make itself known, it became a very strange, paranoid, alienating experience," Reich said. "It became clear they really wanted people gone." He accepted the agency's second deferred resignation offer in April, which allowed employees to resign while receiving pay through the fall. "There was just no way I was going to make it through four years of this," he said. Reich is now on the job hunt, finishing up a TV pilot with his brother, and spending more time with his daughter. He's casting a wide net when it comes to communications roles, and has applied for around 25 jobs, he said. He tries hard to ensure he's not falling into self-pity. "I'm glad that I'm not there, but I'm anxious, right? I'm just knowing I need to pay the mortgage and find a job, and hopefully it will be one where I can still spend time with my daughter." His day-to-day hasn't changed much: He wakes up and goes to bed at the same time, and school drop-off and pick-up remain the same. His disorientation stems from something a bit more existential. "It's been a lot more of a change in my mind and ways of looking at the world than lifestyle. Something has definitely broken. It's a lot bigger than my job," he said. Kira Carrigan, 36, Office of Personnel Management Carrigan started at OPM in December 2024. She had a remote job as an HR specialist. Carrigan has been unable to search for a new role because she's moving across the country for her husband's military job. Federal jobs are especially important for military spouses, since they typically offer more scheduling and work-from-home flexibility than the private sector. She started working at OPM on December 16, and was fired less than two months later on a mass video call. "I miss my job and the remote work ability to allow me continued employment through my military spouse relocation," Carrigan said. Carrigan said she refused deferred resignation both times it was offered, and she's pursuing an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board in a last-ditch attempt to regain her federal employment. "I do want to return, but I would have significant moral issues serving under this administration," she said. Barring a return to the federal government, she said, "I'm hoping to find something in my local city government or school district." Rachel Brittin, 47, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Brittin started at NOAA in 2023. She coordinated with the agency's private and public sector stakeholders. Brittin was first fired from NOAA on February 27, reinstated, and fired again on April 10. "Losing my job at NOAA was more than a career setback — it was emotionally exhausting and deeply disorienting," Brittin said. "I poured myself into the mission, only to be abruptly cut out." Getting fired as a probationary employee was a challenge; Brittin said she didn't have any chance to defend her record. Brittin said she's applied to dozens of jobs, including in the private sector, and hopes to stay in communications at a mission-driven organization, but it's been hard to land anything with so many "highly qualified candidates" on the market. Ideally, she'd stay at a science-based organization, but is open to other opportunities. Brittin sees her job in the federal workforce as an "asset," in part because she mastered in-demand skills: "Navigating complexity, staying mission-focused, working under pressure, adapting to change." For now, she's "hanging on" financially, and her husband has a secure job that's keeping them afloat. She's tried to stay busy by taking online courses, volunteering to help friends and startups, and networking. "Knowing others in the same boat as me has helped me feel not so alone," she said. Tom Di Liberto, 40, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Di Liberto started at NOAA in 2023. He worked in public affairs and was a climate spokesperson. After being fired as a probationary employee in February, Di Liberto said he was lucky to find work as a media director at a nonprofit climate organization. But getting there wasn't easy, and he knows many others are still grinding through the job hunt. He said former federal workers should remember being fired doesn't reflect their worth and they shouldn't be afraid to discuss the reductions in force with potential employers. "It was also a bit weird during the interview process when asked to describe yourself and why you want this job. I did not have plans of getting a new job," he said. He said he made sure to emphasize his primary mission is addressing climate change. His job search began in February, and he started his new job in early June. He spent frugally and leaned on his wife's income to support their family. During those months, he cooked more and cut back on takeout; he also prioritized his mental health with walks and Legos. The private sector has been an adjustment, he said. It's been odd, for example, to work with fewer people and be able to upgrade software quickly instead of over a few months. Di Liberto also estimated that the NGO jobs he was looking at paid between 20% and 40% less than his role at NOAA. He's reminded of his past life living in DC, where he encounters others who were also let go from government jobs. Di Liberto's first grader recently brought up his father's job loss in school, where it led to a class-wide conversation, he said. Jonathan Kamens, 55, US Digital Service Kamens started at USDS in 2023. He was a software engineer and was detailed to a cybersecurity role at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kamens was fired from the US Digital Service — now the US DOGE Service — in February, and he landed a new job in March working remotely for a private-sector company based in Australia. He said that he's fortunate to be getting a paycheck, but the slashing of the federal workforce continues to weigh him down. "In micro, I have a job, I'm getting paid to work, I can support my family. But in macro, the whole world is burning," Kamens said. He added that it's difficult to live his normal life "and continue to work in a system that in many ways is disintegrating around you." He said that he's "minimally engaged" with other colleagues who left the federal workforce because it was taking a toll on his mental health. He said public servants who are still employed with the federal government face challenges under the continued influence of DOGE. "There is a really strong normalcy bias happening," Kamens said. "In order for them to continue to function, they have to believe that this is just another administration and it will be fine after the midterms or 2028." Nagela Nukuna, 30, US Digital Service Nukuna started at USDS in 2022. She advised on and implemented domestic policy, working across agencies on funding, innovation, and automation projects. Nukuna never saw herself working for a nonprofit. But that's where she landed after she was fired from the USDS on February 14. "I ran through most of my savings to weather that time," Nukuna said. "Luckily I was able to get a job but I did have some financial hardship and strain over that time, especially because it was just unexpected." Her government job paid a lot less than private sector positions she'd held before, so she was in the red since taking her job at USDS. Her spending didn't drastically change after getting fired, since it was already carefully calculated. Nukuna began to look for jobs outside the government after the election. Some of her work at USDS was related to immigration, and she thought she might be impacted by future job cuts. She said she applied to 85 jobs, mainly in the tech and AI spaces, and "got a bajillion rejections" before landing her current role at an education nonprofit a month after her firing. Generally, Nukuna tried to use her past government work to her advantage during the job search, and said some interviewers asked if she could work with people she disagreed with politically. "Luckily, because I started earlier, I had some leads already and people that I've been talking to, and I just went on high drive once I got fired," she said. "There was a period where I was doing like five interviews a week and all day exercises." She said she does mental health check-ins with friends who are still working for the federal government. Nukuna said she likely would have left her USDS role voluntarily due to the mental toll it was taking on her. Although she had previously worked in the private sector, she chose the nonprofit route this time because she was "really drawn to the mission" and the people. Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Happiness in Hong Kong must be the focus, along with civil service efficiency
Poised to deliver his fourth policy address in September, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is gearing up to show that his administration is delivering on his ' result-oriented ' leadership. This may be the reason he revealed last month that the government was considering a new accountability system for senior officials. Advertisement Lee seems to have started paving the way for the proposed reform around the time the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development released its World Competitiveness Ranking in June. Hong Kong made it back into the top three for the first time since 2019, ranking third. Lee quickly took credit for the city scoring 99.2 out of 100 by attributing the rise in the ranking to enhanced efficiency due to his civil service reforms. It's worth noting the survey ranked Hong Kong second on government efficiency, beaten only by Switzerland. It may be quite a leap to conclude that increased government efficiency came from civil service reforms. The institute ranked Hong Kong first for tax policy and business legislation. We ranked sixth in public finance, 10th in institutional framework and 30th for societal framework. These are all factors that the institute considers when scoring for government efficiency. Switzerland, meanwhile, is first in institutional framework and fourth in societal framework. Singapore, which came in second overall, is second in institutional framework and 12th in societal framework. Advertisement Institutional framework takes into account the adaptability and stability of government policy, and this is where I believe Lee is looking to improve. While Lee framed Hong Kong's ranking as being the result of civil service reforms, recall that Hong Kong ranked first in government efficiency from 2019 to 2021.
France 24
18-07-2025
- Business
- France 24
US Congress approves $9 bn in Trump cuts to foreign aid, public media
The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savings that tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting. But Republicans -- who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt -- said the vote honored Trump's election campaign pledge to rein in runaway spending. "President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote. "Today, we're once again delivering on that promise." Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a mostly party-line House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight, was sufficient to approve the Senate-passed measure. The bill now heads to the White House to be signed by Trump, who praised his backers in the House. "REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED... BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!!" he wrote on Truth Social. Most of the cuts target programs for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters. But the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years. Conservatives say the funding -- which goes mostly to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS -- is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage. The bill originally included $400 million in cuts to a global AIDS program that is credited with saving 26 million lives, but that funding was saved by a rebellion by moderate Republicans. 'Dark day' The vote was a win for Trump and fiscal hawks seeking to support the mission of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched by Musk as Trump was swept to power, for radical savings. Congress had already approved the cash that was clawed back, and Democrats framed the bill as a betrayal of the bipartisan government funding process. They fear Trump's victory clears the way for more "rescissions packages" canceling agreed spending. "Instead of protecting the health, safety and well-being of the American people, House Republicans have once again rubber stamped Donald Trump's extreme, reckless rescissions legislation," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement with fellow top Democrats. Republicans need some Democratic votes to keep the government funded past September, and the minority party had threatened to abandon any plans for cooperation if the DOGE cuts went ahead. Jeffries and fellow Democrats seemed to suggest as much on Friday. "Tonight's vote... makes it clear that House Republicans are determined to march this country toward a painful government shutdown later this year," they said in the statement. Although they are in the minority, Democrats have leverage in funding fights because a budget deal would need at least 60 votes in the 100-member Senate and Republicans only have 53 seats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "a dark day for any American who relies on public broadcasting during floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters." White House budget chief Russell Vought told an event hosted Thursday by the Christian Science Monitor that the administration was likely to send another rescissions package to Congress.
Free Malaysia Today
15-07-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
US agencies shrink layoff plans after mass staff exodus
President Donald Trump launched an overhaul of the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce after taking office in January. (EPA Images pic) WASHINGTON : The Trump administration will reduce planned federal worker layoffs, a personnel official said on Monday, after tens of thousands of employees accepted buyouts or retired early to avoid dismissal. 'Several agencies are now not planning to proceed' with staff cuts, office of personnel management senior adviser Noah Peters said in a statement filed in federal court. He said the financial incentives that departments offered employees to quit in the first few months of the administration, along with 'natural attrition' were the reasons agencies were rethinking layoffs. Peters did not specify which departments were reducing their planned layoffs. This is the latest example of the Trump administration walking back announcements to cut federal workers, after more aggressively pursuing staff reductions earlier this year. The department of veterans affairs said in July that it would reduce staff by about 30,000 people rather than 80,000. Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump launched a campaign to overhaul the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce, led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). By late April, about 100 days into the effort, the government overhaul had resulted in the firing, resignations and early retirements of 260,000 civil servants, according to a Reuters tally. As part of the overhaul, Trump in February ordered agencies to write blueprints for mass layoffs. Federal worker unions and their allies sued, arguing that the president needed permission from congress to reshape the agencies. San Francisco-based US district judge Susan Illston in May sided with the unions and ordered the Trump administration not to carry out the plans while the case proceeded. The supreme court on July 9 reversed Illston's order. The justices cleared the way for 19 federal agencies to pursue mass government job cuts. The list includes the departments of defence and homeland security, among others.
Reuters
15-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US agencies shrink layoff plans after mass staff exodus
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The Trump administration will reduce planned federal worker layoffs, a personnel official said on Monday, after tens of thousands of employees accepted buyouts or retired early to avoid dismissal. "Several agencies are now not planning to proceed" with staff cuts, Office of Personnel Management senior adviser Noah Peters said in a statement filed in federal court. He said the financial incentives that departments offered employees to quit in the first few months of the administration, along with "natural attrition" were the reasons agencies were rethinking layoffs. Peters did not specify which departments were reducing their planned layoffs. This is the latest example of the Trump administration walking back announcements to cut federal workers, after more aggressively pursuing staff reductions earlier this year. The Department of Veterans Affairs said in July that it would reduce staff by about 30,000 people rather than 80,000. Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump launched a campaign to overhaul the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce, led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. By late April, about 100 days into the effort, the government overhaul had resulted in the firing, resignations and early retirements of 260,000 civil servants, according to a Reuters tally. As part of the overhaul, Trump in February ordered agencies to write blueprints for mass layoffs. Federal worker unions and their allies sued, arguing that the president needed permission from Congress to reshape the agencies. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in May sided with the unions and ordered the Trump administration not to carry out the plans while the case proceeded. The Supreme Court on July 9 reversed Illston's order. The justices cleared the way for 19 federal agencies to pursue mass government job cuts. The list includes the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, among others.
