That is what I worry about. When myself and nearly half the company of get laid off at a silicon valley Fortune 200, sucks but we’ll all land on our feet.
When it’s govees…… I wonder how marketable they are in the private sector. And if they’re all uber talented like Aloha and IUCrazy say, well then this could be a major blessing in disguise, like it was for me.
So I am just going to use your post to springboard into a few thoughts that are somewhat disjointed but hey, you screen-name dropped me, so why not:
1. I don't believe that either myself or
@Aloha Hoosier has ever claimed that all government employees are uber talented. They aren't. They are the same mix as you find in the private sector.
2. A lesser person might bring up that applying your own logic to you, that being one of the people laid off must have put you in the lazy, do nothing, unimportant sector of your company...or at least in the bottom 50% as you were let go. Bigger person me who has been through that stuff before knows that sometimes those things come down to the company simply not wanting staff in location A and instead in B and if you don't want to go to A because it is hundreds to over a thousand miles from most of your family in B, well, you get the ax. I have been in the private sector and government, the shit stinks in both places.
3. As to
@Joe_Hoopsier and his question about why someone might look at government employment given the lesser payoff, well, see above: stability. People who have been good employees and have been through the rat race of being at the whim of people like Elon Musk or at Salesforce every February when it is "firing season" to shake things up. You get a family and go through the upheaval of having to do stuff like sell your house to move into a smaller apartment until you get back on your feet or end up on SNAP and unemployment and realize how much that doesn't cover or lose your health insurance with a pregnant wife and 2 other little kids. And so you decide, "You know what, I am applying for a bunch of different places and if the government comes calling then I have enough confidence in myself to know that I am going to move up the chain in the biggest employer on the planet and there is some added stability there." Then you have some people who just kind of fall wherever they fall. The bottom of any organization. They are everywhere. I have been out in private land. The same time wasters and do nothings and on and on exist in the private sector as well.
4. I had always wanted to believe this wasn't the case but I do think that at least for some percentage of the "conservative" (whatever that term means these days) movement, there is the necessity of having a foil that can be raged against and oh so often the movement likes to, for lack of a better term, punch down and as of late take glee in other's misfortune. All through COVID the same posters who are giddily cheering on tens of thousands of people being unemployed or being deported were lamenting folks laughing about people being fired for not wanting to wear a mask or take a shot. The MAGA movement is just the political inverse of those blue haired Karens. You are all dicks. And to top it off, most of you don't realize you are just crabs in a barrel. I think letting in all those illegal immigrants over the past few decades was bad policy. You know who was just as responsible for it as anyone but for some reason faces zero pushback from any of you? Your vaunted private sector. Your Elon Musks and Tech Bros laying off 50% of their workforce and replacing you with H1Bs. Your big agri-businesses who sell the idea that Americans wouldn't do those jobs because they pay wages you can't live on unless you are gaming the system. The Walmarts who move into smaller communities and undercut all the local businesses by selling cheap Chinese bull shit and then pay wages so low we end up paying welfare for their employees. They got a massive tax cut last go around and they face next to zero repercussions for being the honey that attracts the illegal bees. And the "conservative" movement is so desperate to be at the "successful" table that you all ignored what they did during Covid and BLM and Trans-mania and welcomed them back with open arms. "Things are so bad we are wantonly cutting jobs like nuclear inspector but they aren't bad enough that we can't give our daddies in the private sector yet another tax cut." MAGA isn't fiscal conservatism, it is a misguided revenge movement. That is a shitty way to build policy.
5. Final thoughts, we do need to get things under control w.r.t. spending. I do think the Democrats went too far with things that happened over the past decade. I do think there were things that were done in Trump's direction that were completely about politics and I think all of those things should be looked at in a way that addresses them. From where I sit, I don't see anything but pure self interest on the part of your chosen "cutter" and animosity on the part of all you aggrieved individuals who think you are getting your revenge driving the movement. It is driving you all off a cliff. The reception that Representative in Georgia who won his district with over 60% of the vote got in Georgia this week should be a warning. You all are turning off a whole bunch of voters. Things look a whole bunch different when you are talking about shutting down nebulous politicos in D.C. then when you are telling your neighbor that they or someone in their family need to "learn to code" (something we thought was the height of dismissiveness when talking about miners, but I digress) while yucking it up with Mr. Billionaire Chainsaw Guy.
Most people eventually grow to dislike the asshole. MAGA makes the asshole the centerpiece of the movement. Do better. You all are going to **** it up for the people who actually have put thought behind this stuff for a long time.