Relax, Everything is Going to be Okay!

[NDGuy]

That Constitution. Such an impediment to true progress, for almost 250yrs.

They sure seem to think so as they have been wiping their ass with it lately

 

[Borny1]

I retired from one of the largest O&G companies in the world. The one beginning with the letter E. Every "layoff" that ever occurred during my career, the terminations were far from indiscriminate. Even your post betrays your assertion. You write that the terminations were targeted at the least tenured and the longest tenured employees. That, to me, is a discriminate layoff.

One of many advantages of remaining a wage employee, was that the company could not terminate a long term employee, without just cause. During my 28 years, there was no layoff that included any wage employees. Most often the layoffs were a carrot and a stick approach. They would offer a window of time, where if you left the company, you received a monetary payment, above and beyond, what you earned with your work. If that did not trim staff, sufficiently, they terminated employees at their discretion. Most companies grant some sort of severance, when they "layoff" employees. I guess, they recognize some obligation, when you end someone's employment, with such short notice.

At no time do I remember the company gleefully dancing with a chain saw during their downsizing periods. That is one of the more repugnant visuals, to date, of the new administration.

Good point. If you are lucky enough to be union which is the large majority of employees, you get a carrot. If you're a sucker like me and salaried though, you get the stick.

 

[Sytes]

Politics summed up in one Costanza moment:

 

[bullbugle]

Several months?

FMLA. You can do it too.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Control the messaging. First step in an authoritarian government.

@Bonasababy It could be just a coincidence that CNN has let go more than 200 employees and MSNBC has let go of about 100 employees less than 2 weeks after USAID was de-funded. Or it could be that tax dollars were being used to subsidize their news networks and control the messaging. I dont know?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but messaging has been studied to death and the powers that run the news have been trying to control the public to an extent for decades. You know what the strongest messaging is to get your sheep lined up? The message of fear. Take this shot or you'll die!! There is nothing new under the sun here except a lot of the stuff that happened behind closed doors is being done in the open now. Right or wrong thats for each individual to decide and to vote accordingly and write their legislative leaders with their favor or displeasure. I disagree with the press thing that currently is going on and think it's part of Trump just acting like a child and taking revenge on them more than anything, but trying to control the messaging is not new or unprecedented in the least.

But like 90% of this thread this has nothing to do with the actual OP. I'm back out of here for now.

 

[MTGomer]

I could have guessed as much.

The refinery where I worked was chocked full of good employees. When it is common knowledge that an employer pays really well, with good benefits, yada, yada, they get many dozens of people applying for any opening.

Workers can sense disrespect amazingly well, be it, a supervisor or employer. When they sense it, they return it in kind.

Sorry you can't find good help.

I’ll pay a survey crew chief that can work independently, show up on time, sober, work hard and communicate like an adult $40/hr
He doesn’t have to report to an office, there’s no boss looking over his shoulder, give him an almost new truck to take home, 401k, insurance, PTO etc
This is a six figure job with a little OT


The engineer I share an office with pays very well, allows remote work and needs a civil engineer that is skilled in grading/drainage and stormwater modeling.


This is in AZ. We both struggle to staff positions like this, likely due to being in a resort/retirement community.(havasu)

Here in Absarokee, MT, I couldn’t find someone to paint my house.
And I don’t mean someone that I could afford. I mean nobody would agree to drive from Billings or Bozeman or even Columbus to do it. We finally did it ourselves.
In Worden/Huntley MT last summer the irrigators were all hispanics.
When I was in high school, not that long ago, that was what my friends and I did.
Now farmers have to import people to do it.

Positions that are hard, especially if they are hard physically and involve having a brain can be very tough to fill.

 

[Bonasababy]

I’ll pay a survey crew chief that can work independently, show up on time, sober, work hard and communicate like an adult $40/hr
He doesn’t have to report to an office, there’s no boss looking over his shoulder, give him an almost new truck to take home, 401k, insurance, PTO etc
This is a six figure job with a little OT


The engineer I share an office with pays very well, allows remote work and needs a civil engineer that is skilled in grading/drainage and stormwater modeling.


This is in AZ. We both struggle to staff positions like this, likely due to being in a resort/retirement community.(havasu)

Here in Absarokee, MT, I couldn’t find someone to paint my house.
And I don’t mean someone that I could afford. I mean nobody would agree to drive from Billings or Bozeman or even Columbus to do it. We finally did it ourselves.
In Worden/Huntley MT last summer the irrigators were all hispanics.
When I was in high school, not that long ago, that was what my friends and I did.
Now farmers have to import people to do it.

Positions that are hard, especially if they are hard physically and involve having a brain can be very tough to fill.

Can't project your life long ago to today. Kids who want to work today have options to make more money than they can in irrigation.

FAR FAR different money available for kids today than your childhood and probably mine too.

This idea of lazy kids today not being willing to work is sure not supported by unemployment numbers! Well I should say it hasn't--that could change as everything being done is going to kill businesses as the economy goes in the tank.

Which illustrates another irony--we need immigrants to work jobs like irrigation, like picking and processing our crops and meat, and more.

But they have every intent to grab them and kick them out of the country--at great expense to us taxpayers, I might add.

Not convinced they can export as much of the labor we need from immigrants as they say they will, but it will sure make food prices worse if they do!

 

[Pucky Freak]

@dranrab when are you going to add your avatar picture?

 

[Pucky Freak]

 

[rjthehunter]

@Bonasababy It could be just a coincidence that CNN has let go more than 200 employees and MSNBC has let go of about 100 employees less than 2 weeks after USAID was de-funded. Or it could be that tax dollars were being used to subsidize their news networks and control the messaging. I dont know?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but messaging has been studied to death and the powers that run the news have been trying to control the public to an extent for decades. You know what the strongest messaging is to get your sheep lined up? The message of fear. Take this shot or you'll die!! There is nothing new under the sun here except a lot of the stuff that happened behind closed doors is being done in the open now. Right or wrong thats for each individual to decide and to vote accordingly and write their legislative leaders with their favor or displeasure. I disagree with the press thing that currently is going on and think it's part of Trump just acting like a child and taking revenge on them more than anything, but trying to control the messaging is not new or unprecedented in the least.

But like 90% of this thread this has nothing to do with the actual OP. I'm back out of here for now.

Fear mongering. Same thing people are trying to do in a few of these threads. "They're going to sell all the public land. Orange man bad" etc.

It's the same thing the left did during the election - try to scare everyone into voting for kamala. Thankfully more people saw through the bullshit than not.

Trump is steering the ship. Elon might be there, but Trump isn't the kind of guy who would let someone else run his show.

 

[dranrab]

Pretty darn good thread gents. I appreciate the mods/admins allowing us to explore a topic that straddles politics and public lands. Pretty darn civil too in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Speaking of contracts, Elon’s companies bring in $8 MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY! That information alone should be enough to make you wonder how the f— he is the one overseeing this.

For perspective, that is 50% of the cost of the 75,000 deferred layoffs. Elon could have fired himself and spared 37,500 workers.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Good people who are good employees will always land on their feet. Don't panic, don't worry. A year or two from now, you'll see that things are back to or better than normal

Yep. You’re a good people. How about we take your military pension and VA healthcare, and see if you land on your feet? In a year or two, you’ll be back to normal.

 

[cgasner1]

Everyone ready for these again?

 

[Aperventure]

Many of you are worried about our public lands in the wake of the workforce downsizing. Like you, I treasure our National Forests, National Parks and BLM lands. My heart truly goes out to those who lost their jobs. It's never easy. It happens regularly in the private sector, but it's rare to see government get smaller, so I understand the worry.

My name is Paul Barnard (spell the screen name backwards.) I live in Metairie LA for now. I just retired after working for the CG for almost 40 years. 20 active-duty and nearly 20 as a civilian. During that time I have partnered with a myriad of government agencies and have had a glimpse into how many operate. Let's just say that they share many similarities with the Coast Guard. I have to do a little drift to set the stage for what follows.

Early in my active duty career, it was normal for 2 of us to hop on a small boat and patrol 20-30 miles offshore. Our small boats back then didn't even have radar or GPS. Service wide, there were no major mishaps operating under such conditions. Government agencies tend to become more risk adverse over time. Standards today will find the small boats restricted to 10 miles offshore. The'll have a comprehensive compliment of safety equipment and electronics, and they'll likely have 4 people on board. They'll run 1/3 the SAR cases we did, they write far fewer BUIs, they'll write almost no federal fisheries tickets and they'll make far fewer law enforcement stops. All of this is verifiable. It's not opinion. Twice the people on the boats, less than half the production. I say that to say that agencies can review their SOPs to identify ways to achieve greater efficiency.

Beginning in about 2018 the Coast Guard started falling behind on recruiting. At our operational units, we were down 40%. To this date, we remain down about 25% on qualified personnel even though recruiting is back up to speed. The Coast Guard cut back on patrols and law enforcement activities. Some stations were closed and others had their personnel allowance formally reduced. Toss out the Covid induced spike in recreational boating deaths, and we saw a steady fall in the number of recreational boating deaths. 2023 was the lowest in decades. FWIW my program was Recreational Boating Safety. So despite the fact, that we had fewer people, engaging the public less frequently, deaths on the water went down substantially.

You may be wondering what the hell this has to do with our public lands. Well, there will be some bumps initially, but ultimately any government agency I have ever worked with could easily absorb a 10-20% loss in personnel without a degradation in service to the public. Through smarter and perhaps harder work, the mission will be accomplished. Many agencies spend an inordinate amount of time serving internal rather than external (public) customers. Bureaucratic crap that can and should be done away with. BS mandatory training. Ask and 90% of government employees would happily tell you that there are worthless employees in their unit. The same 90% will be able to tell you the people who have cake jobs in their agencies and they'll tell you that there are units or teams that could be done away with completely. It would be nice if the workforce reduction could have targeted such personnel, but as many of you know, it can be hard to fire even poor performing .gov employees. Unfortunately in order to downsize quickly, it had to be probationary employees who are often some of the most motivated.

Fearing change and fearing the unknown is normal. I have seen several RIFS in my career and have been furloughed. Good people who are good employees will always land on their feet. Don't panic, don't worry. A year or two from now, you'll see that things are back to or better than normal. I don't expect the Refuges, National Forests or National Parks that I visit too be impacted to any significant degree at all.

Your experience and what is happening are not similar nor analogous

 

[SAJ-99]

Trump is steering the ship. Elon might be there, but Trump isn't the kind of guy who would let someone else run the show.

Yeah, move along. No corruption to see here.

FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reports

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon to overhaul a communications system, and awarding the work to Elon Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[BigHornRam]

Yeah, move along. No corruption to see here.

FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reports

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon to overhaul a communications system, and awarding the work to Elon Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

finance.yahoo.com

How many Verizon shares do you still own?

 

[SAJ-99]

How many Verizon shares do you still own?

When did you buy your Tesla shares?

 

[Gulf of America]

Yeah, move along. No corruption to see here.

FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reports

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon to overhaul a communications system, and awarding the work to Elon Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

finance.yahoo.com

The lack of ideological consistency is the most frustrating part. Everyone is happy to throw their fists in the air at the money Pelosi has made gaming the market with insider knowledge, but when we're literally watching insider dealing in plain sight, it's fine cuz we're owning the libs!

 

[BigHornRam]

When did you buy your Tesla shares?

Never did buy Telsa. It's always been overpriced. Looks like it has fallen quite a bit in the last month.