I'm a federal employee for the Dept of the Navy. From those who saw my mudboat build thread, my background and skill set is slightly different than most of the other federal employees I work with, especially within the command I work in. I had a career as a pipe welder and machinists, then a lic capt in the work boat industry offshore before finding my was to the fed government. Started as a contractor and my job was eventually created as a DOD billet, I applied and got it. I've run my welding business on the side, working nights and weekends when I can, and still trying to be availble and engaged as a father and husband.

I refused to take the last administrations medical advice and would not take the covid vaccine. I was pressured hard by my command to take it, and then to at least seek a religious exemption. My reasons for not wanting to take it were not based on my faith, so I refused. Had to sign several memorandum for the record that I would be removed from civil service and fired. I faced the fire and took my chances. Had enough welding work to go out on my own. As everyone knows they ended up caving. I lost so much respect for the chain of command, leadership and the medical community, I've basicly lived with one foot out the door since then.

I did not receive the email, and have received numerous emails since, saying NOT to respond. Since I didn't get it, I just took it upon myself to send an email to the hr.opm.gov address giving them a brief break down of what I did and exactly how much time I wasted in a given 40 hr week doing completely meaningless bureaucratic admin nonsense. I didn't pull any punches and told them if it's actualy read by a human and they want more to reach out. I'll be glad to talk. These agencies were tasked by the dept. Of gov efficiency to list what they got done, and in response they spent millions of dollars in salaries of man hours directing people how not to respond. Even the classification argument they used for us, we take various mandatory trainings every year on classification and deal with emails all day every day with various classification markings, if the employees are not able to respond to such a simple inquiry without disclosing classified info, there is a problem in and of itself with employees who should be disaplined.

What's sad is, the probationary new hires are not the problem, and even the employees who will get let go with RIFs are mostly not the issue. When they start the RIFs, there is a whole procedure where tenure plays a big part. The GS 14 and 15s who have been there for 40 years and the biggest problems and they are going to be the hardest to get rid of. Even some of them, there are some incredibly dedicated and hardworking people, the problem is they work hard and tirelessly feeding the bureaucratic machine which in the end just prevents the real work from getting done, but that concept is lost on them. The whole system is broken.