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Federal Shutdown May Send Millennial Workers To Exits (techtarget.com)
dcblogs writes: The federal government measures the "engagement" of its federal workforce once a year with a massive survey of 1.5 million employees. And what it has found is that most federal workers are very dedicated to their work. Its most recent survey -- the 2018 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey -- asked employees if they are "willing to put in extra effort to get their job done," 96% of the survey takers responded affirmatively. Moreover, 91% agreed with the statement that they "look for ways to do their jobs better," and 90% "believe their work is important." But this job dedication is being tested by the U.S. government shutdown, and most at risk of leaving are Millennial-age workers. Less than 6% of federal employees are under the age of 30 and represent half of all people who leave an agency within the first two years. The best employees have options, and "a major concern is that the brightest, hardest-working, and most capable, dedicated government employees may opt out of government service and take jobs in the private sector," Talya Bauer, professor of management at Portland State University in Oregon and president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, said. The shutdown could hurt the reputation of the government as a good place to work, she said.
How credulous do you have to be to think a survey like this means anything? Might as well ask, "Who here doesn't want to get fired?" Damn.
-Dave
Didn't Trump say he wanted a smaller government? Seems like a quick way to achieve that.
Yes, this. I bet most of the Republican party are on cloud 9 right now, dreaming about their libertarian, small gubbermint ideologies. Meanwhile, millions of not so ideological people suffer from a lack of government services. In practice, Libertarians are just a bunch of sadistic perverts.
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If you think workers are concerned about politics resulting in a government shutdown, consider this:
If you work in private industry, you can be a victim of a mass-layoff, and you never know its coming, so you should have emergency $$$ savings to prepare for that possibility, just as you should if you work for government - in case of political issues causing funding shortfall come the end of the fiscal year.
With this US government shutdown... employees had more than 60 days' warning that this was extremely likely to happen, essentially; the coming political clash was evident from miles away immediately after the election --- this eventuality became almost certain. Unlike a mass layoff; its presumably going to be temporary, and many furloughed employees will be entitled to automatic back pay - full wages for the time they didn't work, when the deficiency is resolved.
So, not only do they have ample warning to plan and make sure to reign in unnecessary spending: nearly 60 days warning is plenty of time for the best employees to have arranged some kind of alternate work or gig for earning money while on furlough, And after the shutdown's over, they come back on, and get paid double ---- making the whole thing essentially a 20+ day paid vacation where they could amplify their pay
or avail themselves of other opportunities.
>> the brightest, hardest-working, and most capable, dedicated government employees may opt out of government service
Wait - I thought you said "Millennials"
The Republicans win by getting a smaller gubbermint. They win again by dragging the gubbermint through the mud thus tainting it for the future as a place to do good work. And they'll win again after they've fucked up the gubbermint operations by campaigning under the slogan that the gubbermint doesn't work well, so elect them to fix it.
I live near DC and never hear the end of all the moaning and whining when government does a shut-down. I mean, it really does reach the absurd at times. I remember last time there was a shutdown, I was at a full service car wash in Gaithersburg, MD. This lady in front of me rolls in with a high-end luxury full size SUV, and asks to have it fully detailed and waxed. While we're standing in line, she proceeds to tell me how the government shutdown has made everything so stressful for her.... and she just decided to get the car all cleaned up since she had all this time to kill now.
It only took about 2 days of this shut-down before people were on all the news stations, talking about their struggle. (None of them were even close to missing 1 paycheck yet!)
I really do get that the younger people, who just got a first "real job" doing something for Federal govt., would be far more impacted ... But hey, I *never* accepted a government job for this reason. Always felt like the private sector made more sense. I don't like knowing my paycheck is covered by tax revenue they forcibly take from everybody else who works, and everything is subject to voters voting people in or out of office, legislation changing what government plans to do next, etc. Federal govt. jobs have different sets of perks, too, though. It's very difficult to get fired from most government jobs, for example. Even the idiots trying to watch porn while on the job often just got a slap on the wrist and kept their employment.... If you're a real screw up, you sometimes even get a promotion, because it's the only easy way for your superior to get rid of having to deal with you.
I have a family member who is a federal agent. He has to work even when he is "furloughed." He just doesn't get paid until the next spending bill is passed. It's not like a paid vacation for all federal employees.
DRAIN THE SWAMP
... of what talent is there.
Small good government != small ineffectual government.
What's going to happen when the TSA, which has to work without pay, quits?
Travelling by air will become a somewhat smooth process again.
What are millenials doing working for the government anyway. Private sector is on fire. Go make some money while it's easier to make.
Why didn't they do that in the first place?
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
The longer the government shutdown lasts, the more this sounds like slavery. I mean not quite, because ostensibly air traffic controllers could quit and become baristas at Starbucks or whatever (assuming the government does not compel them to not do so), but pretty close.
Particularly appalling is the fact that during the shutdown, all vacations are cancelled, and anyone on vacation is required to immediately terminate that vacation and return to work (because after all, otherwise everyone essential would take vacations), creating pretty significant hardship, particularly given that it happened during the Christmas holiday. I'm pretty sure if I worked for the federal government, I'd have said, "Screw you. I quit," and I'm not even a millennial. I can't imagine how they didn't have an absolute exodus.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
A large quantity of patriotic native born Americans, who are millenials, are impacted by this. I personally know of quite a few that had been considering work in data security and in intelligence or law enforcement services for the US who are affected.
How can you trust people when they throw you under the bus because they don't want to look foolish?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This is a tell for a Russian agent. Dividing us and making us fight with one another with ugly hate language. Nice try, Ivan but we Americans are stronger than you.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The 2018 report has historical results for the same survey questions from 2014-2018, and 2013 report show results from 2010-2013 (it appears the questions in the summary were introduced in 2010).
"willing to put in extra effort" has remained consistent at 96%. "look for ways to do job better" consistently between 90%-91%. "work is important" consistently between 90%-91%. Basically, government employees' attitudes about these factors has not changed in 8 years (which takes us through one change in President's party, control of the House, and control of the Senate). And there is no evidence to indicate they are changing.
The survey questions whose results did change are:
These are the survey questions which indicate changes in government employee attitude (apparently there was more doom and gloom around 2014). That TFA focuses instead on three survey questions whose results have not changed, and discussed them with respect to a current event which could not yet have influenced the survey results, suggests the authors of TFA were just looking for an excuse to write an opinion piece, not report the news.
Classic GOP. Reasonable terms = "my way or the highway"
Trump didn't get his wall in 2017. He didn't get his wall in 2018. And he won't be getting his wall in 2019. This temper tantrum is the result of the "master" negotiator.
Having been a fed employee, the problem of younger people leaving has been a problem known for a while. I remember taking a survey around 2006 (may have been the one mentioned in the article) and accompany info for the survey included the high leave rate of young employees. One can deal with less job satisfaction for more job security if they have things such as marriages, kids, mortgages the younger don't have. This shutdown will just encourage a little more of the known issue
I think that may be the best reason I've ever heard for "losing" your official cell phone.
You: Whoops. Sorry, I didn't get your voice mail. My phone went crazy in Paris.
Boss: Crazy?
You: In Seine.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
it's only because the GOP has been actively sabotaging the government that this is a problem. This entire shutdown mess is entirely a creation of the GOP.
And I see what you did there with your anecdote where you tell a story with the most obnoxious person anyone can imagine (Big SUV, detailing, of course a Lady because there's a meme for that). Let that rub off on anyone who complains about the shutdown.
I mean, if we're gonna talk about obnoxious folks in the shutdown there's this gem. But there's also a lot of folks trying to figure out how to afford gas. Real Wages are down yet like the article says the GOP base is thrilled. Meanwhile it's not free to go to work. That "hurting the people he's supposed to hurt" lady (meme intended) has a 7 hour commute. Some folks need money for daycare too. Screw this noise.
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Plenty of millennials in the Coast Guard, who aren't getting paid.
These are truly people who are doing it for the job and not the money.
Why is the USCG not under DOD who are still being paid? It now looks stupid that they aren't. Every person who is pointing at the Coast Guard and using them as a talking point against the shutdown is calling them a necessary coastal defense. Why not Department of Defense, then?
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. -- P.J. O'Rourke
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
What I find interesting is that it seems the worst impacts of the shutdown are being felt by demographics that tend to vote Republican. That makes the political fallout for this shutdown potentially disastrous for Republicans.
Maybe they'll forget come 2020. But we'll see. The Republican party's behavior has been pretty uniformly reprehensible, and there's a chance that these events will cause a few Republican voters to open their eyes and see the party for what it is: a party for the rich, by the rich, who only panders to non-rich voters by promising to harm "those people". When they find that they're often in the crosshairs, maybe they'll start expanding their news sources beyond the conservative bubble and actually learn something.
Not many, of course. It's rare for people to change their minds like this. But it does happen. And it could be the beginning of the end for the Republican party (aside: if the Republican party ends, it will be replaced by another party: our system is only stable with two parties in power; hopefully that other party will be less terrible so that we can actually have a reasonable national political discussion for once).
What, putting five billion unbudgeted dollars into an appropriation bill is reasonable? For a project with no corresponding authorization bill?
But you probably don't understand what any of that means, so how about this: Congress asked the president for a detailed breakdown of how he intended to spend the money and he only itemized 1.7 billion, meaning he's demanding 3.2 billion that he could spend any way he likes.
If you think government spending is out of control, wait until this becomes the new normal.
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Ha ha, well said AC, well said.
Trump IS on record (video is available) as saying he'll accept the blame for the shutdown.
And he IS on record for dodging the Vietnam draft due to, apparently, "bone spurs" (whatever they are).
Dunno about the electric chair, but I strong suspect that Trump doesn't have the best interests of the USA in mind as president, rather the best interests of the Trump family business.
As has been mentioned, with examples, on many other sites including YouTube.
What I find interesting is that it seems the worst impacts of the shutdown are being felt by demographics that tend to vote Republican. That makes the political fallout for this shutdown potentially disastrous for Republicans.
Maybe they'll forget come 2020. But we'll see. The Republican party's behavior has been pretty uniformly reprehensible, and there's a chance that these events will cause a few Republican voters to open their eyes and see the party for what it is: a party for the rich, by the rich, who only panders to non-rich voters by promising to harm "those people". When they find that they're often in the crosshairs, maybe they'll start expanding their news sources beyond the conservative bubble and actually learn something.
Not many, of course. It's rare for people to change their minds like this. But it does happen. And it could be the beginning of the end for the Republican party (aside: if the Republican party ends, it will be replaced by another party: our system is only stable with two parties in power; hopefully that other party will be less terrible so that we can actually have a reasonable national political discussion for once).
I chance that it will not be disastrous. We are talking about a core that's been willing to commit socioeconomic seppuku for years as long as someone blows wind through the right whistle.
This problem is sociological and cultural in nature, and it is not one without precedent. Cultures have been known to walk off the proverbial cliff, engaging in self-destructive and self-defeating customs and practices in the name of identity.
It's high time we need to recognize their voting patterns as another manifestation of said types of cultures. Shades of J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Effigy."
Even if perchance this causes a Republican blow-back in 2020, for as long as these social dynamics persists with these voters, they will continue with these patterns, with these exaggerated outlooks on what America is supposed to be, and animosity towards anything and anyone that doesn't fit the mold.
Cruelty is the point. It's not a side-effect, not a tool. It is the point.
Case in point , read this story of a voter saying "Trump is not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting". It is quite revealing of the type of shi-that-never-dies we are dealing with. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida
Well, I may be a moron, but I'm a moron who understands the difference between a budget, and authorization and an appropriation bill. The system is designed, among other things, to restrain presidential power and to force the government to work out its spending priorities in advance. I don't know if *you* are a moron too, but you're certainly an ignoramus.
What Trump wants is off-budget spending to be put into a routine appropriations bill, without a formally authorized program that will prevent that spending for being diverted to other uses. What are his alternatives? Well he's wanted the wall for years, so he could put the five billion in his FY2020 request, which means shovels could be in the ground on October 1 of 2019.
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who only panders to non-rich voters by promising to harm "those people".
Every year that goes by, that becomes less and less of a winning strategy. The republican party has not been friendly to either women or minorities, and I can't imagine that they're all going to suddenly forget the party's history at some point in the coming decades and vote republican.
Awww, that's so cute! You believe that people vote based on well-informed reason. They won't remember a thing when the next election cycle is in full swing. They'll be bombarded from all sides with appeals to emotion & vilifying anyone they identify as "other." All of this will be enthusiastically reinforced by the main stream media and especially social media. After all, that's what social media is designed to do; keep people's eyes on their web pages by promoting indignant outrage inducing comments, headlines, & memes.
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