r/FedEmployees

my husband works for USCIS as analyst, he was a fully remote until last year and been going to office for a year now. He hates it. Then He’s been complaining about his new supervisor who came abroad about five months ago and how toxic he’s making everything and how he’s siding with incompetent coworkers and force him to take on more tasks. And some days he just sit at his desk doing nothing. So he’s been looking for new position but nothing came out of several interviews. many times he told me he didn’t want to go to work. this past week I’ve noticed that he’s acting not like his normal self, sleeping a lot, tired all the time, didn’t want to go out, and quiet. over this past weekend he slept like 18 hours a day, and Monday he came home and went straight to sleep, woke up around 3am, and by morning he told me he think he’s having depression. we talked about getting professional help and he was able to book an appointment to see therapist this Thursday. So for me as someone who’s never dealt with mental health issue and outside of federal system to know what works, can someone please give me some guidance on how to help my husband, like go back to fully remote or how to deal with toxic supervisor or something. Anything. thank you.

add: my husband is 40 and only been with uscis for 10 years

I’m honestly so mad that this whole year has been ruined by politics. I’m a pretty patriotic person, and normally I’d be overjoyed about all the 250‑year freedom celebrations. My building is covered in “Freedom 250” signage, and any other year I’d be all in.

But right now it just feels fake. The admin in the office, including my own elected representatives, clearly can’t stand me or the work I do. They make my job harder every single day, and it’s impossible to feel proud or celebratory when the people in charge seem to actively dislike the very people they’re supposed to represent.

I want to feel excited about these big national moments, but instead it all feels like a performance layered over a bunch of hostility. Anyone else feeling this disconnect?

Thanks to all who replied to my previous post in this group. After several days of deep consideration I plan to retire early from federal service.

It's sad to go out like this - hating going to a job that I used to love, dreading every Monday and counting the hours until Friday. There's no way I can do this to myself and my family for 2 more years until I'm eligible for a full unreduced retirement.

Tonight I'll go home, talk through it with my wife one more time, select my retirement date, and then submit the request tomorrow morning.

I recently saw a town hall with the head of my DOD agency (and yes, I said DOD. I’m not using that DoW bullshit promoted by that drunk Fox and Friends weekend host). Once the floor was opened up for questions, telework was a popular topic because, spoilers, the people want it back. Now this agency was not a fan of remote and would have pulled it back even if people didn’t return the orange pedophile to power, but at least he was going to go hybrid and leave the people distant remote be.

Needless to say, there was little he could do even if he wanted. But it shows that the workforce want remote back, or at least maybe go hybrid.

What can we humble employees do? Right now, very little other than vote for candidates who are willing to support remote. And if those candidates win in November, start lobbying for them to force you-know-who to back off.

I think I am done. I’ve been trying to hang on. Literally looking to go work retail after working so hard for so long to get my non supe GS 14. I feel like I am in an abusive relationship. My supervisor clearly doesn’t like me, ever error turns into a conversation to ridicule and belittle me. I felt like I was alone but reading many post here on Reddit I see that I am not alone. I just don’t think I can take this any longer. Just venting because I know I am getting on my family’s nerves with this. Also seeing a therapist and psychiatrist just to try to hand in but I simply can’t do it anymore. Our Federal community here on Reddit has really helped me. I want to thank you all for that.♥️

*UPDATE - Thank you for all of your helpful responses. I really needed to hear all sides of the stories.

Any other regulatory agencies implementing random searches of their employees in their buildings?

This should make the commute just lovely 🙄

Road closures are in effect throughout downtown D.C. due to unannounced security operations for a VIP "special event" happening during the afternoon and evening. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) shut down a wide perimeter surrounding the event and the surrounding hotel traffic from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. 

Key Impacted Streets:

15th & 17th Streets, NW: Closed between H Street, NW, and Independence Avenue, SW.

Constitution Avenue, NW: Closed between 14th and 18th Streets.

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW: Closed from 14th Street to 18th Street.

Cross streets (G, F, E, D, C Streets, and New York Ave): Blocked in the grid between 17th Street and 18th Street. 

What to Know:

Parking Bans: Emergency no-parking zones and tow-away restrictions are active along the closure routes.

Traffic Delays: Commuters are advised to avoid the immediate area and seek alternate routes like I-66 or I-395, as significant backups are expected during rush hour.

Metro: Utilizing the WMATA System is highly recommended to bypass the downtown gridlock. 

Palantir just got a new contract to monitor and track employees swiping in and out. This is certainly a part of the induced trauma that Count Vought’em’whore talker about. Thoughts?

They claim its a way to monitor office space and to enforce the RTO EO.

If office space is not occupied at capacity it's because the administration saw fit to cut 350,000 staff and staffing is under capacity, not office space.

A friend of mine regularly uses the transit subsidy offered by their organization. They are fully aware that the subsidy is strictly for mass transit commuting costs and is not supposed to be used for parking.

For context, they work in the Washington DC metropolitan area. What is the actual likelihood of the agency finding out or being alerted if they use the subsidy funds to pay for parking?

Does WMATA/the transit program cross-reference specific charge types with the agency, or is it mostly an honor system until a formal audit happens?

I plan on quitting soon and was hoping for advice on how to do it to protect myself in case I want to be employed by the Fed gov in the future. I also want max pain for my employer, ie, basically zero notice, but don’t want to jeopardize my record. They’ve treated me like shit and I’m done. Thank you!

Overview: President Donald Trump is reportedly considering dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion government fund. This taxpayer-financed fund would be used to compensate political allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s "weaponization" of the legal system—including many individuals charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Key Details of the Proposed Settlement:

• Jan 6. & Political Allies: The $1.7 billion fund would pay damages to Trump supporters who assert they were wrongfully prosecuted or harmed, which includes the nearly 1,600 people charged in the January 6th insurrection.
• Trump’s Compensation: The fund would also settle Trump's own $230 million legal claim against the Justice Department regarding the 2022 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and investigations into his 2016 campaign's alleged ties to Russia.
• IRS Concessions: In addition to the monetary fund, Trump would reportedly require the IRS to publicly apologize for the previous unauthorized disclosure of his personal tax returns (the origin of his $10 billion lawsuit) and to waive a current IRS audit into his finances.
• Legal Blueprint: The Justice Department is reportedly modeling this fast-tracked program after a historic 2011 class-action settlement fund (Keepseagle v. Vilsack), which previously compensated Native American farmers for systemic discrimination.

Backlash and Criticism: The proposal has sparked intense outrage from Democratic leaders and government ethics watchdogs. Critics are highly concerned about the ethics of a sitting president receiving substantial government funds from his own administration and distributing them to political allies. For instance, Senator Elizabeth Warren publicly condemned the move as an "insane level of corruption," characterizing it as a billion-dollar "slush fund" intended to reward insurrectionists while everyday Americans struggle with basic expenses.

Submission statement: this article explores how authoritarian regimes exploit the ambitions of the mediocre and the incompetent to enforce their will. Offering promotions and benefits to the otherwise undeserving acts as an incentive to commit crimes and atrocities.

While large parts of the article discuss authoritarian regimes generally (including the growing power of ICE under DJT in the US), the argument revolves around hard data from Argentina published by two German researchers.

>"Making a Career in Dictatorship", a new book by two German political scientists, Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel, reads like what you might get if you crossed Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the “banality of evil” with a business school guide on how to get the most out of low performers.

>Their in-depth study of Argentina’s military during that country’s era of coups and forced disappearances found that low performers — whom they refer to as “career-pressured” individuals — filled the ranks of the secret police. That service allowed them to “detour” around the ordinary military hierarchy, the book shows, achieving promotions and career success they could never have managed otherwise.

>It turns out that would-be authoritarians don’t need to staff their regimes with ideological true believers, offer extreme enticements or impose draconian punishments in order to make successful power grabs. They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool: the frustrated and mediocre.

A very good article and if you are able to pick up a copy of the book as well, I'm planning to. "Meal Team Six" is not just a meme, but a measurable phenomenon.

With the constant threat of agencies, not being funded, the news cycle, and being afraid to speak freely at work, how does everyone cope? It seems like the administration takes us right to the edge with threats of not funding us, early outs being offered, and threats of reductions and force every few months & there are very few breaks in between.

We’re constantly living with the threat of not having a job. Difficult to make plans financial plans for the future. It would be so easy if the answer were “just get a job in private industry“. Tell me, where are those jobs? Why does it seem like the goal of this administration is to watch their constituents suffer!? Asking for a friend.