Federal chaos takes human toll

by Tina Tyler, Clallam Democrats Rising Newsletter Team

Two months after President Trump took office, the chaos in the federal government continues on a daily basis. The shock of the takeovers of a number of federal agencies and the en masse firing of federal workers across the nation has been felt down to the local level. 

Now, several weeks into these events, federal workers still feel whipsawed by the changing federal workplace. In talking to some Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest employees, the changes come – or don’t come – daily. Universally, these employees, like many other federal employees, dread the Friday-night decisions and the Monday-morning emails. One employee I talked to sat on the edge of her seat, jiggling her foot as she nervously watched her phone for the email that would tell her if she was being called back to work. It had been promised for 4 p.m. It didn’t come. 

Employees that were fired have been told they will be brought back. Then they are told they will be on administrative leave until the agency can go through a reduction in force, in which case they would probably still lose their jobs. The firing, re-hiring, administrative leave, and reduction in force are not free processes. These personnel actions take an incredible amount of time to process and money not currently in the agencies’ budget. This only adds to the bewilderment of how this accomplishes reduction in waste in the government. That many of the firings are questionable as to legality, it also goes against the goal of reduction of fraud.

As the rules change daily, these employees wait to hear whether they will be re-hired. With no sure deadline, they don’t know how long they can pay their bills. Some have had to ask their landlords or companies for ‘grace’ on paying bills, but without any assurance that they will be rehired or get unemployment. 

Adding insult to injury for the fired employees, the government claimed employees were fired for poor performance when, in fact, most of them have excellent performance records. What the general public may not realize is that:

1. Being fired often means those employees cannot receive unemployment benefits. 
2. Federal employees do not pay into the state unemployment fund. If a laid-off federal employee receives unemployment benefits, the State bills the federal government for the cost. In the current unpredictable political environment, there is concern that the federal government will not follow through in reimbursing the state. 

Another group of employees – those that have not been fired but were working remotely – were ordered to return to their ‘station’ for work. As in the case at the Forest Service’s Quilcene office, with very short notice employees had to return to brick-and-mortar offices with not enough desks, ports, chairs, and other equipment to accommodate the influx of 22 workers. These employees, as with others, had to rearrange their lives for childcare or their spouses’ work needs. 

Yet a third group of employees is being impacted in an insidiously quiet way. These are the workers who have a disability requiring some accommodation to do their job. One employee, who wished to remain anonymous, has had a visual impairment since childhood and is legally blind. She has been successful as a front desk receptionist, a support services supervisor, and a budget officer. She was able to do her job with special computer applications and equipment that allowed her to ‘see’ to do her computer work. Recently, her vision has gotten worse, but the government has stopped the program that would allow her to have the upgrades and equipment to continue to do her job. Her duties have been reduced or changed and she isn’t sure what her future holds. 

Finally, there are the federal employees who still have jobs but are cautioned not to talk about the administration, not to talk to the public, and to ensure the public is served no matter how short staffed they are. (Employees are actually being told by administration not to say that sites are closed or hours are limited due to staffing shortages.) The administration does not want NPS and USFS services ‘impacted,’ which is a pretty tall order when these same agencies are being hollowed out. The Forest Service has been told they have three goals – staff the front desks, do not close any recreation sites, and sell timber (even as the regulations that need to be followed are being circumvented).

The federal employees who shared their experiences are often in their first- or second trimester of a 30-year service, have a passion for their work, and are, by the very nature of federal service, rule followers. Working for the federal government was a workplace of rules, regulations, understood pay rates, and sometimes head-banging bureaucracy but it was steady, reliable, and service-oriented. These employees understood that they served the country and the people of the United States. These agencies were little families within our local communities. 

In the weeks to come, it is likely that we will see more erosion of the federal ‘presence’ in our local area. It may hit harder when the grants, information and services we need are gone or require hours of driving to get to an office. But we need to recognize that in all of that chaos, there is the human toll on a workforce that served us, who are neighbors and friends and participants in every aspect of our local communities. As one NPS worker said, ‘it is a loss we will never get back.’

Update: All Olympic NPS employees who were fired have been reinstated as of March 21 and will not be put on administrative leave. This was the result of an order by Judge William Alsup who had heard about Department of Interior employees being brought back and then put on administrative leave. He stated that putting them on administrative leave would not restore the services they provided. Therefore, agencies were not allowed to do that.

​Congress may yet reduce budgets so that agencies will have to do RIFs (reductions in force). People may yet lose their jobs. But in the world of the federal government, that is, at least, a process that provides an ‘orderly retreat.’  One thing is for sure, public pressure is having an effect in forcing the established processes to be followed.