Category: 18F
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Abraham Lincoln did not invent the corndog
Despite what I was informed today, I am told this is actually not true. That topic came up during the “banter” segment of our team coffeeshop, while we were getting the translators set up properly. After that we talked about or own business, thank you very much. Many things are afoot.
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Effective government, please
Efficiency is all the rage, even in the blue states. “Do more with less” is the battlecry. In my day it was “work smarter not harder” but I think harder work harder is the secret sauce in today’s wishful thinking, that and the panacea of frictionless perfect totally not scary nor dangerous AI. But (forgive…
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A fresh chance to fork ourselves
Friday evening (of course) a new email went out, still visible to those of us wraiths whose devices continue to function as ersatz radio receivers, with the Good News! that the fork is back on. It’s not that they’re having trouble legally hitting their arbitrary and foolish firing targets, of course. Nor could it be…
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I miss the FOIA wave
As we read about our clowntastic predatory regime conducting its war planning on unauditable untraceable private networks, I am reminded again of the training I got in info security, the handling of sensitive information, and the ethical expectations for federal employees. At 18F we worked in the open and welcomed scrutiny.
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Sticking the landing
Hard to believe it’s been three weeks since the great 18F massacree. Hard to believe it’s only been three weeks. Hard to believe this administration has only been at it for eight weeks. Five more weeks to go of administrative leave. We keep meeting and making plans and helping each other stay organized and look…
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Countdown checklist
We are hearing about more layoffs at TTS today, apparently targeting Talent (including PeopleOps). If so, then what was reputed to be by far the best onboarding experience in the federal government is no more, and TTS is now subject to GSA’s OHRM and really the “HR@OPM” mail server that seems to be calling the…
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The view from here
I’ve been working remotely since 2015. First I was on sabbatical. Then I worked for a fully remote startup. Then the founder fired me and I worked for myself for a while. Then I worked for a volunteer project during Covid. Then I was a contractor for the state of California. Then the governor appointed…
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Graduation day
Less than a week ago our whole team at 18F found out we were fired. The past week has been amazing. It was immediately clear that they could not break us, they could not divide us, and that we will win. I said at some point that the power we have discovered is stronger than…
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With a net
When I heard that the Public Buildings Service was getting hit hard yesterday, with entire regions almost entirely shut down, closure of the historical buildings teams and leaked lists of historical buildings on the chopping block, it made me realize that not everyone can get the attention of a laid-off team of techie do-gooders, and…
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Hope springs eternal
I try not to amplify rumors even while lately most rumors I’ve been hearing have either come true or turned out worse than rumored. Especially now I don’t want to spread stories that may not be true or might actually be in flux right now. So I’m glad I didn’t report that people at TTS…
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We have to stick together
It’s Monday and I’m still drawing a paycheck but I’m on “administrative leave.” Still the muscle memory is strong and a bunch us held a standup to coordinate some immediate mutual aid and response activities. Later in the day the incumbent leadership team from 18F also connected to regroup, check in on each other, and…
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1800 force ghosts
So they fired us all at once and we’re still here. They have no idea what they’ve unleashed.
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And one day the axe just fell
The news is already out. 18F, targeted for deletion weeks ago by Prime Minister Musk, was laid off (“RIFfed” in the parlance) last night at 12:01 am ET. Sometime today they managed to pull the plug on 18F.gov but keep your eyes on 18F.org, where so far we have published a joint statement (included below),…
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The waiting
Rumors fly. Those who know are not allowed to tell. Encouraging court cases proceed toward an uncertain terminus. Some days are quiet now. A little too quiet. Hypervigilance and anxiety reign. Scenes and schemes and artifacts from work invade our dreams. We hold hands, waiting for the meteor to hit.
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What to expect when you’re expecting
Some interesting facts about federal reductions in force (RIFs):
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Daily check-in
I was reflecting on the calumnies being heaped on civil servants by professional grifters on the right. Electoral-vote.com this morning shared several comments from television, online, and elected hatemongers suggesting that people who work for the government are stealing taxpayer dollars and producing nothing. (No comment about Georgia congresspeople taking taxpayer dollars to spread lies…
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Double secret probation
After we spent most of Monday taking stock of the damage so far, wasting time responding to a nonsensical status report, and assessing the immediate impact of all this chaos and wasteful destruction on our ongoing project work with partner agencies, true to form we got an email blast after close of business on the…
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Dunning-Kruger guide to micro management
As most of the online world knows, over the weekend a presidential adviser used his right-wing microblogging network to continue repeating all the plays he used to spoil the company behind it. This weekend it was another one of those ludicrous emails couched in weasel words with all the “macho” threats taking place at the…
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It gets worse
Yesterday, I was telling my partner about three troubling things that were going on at work. The first was that our colleagues who had taken the deferred resignation offer, and the probationers who were let go outside of the normal process, were both told suddenly that they would be losing access at close of business…
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Feeling seen
This is my opportunity to thank the many people who have found ways to let me know that you are paying attention to what is going on, that you have grave concerns about the impact on our mission of delivering vital federal government services to the people of this great nation, that you have deep…
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One day at a time
I’ve been checking in with colleagues, peers, and mentors lately and when one asked me how I was handling things lately, I said “one day at a time” and she said something like that sounds like a good strategy. As if I have a choice! Still, there’s some wisdom in there. You can only game…