Category: long story short
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On the 8th day we rested
Spring weather is definitely breaking through. We took a long walk. I got some errands done. The carpenter bee tried to warn me off his territory again (the eave of the house by the front door). I had to make two lists to keep track of things. One is jobs leads that have crossed my…
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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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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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The calm
I can feel Spring on its way. The sky is trying to turn blue. The frosts are gone. Nobody blew leaves around with power tools this morning. School’s out and work is a million miles away. We make food. Tend the garden. Wash our clothes. Soak beans. Hope for epazote. Take long walks. Soothe sore…
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Songs for a new day
Making a record of original songs has been a dream come true. Every step of the way (and we’re not there yet) has been a joy. At the same time, this relentless focus on polishing the first twelve songs I wrote has inadvertently slowed down my pace of finishing songs to nearly a dead stop,…
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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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Old man vines
OK so this off-hand clip about stirring risotto and steel-cut oats (“Stirring tips: No. 37”) quickly did 10x the usual views of my usual random and sporadic video post and more than 2x my previous best (which was a sloppy cover of “Pruno” by my friend Dan that I posted when I first set up…
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Beater tested
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, History of the Germans, and was surprised to hear the host refer to a King of the Romans’ plan as “beater tested” until I recalled that he lives in Britain and that “beta” is pronouced like “beet” there, and the “-a” sound on the end can…
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The reverse Mary Poppins
B looked out onto the sodden back deck and said “we don’t have an umbrella”! My mind at first went to the handheld kind till I saw what she was seeing. (normally there’s a green canvas table umbrella there. the round copper table on its side was already like that.) So I went outside to…
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A RIF by any other name
More than a day after being notified that they should expect to be dismissed during their probation period for reasons having nothing to do with performance, two people on my team were finally notified after 10 pm ET via email and attachment. I have to assume that hundreds if not thousands other across the fed…
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The fork not taken
Because these are very serious people treating us with respect, our new overlords declared once a judge lifted his stay, that the deferred resignation program was closed to new entrants at 4:20 on pacific time. Maybe now we can stop hearing about this meshugganah fork, at least? In the meantime, they semi rolled out a…
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Reporting for duty!
I’ve been working remotely since 2015. After we sold a startup to Dropbox, I had about six months off to chill and figure out what to do next. I took a playwriting class and got a lot of exercise. At the end of the period I joined another startup that was fully remote. I worked…