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I Had to Respond to an EMail

armycowboy

The Dark Lord
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This week I had to respond to an email from Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of Defense. The email requested that I provide 5 bullet points about what I accomplished in my DOD civilian job last week.

I found this completely demeaning to everyone who is serving our country. I served this nation for over 20 years in the US Army, retiring as a Master Sergeant and I now work for the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, our Secretary of Defense never commanded a unit greater than a Company, but is serving as Trump and Musk's lap dog.

I realize that this is nothing but political theater, since many Trump supporters literally hate government workers, but the vast majority of government workers work hard and serve this nation, but also need their job to provide for themselves and their families. Pay for government workers is less than 3% of the budget. I really worry about these people, who are affected by this garbage.

Fortunately I don't need the job. I tried the retirement thing, but got bored and went back to work. So, in case anyone reads them, which I doubt, my 5 bullet comments were:

-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
 
This week I had to respond to an email from Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of Defense. The email requested that I provide 5 bullet points about what I accomplished in my DOD civilian job last week.

I found this completely demeaning to everyone who is serving our country. I served this nation for over 20 years in the US Army, retiring as a Master Sergeant and I now work for the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, our Secretary of Defense never commanded a unit greater than a Company, but is serving as Trump and Musk's lap dog.

I realize that this is nothing but political theater, since many Trump supporters literally hate government workers, but the vast majority of government workers work hard and serve this nation, but also need their job to provide for themselves and their families. Pay for government workers is less than 3% of the budget. I really worry about these people, who are affected by this garbage.

Fortunately I don't need the job. I tried the retirement thing, but got bored and went back to work. So, in case anyone reads them, which I doubt, my 5 bullet comments were:

-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
Awesome!
Could have gone:
Jack Daniel's, etc.
 
but the vast majority of government workers work hard and serve this nation, but also need their job to provide for themselves and their families.

I've never worked in government but I've worked closely with all 3 levels of government in Canada, the US and China.

It mystifies me why government employees are regarded as less dedicated, hard working and effective as the private sector.

Government employees are just like the rest of us. They didn't suddenly all become sloths just because they work for a government department.
 
And now that I got started - wtf is with firing people by email?

Terribly cruel way to handle an action that has a life changing impact on the terminated employee.
 
Why do so many people apparently find it "demeaning" to report on what they did? Pretty much every desk job I've ever had I've had to report on every minute I was at work. 30 minutes doing this, 1.5 hours doing that, etc... I've only ever worked in the private sector.
 
I've never worked in government but I've worked closely with all 3 levels of government in Canada, the US and China.

It mystifies me why government employees are regarded as less dedicated, hard working and effective as the private sector.

Government employees are just like the rest of us. They didn't suddenly all become sloths just because they work for a government department.
Its because people who can barely make a living, through faults of their own, are told by politicians that government workers are making big bucks on their tax dollars. It creates a common enemy for the politicians, even though the stooges voting for them don't really pay much in taxes. They're just useful idiots.
 
Why do so many people apparently find it "demeaning" to report on what they did? Pretty much every desk job I've ever had I've had to report on every minute I was at work. 30 minutes doing this, 1.5 hours doing that, etc... I've only ever worked in the private sector.
Evidently you've had some shitty jobs. My results have always spoken for themselves.
 
Why do so many people apparently find it "demeaning" to report on what they did?
Because it's MAGA political theatre.

These hard working people, many whom voted for Trump/Republicans, already have bosses.

My guess is that they won't be voting Republican in the next elections.
 
I've known ArmyCowboy dating back to another message board. I'm sure it's been decades.

He and I have shared private messages about politics and sports and he's told me about his life and I've probably told him some about mine. He's an honorable and really good guy.

This MAGA political theatre pisses me off because it insults decent, hardworking people like him.
 
Evidently you've had some shitty jobs. My results have always spoken for themselves.
Yeah, there are only two desk jobs that require that level of documentation:

1. The work done is billable to a client so documentation is needed.

2. The employee in question is a very low performer, on a performance improvement plan.
 
Because it's MAGA political theatre.

These hard working people, many whom voted for Trump/Republicans, already have bosses.

My guess is that they won't be voting Republican in the next elections.
Yes, I remember Roevember when women were gonna win it for the DNC. Will this be similar?
You had shitty desk jobs.
Evidently you've had some shitty jobs. My results have always spoken for themselves.
Apparently liberals think accountability = shitty. No wonder they have a problem with DOGE. I say, good riddance.
 
Yes, I remember Roevember when women were gonna win it for the DNC. Will this be similar?
That was before Trump/Elon decided to shit on people (including Trump voters) and ruin the economy.

So good luck.
 
I've known ArmyCowboy dating back to another message board. I'm sure it's been decades.

He and I have shared private messages about politics and sports and he's told me about his life and I've probably told him some about mine. He's an honorable and really good guy.

This MAGA political theatre pisses me off because it insults decent, hardworking people like him.
Thanks brother. You know before we both die I'm eventually going to talk you into playing a round of golf with me. :)
 
Yes, I remember Roevember when women were gonna win it for the DNC. Will this be similar?


Apparently liberals think accountability = shitty. No wonder they have a problem with DOGE. I say, good riddance.
Results are more important than accountability. Evidently you weren’t providing results, so your employer demanded accountability.
 
This week I had to respond to an email from Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of Defense. The email requested that I provide 5 bullet points about what I accomplished in my DOD civilian job last week.

I found this completely demeaning to everyone who is serving our country. I served this nation for over 20 years in the US Army, retiring as a Master Sergeant and I now work for the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, our Secretary of Defense never commanded a unit greater than a Company, but is serving as Trump and Musk's lap dog.

I realize that this is nothing but political theater, since many Trump supporters literally hate government workers, but the vast majority of government workers work hard and serve this nation, but also need their job to provide for themselves and their families. Pay for government workers is less than 3% of the budget. I really worry about these people, who are affected by this garbage.

Fortunately I don't need the job. I tried the retirement thing, but got bored and went back to work. So, in case anyone reads them, which I doubt, my 5 bullet comments were:

-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you
-**** you

👏👏👏
 
Yes, I remember Roevember when women were gonna win it for the DNC. Will this be similar?


Apparently liberals think accountability = shitty. No wonder they have a problem with DOGE. I say, good riddance.
MAGA thinks government workers are accountable to Musk. MAGA and accountability in the same sentence require metric tonnes of cognitive dissonance. I'm a little short, sorry.

This has nothing to do with accountability. It's about Musk.
 
Yeah, there are only two desk jobs that require that level of documentation:

1. The work done is billable to a client so documentation is needed.

2. The employee in question is a very low performer, on a performance improvement plan.
In the era of compressed management hierarchies where Joe worker is just three layers of management from the CEO, the role of the manager has evolved from being a hand-on product technical lead to just managing people and processes. The manager now has so many workers he/she needs help understanding what people's jobs are. The status report is an important tool to communicate to your boss your accomplishments and your roadblocks. This person will negotiate your raise and will prevent you from getting laid off. It's in your best interest to put some effort into it.
 
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Why do so many people apparently find it "demeaning" to report on what they did? Pretty much every desk job I've ever had I've had to report on every minute I was at work. 30 minutes doing this, 1.5 hours doing that, etc... I've only ever worked in the private sector.
What most people object to is having to take time and write something that will mean nothing to the person requesting it because they're not their manager/supervisor. So the first level of insult is wasting people's time when there are already effective ways of tracking this. The second part is wasting someone's time writing out a list of things for someone who has no clue about what each individual worker does, and has made unsupported claims about government workers being lazy. No serious person thinks the point of this is to assess what people are doing or how productive they are.
 
In the era of compressed management hierarchies where Joe worker is just three layers of management from the CEO, the role of the manager has evolved from being a hand-on product technical lead to just managing people and processes. The manager now has so many workers he/she needs help understanding what people's jobs are. The status report is an important tool to communicate to your boss your accomplishments and your roadblocks. This person will negotiate your raise and will prevent you from getting laid off. It's in your best interest to put some effort into it.
Hey, @dmpi learned how to use a LLM!
 
If you had to report your activities by the minute it was either because your boss was a micromanager or they felt you needed to be micromanaged.
It was part of a time tracking and project management program that kept track of notes and time spent on various projects company-wide. And it wasn't just me that had to do it! Do you really think management invested in such a system just to keep track of an incompetent worker?! What a bizarre perception you have of the private sector! It's downright dreamlike...

In the private sector, profitability is a thing, and management likes to be able to calculate that sort of thing. Have you ever worked in the private sector? Just curious. Sure sounds like you haven't since you seem to treat accountability as some sort of punishment rather than the standard.
Results are more important than accountability. Evidently you weren’t providing results, so your employer demanded accountability.
Same thing here. Again treating accountability as some sort of punishment or reaction to incompetence. Also, how does one calculate "results" without being able to calculate time (and thus money) spent on said results? It was like that before I worked at the place and applied to everyone, even the bosses. I guess here is another person who never worked in the private sector...
 
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