Should I be looking for a different job?
No quit
A few months ago a german activist (I think it was Arne Semsrot) wrote a book about how low and middle positions in government agencies can work against the governments intentions in case of a extreme right wing takeover by the AFD. Though I don’t know, if it was translated to english or would be 1 to 1 applicable to the USA.
The answers to both of your questions are probably yes it’s okay, and yes you should probably be looking for another job.
Are you morally/ethically okay with your agency’s mission? With your role in it? If you are, then the new administration’s policies may not be reason enough to leave. You pretty much have to work somewhere. If the answer is no, you probably would have already been looking for another job.
Should you be looking for another job? Probably, depending on what your agency is and it’s mission. If TFG and Project2025 have their way, many federal government agencies will be defunded and/or privatized, and pretty much toothless when it comes to enforcement. We already saw what happened to the EPA under the first Trump administration. If yours is in danger of that you should be preparing a backup plan. I wouldn’t want to give up a government job, but I would want to be ready if I got RIF’d, or if I got fed up with the bullshit.Of course, as long as the work you do doesn’t become hostile to your own beliefs. I mean, people that process social security still provide benefits to millions of people no matter who is in charge, at least until Republicans destroy it.
Maybe you should leave the country if it upsets you that much
That’s not out of the question yet.
Just leave! Hit da bricks! Who cares what you need to leave behind, emigrating is super easy anyway. Just decide to go, every country in the world would love to have another American within their borders.
You work for the government, not for whatever yoyo happens to be President at any given time. You wouldn’t necessarily leave a private sector job if the CEO changed.
OTOH, this administration has been making a point of wanting to make government so small they can drown it in the bathtub. Unless you work in one of the very few Project 2025 priorities, they will probably eliminate your job eventually. So keep a keen eye out for alternatives.
I’d leave my job if Musk would become CEO at my job.
Bro I may sabotage it until I get dismissed and use that insider information to short his stock. See how elmo likes being on the losing end of stock manipulation.
Unfortunately, thatt’s a question only you can answer. But goes without saying for any job.
Ask yourself:
- Will you be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing what job you’re doing and who you’re doing it for?
- Are your morals stronger then job security you’re getting?
- Can you stay on the job and inact change from within?
- Can you refuse certain tasks you don’t feel conformable with?
- Can you steer / influence the work that you and/or the agency does?
The first Trump presidency is known for the longest government shutdown in US history.
Job stability is not a given for federal employment anymore.
Other than that, I would say non-defense jobs are certainly worth maintaining institutional knowledge.
So long as you have some savings, a government shutdown is more a vacation than anything. Back pay has always been given to employees.
I would not be surprised if this was repealed (if only as an effort to further purge government employees):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Employee_Fair_Treatment_Act_of_2019
Prior to this, my understanding is that back pay was given in good faith, not by actual requirements.
What is the difference between a rebel and a revolutionary?
A plan?
Maybe, but I think it may also be possible they mean the same thing but from different perspectives or maybe whether you are willing to cross some line like dying or killing for a cause. There was a disagreement around 100 years ago when WW2 ended between philosophers Sartre and Camus about how to be free and whether violence and murder can be justified for political goals. Camus supported the French in WW2 but did not support political violence outside of war, in The Rebel he rejects revolutionary violence as it undermines/betrays yourself and is utopian and absolutist. Sartre thought violence could be justified for the right cause like communism to build and maintain a system for justice and freedom until it was obvious the tankies had taken over during the revolution reaction in Hungary. Sartre became an apologist for Soviet revolutionary violence until '56 and Camus was an advocate for nonviolent rebellion. I don’t know what the answer is or if there is one.
Yes.
Schindler couldn’t do it alone.
So assuming you’re an American. I hate to break it to you but your government has done way worse stuff than elect an orange guy. I seriously doubt everything done holds up to the slightest scrutiny to your moral and ethical code. The only difference is now you are aware of it. If it was me I would ask myself if I felt guilty for the work I had done already. If I did I would stop if not I wouldn’t.
The slightest effort at extrapolation makes this whole idea monumentally short-sighted.
The resistance infiltrating the enemy base in disguise can get a lot of work done. Especially if it’s long term and you don’t even need to sneak around.
Even just a low level functionary who’s not a nazi or a terrible person makes my time dealing with a government agency better. There’s not an automatic moral imperative to bounce.
Do you feel that your “customers” are the administration or the general public? Whom do you feel that you are serving in your job? Do you feel that the directions given to you by your administration are legal and safe and reasonable? Do you feel that the directions given to you by your administration cause a disadvantage to yourself or your “customers”?
You could try to clutch at straws to justify staying in your job. You might be able to reasonably determine that your feelings for your administration don’t affect the performance of your job. Maybe staying in your job is the best way to benefit your “customers” and obstruct the administration.
Only you can decide how you feel and what is an appropriate match for your own moral and ethical position.
No one can answer that question but you.
Of course. But one can hope for insight and help in answering it, no?
Yup. Watch The Good Place, then ask again.
If you’re working for the government, you had no morals and integrity before.
Huh? This is an edgy thing to say.
We need taxes filed and mail delivered. Environment monitored and earth science conducted. Etc. There’s countless jobs that are apolitical and vital to everything worth anything in a modern society.
taxes filed
The state forces peasants to this and they have to use corpo soft slop to do it…
Even in Europe they have government employees “filing” the taxes on their end. It’s just much better. Every country needs a tax department like the IRS.
Like, are you suggesting you do ALL the work of processing and accruing taxes and the IRS employees do nothing?
I’m not defending the US system where citizens have to prepare their own taxes, but the implied suggestion that IRS employees don’t do something critical is silly.
US peasant has legal obligation to file taxes. He or she must do this.
Funny enough you ask this because if you fuck up your taxes, IRS will correct when you try to submit. They pretty much have all the data for large section society, ie wage worker with basic retirement accounts. So they know the numbers. So technically US know how much most must pay.
Tax software lobby however forces this system and blocked attempts at models like EU for decades. There is some limp dick try for low income people that is being worked but it is literally designed to work for broke ass pleb with basic w2 income.
Yappin. I acknowledged the US system is not ideal, the point is we need an IRS and frankly need them to do MORE to be more like other countries.
Issue not the IRS, the issue is the tax code written by regime whores serving oligarchs.
🗣️
Not the point of this thread. The point is the value of government employees existing.
