Without a Backbone
I’m not a federal worker. I work in the private sector. Actually—now’s a good time to remind y’all: “All of my writing here and anywhere online represents my personal opinions and does not reflect the views of my employer.” Amen.
I’m not a federal worker, but the nationalist language and tactics being leveraged against our federal workforce double-knots my stomach. The “Fork in the Road” communications lack critical context and details that our federal workers need to not only understand the impacts of this new regime on their own lives, but also the impacts on the lives of the American people for which many feel truly responsible. Many of the people in my life who work for the government see themselves as imperative, even if they’re disheartened at the broken system for which they toil. Ultimately, they know broken is better than not-existent, and the people who count on them would be left in critical vulnerability if they weren’t there.
They want and need to know:
Why is this happening? If no one explains why, the rumor mill wins. People fill in blanks with worst-case scenarios—like believing they’re a worthless seat-filler. The “Fork in the Road” pillars referenced the need for more efficient workers, more accountable workers, higher performance, faster performance. Is everyone being asked to resign because the assumption of the incoming administration is that millions of federal workers are slack-ass boobs that bring no value to their work and are the reason why we can’t have big bomb jet planes AND fully funded public education? This human capital is where the American glut of unchecked expense lives? I find that hard to believe. What I don’t find hard to believe: dedicated people are absolutely going to walk away, not out of apathy but out of sheer frustration. In that vacuum of people, we’ll find a worsening of existing pain-points: life-threatening delays in critical benefits, unmanaged and unprocessed claims across all agencies, non-existent oversight and eventually tragedies that haven’t befallen us in decades if not centuries.
How are government workers going to be assisted in making the move from private to public sector work? What employment assistance options are being offered? Imagine thousands of folks forcibly ejected into the private job market without a plan or any transitional support—people’s livelihoods, families, and entire communities are impacted. You can’t tell people they have the right to drastically change their lives or support ideals that stand against who they are as Americans, as humans. That’s not a choice. That’s the commanding voice of totalitarianism: comply, leave and struggle, or leave and fail. Zero empathy.
Why should federal employees believe they will be paid until September 2025 when their pay is based on a continued resolution budget that is only approved through March 2025? What protections does a resigned federal worker have after that approved budget runs out? Failing to clarify their protections leaves people paralyzed. Why keep laboring under a promise that might vanish into a shutdown scenario? Why trust an offer that’s built on shifting sand? If these federal employees walk away, out of fear or cynicism, entire programs can stall. Offices that once rubber-stamped your passport? Taking months instead of weeks. Agencies that issue crucial benefits? Jammed so tight you can’t even reach a hotline. This is basic government reliability 101, but Donald and his henchman are living out their anarchist dreams: burn down the government, start over, any person impacted in the abject chaos is collateral damage, barely registered if only to count their existence.
From the perspective of our American people, this Fork in the Road “approach”—if we can call it that—is demoralizing on a good day and downright dehumanizing on a bad one. Worse, it creates confusion and anxiety among folks who’ve dedicated themselves—often quietly, behind bland cubicle walls or on lonely base outposts—to keep this complicated, awkward, yes sometimes broken, but still functionally critical machine of government humming.
The email itself—dripping in nationalistic, borderline totalitarian language—reads like a paternal ultimatum but of a parent who doesn’t really know who you are and probably hasn’t ever once told you they’re proud of you. “The best America has to offer,” “loyal,” “trustworthy,” “striving for excellence,” all couched under a premise that you’re probably not any of those things.
The “if you’re not with us on this, you’re obviously against us” rhetoric sows distrust everywhere, not just federal workers but among everyday citizens. It tells Americans: “We can’t trust our own public servants to serve the people,” even though these are the folks who have labored for years, often under thankless conditions, chasing mission statements that are rarely lucrative or glamorous.
The Fork in the Road message does one thing better than anything else: it confirms every suspicion about government instability that everyday Americans already harbor. People who need the IRS to process their checks, or the VA to handle their claims, or the FAA to keep planes from colliding, or FEMA to handle disasters—suddenly, they watch as the workforce behind these systems is forced out, morale in tatters. Confidence plummets. Services slow or stop. Real harm ensues.
We will all pay for this half-baked, borderline propaganda that calls into question the motivations and work ethic of public servants—people who, in my personal experience, typically want to get up and do good work for the American people every day.
None of this had to be handled this way. It could’ve been a genuine conversation about efficiencies, modernization, and accountability without villainizing the entire workforce. Instead, we have an unfit President and his team of scallywags delivering bombastic ultimatums that read like a less-subtle version of—well, I won’t say it. You’re saying it.
To the folks who are still in it—my heart’s with you. I hope you’ll stay—quietly or subversively but stay. Because as my dear friend told me, “It’s a scam.” They’re trying to figure out ways to hurt you in order to hurt us. And we need you, badly, to “hold the door” until we can get you some backup.
