It is with sadness and distress that I continue to read daily about the current administration’s efforts to terminate federal employees. It appears the concept “essential worker” has no application here.
Common sense suggests that certain federal positions are so essential they need to be fully staffed at all times. Instead, we learn that TSA workers, disaster recovery coordinators, nuclear safety engineers, air traffic navigators, food inspectors, wildfire fighter coordinators and VA suicide prevention counselors have all been terminated.
Fairness suggests that if a downsizing of the federal work force is deemed important due to “inefficiencies,” we should attempt to identify the under-performers creating the inefficiencies and terminate their employment. Instead, we have blindly fired everyone falling under the banner “probationary period,” including recent award winners and workers who were recently promoted. The “inefficiencies” go unaddressed, and essential skills and abilities are lost.
