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Those seeking a job in the federal government will now have to write an essay in support of Donald Trump's executive orders, according to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management.

Vince Haley, the White House's head of domestic policy, wrote in the May 29 memorandum that all civil service applicants must answer a series of essays as part of the job recruitment process, including one about how they would "help advance" Trump's policy priorities.

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[-] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago

Softest president of all time.

[-] Kookie215@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

He's not a president, he is a dictator. This is the shit that dictators pull.

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 37 points 1 week ago
[-] Nougat@fedia.io 15 points 1 week ago

They’re going to have ChatGPT review the applications, so why not?

[-] Kookie215@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

This is like how teachers are convinced that 90% of students are using AI, because they used AI to tell them that the students paper was AI.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

The issue isn't the writing (since they won't read it).

The point is to get dirt on everyone to begin with. Once you are on record talking about how vaccines are evil or all brownpeople should be put in a concentration camp or whatever other evil? You basically already did the first four or five steps on the alt-right pipeline and are fairly definitively who The Left are complaining about. Which makes you more likely to side with the chuds because they "accept" you.

trump was compromised by putin by golden shower prostitutes and a raping good time with kids. So many republicans are similarly compromised by putin and trump from other stuff over the years. And while having an essay on the importance of ivermectin in heat shields for space craft isn't on the same level as having child slaves snort coke off your dick, it is very much enough to make sure nobody can pass a "purity test".

[-] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

I've applied for several jobs with the federal government on USAJobs over the years. Several have required an essay, but it's always been dippy work-related questions like "What do you consider essential in an employee or colleague?" and stuff like that. I have NEVER seen an essay question that was related to the current administration at the time, or anything political at all. This is very fucked up, and not surprising coming from TACO Don at all.

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

So we will continue to have everything done by contractors then. Cool.

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

That's probably the point, push everything to contractors, pay less, and offload the health insurance, etc to the contract companies, and maybe even push it all private, then profit. What could go wrong?

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Having been a contractor, we aren't always cheaper, but I guess that depends on the industry. I know I was making more than my civilian bosses in IT, but the janitorial service was also contracted out, and I saw a great guy (incidentally, possibly not a legal worker but it's not my business) lose his job because another contractor was cheaper. I wasn't so easy to replace. Having sat in on several interviews, I can attest to that.

I guess that raises the question of whether contractors will be able to remain cheaper without "illegal" labor.

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Right, but there's a lot of extra stuff they have to pay for when you are their employee, health insurance, life insurance, 401k contributions, HR paperwork, im sure im forgetting stuff. There's a reason that 90% of NASA personnel are already contractors, even tho they work at NASA centers on NASA stuff. That's where im at, as a contractor. Its weird stuff, but it must work financially or they wouldn't do it. Also easier to fire non-government workers (or at least it used to be).

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

It's more about them having no protections. We pay the contract company more than twice the salary of the employee, some of its profit but a lot of that is benefits that the contract company offers.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Contractors (in government or not) aren't cheaper in the "per hour" rate than FTEs (Full Time Employee). Contractors are usually more expensive. However, they're cheaper overall because you can release a contract at the end of the work, or at any time, without employment protection repercussions. You don't have to pay them when there's no work (or not enough). If the only work you have is lower skilled, you can release your expensive high skilled contractor, and pay less for a lower skilled contractor to do the work you have right now. You also generally don't have to pay to train contractors, which FTEs are expensive to train. You hire a contractor that already has the skills you want.

There's also no such thing as a Performance Improvement Plan with a contractor that you would have to go through with an underperforming FTE. Firing an FTE is time consuming, carries legal liability, and is expensive to have them underperform until you've built up your case for firing. Even then you may have to pay out severance or accrued PTO. If the contractor is underperforming, you call the agency you're getting the contractor though, and you have a different contractor in very short order. You don't even have to "fire" the contractor, their agency will call them up and tell them they've been released from the contract.

As a skilled contractor on the plus side, if you're skills are in high demand, you can charge egregiously high rates and you'll get the work and be paid handsomely. If the organization had instead cultivated their FTEs and trained them themselves, they would likely be able to get the work done for less money with their own trained FTEs. Further, after the work is done, their trained FTEs would be much better at maintaining the new work, while the org that just got contractors to do it may struggle to keep it running after the contractors are gone.

This is what is attractive to organizations to use contractors. Source: am in contracting

[-] SnarkoPolo@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago

And even now, the media and the token "opposition party" refuse to call it what it is.

FASCISM

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Anyone that applies to be a Federal employee, at this point, probably had an essay ready to go.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

...

Because handing off an entire federal government to fascists has never worked out badly /s

Like, it is fucking shocking that people were agreeing with you. Just wild levels of defeatism, although if that was really what was happening here, I doubt you'd be putting effort into getting people to stop fighting fascists...

Speaking of, do you know what you call someone who spends their time discouraging others from fighting fascism?

[-] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Totally normal presidential behavior.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

Praise be our glorious orange leader!

[-] Gork@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Is it better to lie out of your ass in order to become an inside resistor from within?

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Couldn't you write your essay tearing down the trump administration, not get the job, then immediately have standing to sue the government for 1st Amendment violation?

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

I would help advance trumps policies by supporting many pogroms for the administration and all those who have helped them along the way. I would work to make these as efficient as they can be for all involved.

[-] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Unenforceable, not possible through executive order.

this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
127 points (100.0% liked)

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