I spent 30 years as an employee for the federal government. Most think that federal workers are overpaid and lazy. While there are some that are, I can tell you that most of the people I worked with throughout my career were dedicated and very mindful of spending the taxpayer's money wisely. Yes, I did see some wasteful spending and people who had "fluff" jobs but those were few.
Many view the entire federal workforce as the "enemy" now but I can tell you that the federal workforce is made up of people who support all political parties. The thing that most don't realize is that we never gave a thought of politics and were even prohibited by law to talk about politics in doing our jobs. I obliviously wore a campaign button once into the office and our ethics officer cornered me and advised me of the prohibition against doing so.
During my entire time with the United States Attorneys' Office, the only time that politics became an issue was when a new political party took over as President because our U.S. Attorney had to resign since he was the only presidentially appointed employee in our office. Sometimes it was sad because I enjoyed working with some of them and they had to resign simply because they were of a different political party. I always thought that was dumb. To me, it made more sense that someone in that position were neutral since we were dealing with justice.
As federal employees, we were always pawns when it came time for the federal budget and we were furloughed. We went without a paycheck. Even when we got paid back later, it was always stressful because the bills still had to be paid on time. We were not given a pass on that. None of us cared about politics, we just wanted to get paid. Many of us still had to go to work anyway when we were deemed essential. So to say it is a fluff job is totally inaccurate.
I can tell you that a majority of federal employees are hard workers and they don't care about politics. They are proud of working for their country and doing a good job.
The President has said that he intends to have each federal employee pledge allegiance to him. I suppose there is going to be some directive or form that employees will be required to sign to fulfill this directive if it comes out. This is totally unheard of and simply not fair to force federal employees to pander to politics instead of being neutral.
Many ignorantly assume that federal employees do not pay taxes. This is definitely not true. We definitely pay and we always knew we were stewards of our own tax monies.
In the years I was employed, my dedication was to assist our office in finding justice for the American people. It was never about politics, and it should never be political.
I worry about my former co-workers who are still working for the government. I fear how this is going to change the federal workforce in the future. Are there cuts that should be made? Sure, every agency probably has some things that could be done more efficiently. I am certain that people like Elon Musk are not remotely qualified to determine these types of decisions.
I am proud to have served my country with integrity and dedication. It was never to a president or any political party. I did my job with the same dedication regardless of which party occupied the White House. Many of my former colleagues have the same dedication. They should not be hated or scorned for the service they provide to our country. It is not fair to lump every federal worker into the swamp they want to drain.
