#employee performance improvement plan

[maya-joshi-blogs]

Corporate Employee Assessment: Building a Competitive Workforce

In today’s fast-paced business environment, one of the most powerful tools companies can leverage to stay competitive is a robust employee assessment strategy. Effective employee assessments not only optimize individual performance but also drive organizational growth. However, many companies still underestimate the true value of this practice. If you’re looking to transform your workforce and gain a competitive edge, understanding the importance and implementation of Corporate Employee Assessment

is key.

1. The Importance of Employee Assessment

Employee assessment refers to the ongoing evaluation of employees to understand their skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. It is a multifaceted tool that businesses use to boost employee performance, align workforce skills with business goals, and plan for future growth. Without a clear understanding of an employee’s capabilities, businesses run the risk of misaligning resources, stunting individual growth, and missing out on critical opportunities for development.

Why is employee assessment so crucial?

Optimizing Performance: Regular assessments help identify areas where employees excel and where they need support. This insight enables leaders to make informed decisions about promotions, training needs, and team compositions.

Encouraging Growth and Development: By understanding an employee's strengths and weaknesses, managers can provide targeted opportunities for development, ensuring that the workforce grows in alignment with the company’s goals.

Building a Competitive Edge: An ongoing commitment to assessment enables companies to constantly adapt and improve, which is critical for staying competitive in any industry.

2. Types of Corporate Employee Assessments

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to employee assessments. The best organizations use a combination of different types of assessments to gain a 360-degree view of their employees.

Performance-Based Assessments Performance-based assessments focus on how well employees meet their established goals, targets, and performance metrics. They might involve:

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Measuring outcomes against established goals.

360-Degree Feedback: Gathering insights from peers, managers, and direct reports to evaluate an employee’s overall performance.

This type of assessment is critical for providing actionable insights on how employees contribute to business success.

Skill-Based Assessments To stay competitive, employees must have the right set of skills for the job. Skill-based assessments help to:

Evaluate technical capabilities in areas like software proficiency or industry-specific tools.

Measure soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership potential. This assessment can be tailored to specific roles or departments, allowing companies to identify gaps and provide targeted skill-building opportunities.

Behavioral and Personality Assessments Understanding an employee's personality and behavior is crucial for ensuring team cohesion and individual performance. Behavioral assessments, such as the DISC or MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), give insights into how employees approach problems, communicate, and collaborate. These tools can help businesses:

Build balanced teams by ensuring diversity in personality types.

Improve leadership training by identifying natural leaders or potential managers.

Potential Assessments Potential assessments help businesses identify employees who exhibit the ability to grow within the organization. These assessments are especially valuable for:

Succession planning: Identifying and nurturing future leaders.

Career development: Providing employees with opportunities that align with their long-term potential.

By identifying high-potential employees early on, organizations can ensure a continuous pipeline of capable leaders who can drive the company forward.

3. Key Benefits of Employee Assessment

Employee assessment is not just about evaluating performance—it’s a vital part of a broader strategy for continuous improvement. Here are some key benefits:

Improved Individual and Team Performance When employees understand their strengths and weaknesses, they are empowered to focus on areas that need improvement. For teams, assessments reveal how each member’s strengths can complement the others. This leads to:

Enhanced collaboration and communication.

Better results as a result of aligned goals and skills.

Enhanced Talent Retention Employee turnover is costly, both in terms of money and time. Regular assessments provide employees with a sense of direction and purpose. They can see where they stand, and they have the opportunity to improve continuously. This transparency boosts job satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty, significantly reducing turnover.

Strategic Workforce Planning Assessments aren’t just about today—they also prepare your workforce for tomorrow. By using assessments to identify skill gaps and training needs, businesses can:

Build a workforce that is prepared for future challenges.

Align hiring and training initiatives with strategic goals.

4. Steps to Implement a Robust Assessment Framework

Building an effective employee assessment framework is crucial for long-term success. Here’s a step-by-step approach:

Setting Clear Objectives Before you start assessing your employees, you need to define what you hope to achieve. Do you want to improve performance? Identify potential leaders? Align employee skills with business needs? Setting clear objectives will help ensure that assessments are aligned with organizational goals.

Choosing the Right Tools and Techniques Selecting the right tools is essential. Different tools work best for different types of assessments. For example, performance-based assessments may require a different platform than behavioral assessments. Make sure that the tools you choose are easy to implement, scalable, and adaptable to your organization's specific needs.

Ensuring Objectivity To get accurate insights, it's crucial that the assessment process is as objective as possible. This involves:

Standardizing evaluation processes.

Using external consultants to help remove any biases in the assessment process.

Continuous Monitoring and Feedback Employee assessments should be ongoing. Implementing a culture of continuous feedback allows businesses to track progress, adapt to changes, and address issues before they become problems. Real-time feedback systems help employees feel more engaged and give them the tools they need to improve continuously.

5. Challenges in Employee Assessment and How to Overcome Them

While the benefits of employee assessments are clear, there are challenges that need to be addressed to make the process truly effective.

Resistance from Employees Employees may be resistant to assessments if they view them as punitive or overly critical. To overcome this:

Communicate the benefits of assessments clearly and regularly.

Make assessments a two-way conversation, where employees have input and feel heard.

Ensuring Accuracy Assessments must be accurate to be useful. Combining both qualitative and quantitative data is key to ensuring a fair and complete evaluation. It’s essential to use objective data, such as performance metrics, alongside subjective data, like feedback, to get a well-rounded picture of an employee’s performance.

Resource Constraints Smaller organizations may face challenges in implementing comprehensive employee assessments due to limited resources. However, there are cost-effective solutions available, such as utilizing free or low-cost online assessment tools and software platforms. Even with a limited budget, you can still make employee assessment a part of your culture.

6. Future Trends in Employee Assessment

The landscape of employee assessments is evolving rapidly. As companies embrace new technologies, employee assessments are also becoming more advanced. Here are some emerging trends:

AI and Machine Learning in Assessments Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to predict performance outcomes and identify trends in employee behavior. Machine learning algorithms analyze past performance and suggest areas where employees may need additional support, helping to optimize training and talent development strategies.

Gamification of Assessments Gamification is a growing trend in employee assessments, especially in skill-based evaluations. By incorporating elements of gaming—such as challenges, points, and rewards—businesses can make the assessment process more engaging for employees, while also gathering valuable insights into their abilities.

Customization and Personalization Every employee is unique, and personalized assessments are becoming more common. Companies are moving toward assessments that take individual goals, strengths, and weaknesses into account. Tailored assessments provide more meaningful feedback and encourage employees to stay engaged with their development.

Employee assessments are no longer just a formality—they’re a strategic tool that can shape the future of your business. By implementing a well-rounded, thoughtful employee assessment process, you’ll not only improve individual performance but also build a stronger, more competitive workforce. When executed correctly, assessments enable businesses to identify and nurture talent, align workforce capabilities with business goals, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Also Read :

Importance of Aptitude Testing

IQ, Aptitude Interest – What Is More Important?

Q & A Aptitude Test

FAQs

1. What is the main purpose of employee assessments? Employee assessments are primarily used to evaluate an employee's strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance. The insights gained help organizations improve employee productivity, identify potential leaders, and align the workforce with company goals. Assessments also provide employees with clear feedback on areas for improvement and development opportunities.

2. How often should employee assessments be conducted? Employee assessments should be an ongoing process rather than a once-a-year event. Ideally, assessments should be conducted at least quarterly, with real-time feedback provided regularly. This helps ensure continuous improvement and allows for adjustments to be made as needed.

3. What are the benefits of using 360-degree feedback? 360-degree feedback involves gathering input from multiple sources, such as managers, peers, and subordinates. This type of assessment provides a comprehensive view of an employee’s performance and behavior. The benefit is that it eliminates bias and offers well-rounded insights into how the employee interacts with others, communicates, and contributes to the organization.

4. How can I ensure employee assessments are unbiased? To avoid bias in employee assessments, you should standardize the evaluation process. This can involve using objective metrics, like KPIs, alongside subjective input, such as feedback. In some cases, it may be beneficial to involve external consultants or HR professionals to assess employees, ensuring impartiality.

5. How do you measure an employee’s potential for growth? Measuring an employee’s potential for growth involves assessing not just their current performance but also their ability to take on more responsibilities. This includes looking at factors like learning agility, leadership potential, and their ability to adapt to changes. High-potential employees often demonstrate a proactive attitude, a willingness to take on challenges, and a track record of successful outcomes.

6. What is the role of gamification in employee assessments? Gamification in employee assessments involves turning assessment tasks into engaging challenges. Employees earn points or rewards for completing tasks or demonstrating specific skills. This approach can increase employee engagement, motivation, and make the assessment process feel less intimidating.

7. Can employee assessments improve team performance? Yes, employee assessments can improve team performance by identifying individual strengths and areas for improvement. When employees understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, they can collaborate more effectively, leading to better team results. Assessments can also help managers allocate tasks to employees who are best suited for them.

8. What are some cost-effective ways to implement employee assessments? Small to medium businesses can implement cost-effective employee assessments by using free or affordable tools available online. Platforms that offer basic employee feedback surveys, skills assessments, and performance tracking can help gather useful data without breaking the bank.

9. How can employee assessments boost talent retention? By providing employees with regular feedback, clear development goals, and opportunities for growth, assessments help to improve job satisfaction and engagement. When employees see that their employers are invested in their success, they’re more likely to stay with the company, reducing turnover.

10. What is the future of employee assessments? The future of employee assessments lies in AI, machine learning, and personalized evaluations. Businesses are increasingly using AI to predict employee performance and identify trends. Additionally, customized assessments that consider individual goals and strengths will likely become the norm, allowing businesses to better align their workforce with business needs.

[celesiosusa]

Empowering Growth with Celesios Employee Performance Improvement Plans

Are your employees reaching their full potential? Celesios can help them get there. They specialize in crafting personalized Employee Performance Improvement Plans that inspire growth and drive success. They work with employees through tailored strategies to overcome challenges, build strengths, and achieve goals. Celesios believes that every team member has the potential to excel with the right support. Trust them to foster a culture of continuous improvement where every employee can thrive. Let Celesios elevate your team's performance to new heights!

[bumbldee]

Gristol, Head of HR AU

Where Gristol bitched too much about how poorly ran the Psychonauts is, even citing his sources, and inexplicably gets hired as the Head of HR for his community service.

Some doodles before i go off for holiday, wont be back for like another week

Anyways ramble about this under the cut

Basically, before Gristol gets his verdict, Sasha's assigned to see what's up w him to figure out what's a good punishment.

Gristol spends like a long time ranting about how piss poor the Psychonauts is managed. As he was supposed to blend in, he researched EVERY ethic and code that the psychonauts were oblidged to as he wanted to fit in. His mother never wanted him to end up like his father, so she forced him to learn management and strategy as a kid, and he's DAMN well good at it, except for being a leader. As a stress reliever he'd written down everything wrong with management, and how he'd fix it, for the past 3 years of him working there. Employee's who constantly breached conduct, how shit the hiring security was, etc etc

Sasha sees his manifesto and is like, somewhat impressed with it. He sends it off to Truman, whose also surprised with it.

At first, Gristol tries to escape for like, a month. But then he realized this was the best he was going to get, seeing that he did not have any other skills than management and planning, or even a certified high school degree.

He's actually good at his job, improving employee wellfair and turnout by around 12%. He takes it extremely seriously but at the same time he doesn't want to be there, he's grumpy and it kinda puts everyone off.

Even though he's lived through the life of the common person and what they need, he still believes in Grulovia's dictatorship. His empathy and sudden want for change in management was a result of going through it himself, so he's mostly just serving what he would've wanted. Big ol hypocrite.

Managing a single department has kind of turned him off the idea of trying to be Gzar entirely. He realized the hard way he's not suited for leadership roles.

For like the first few months, he's forced to sit in a little desk next to Truman's with a shitty little typewriter. He's put there because Truman needs to see his performance + it's funny to him. Eventually though he gets really bad backpain from crouching over to type on his little typewriter, and does get his own little office.

Hollis NEVER agreed to hiring him, and was really pissed when Truman did it without her input. They spend a lot of their first interactions arguing, but they do eventually get along somewhat, sharing the same annoyance on dumb decisions Truman or Employees did. They're still hostile but like, they won't try to kill each other anymore.

Gristol has what he needs, he's provided simple accommodations (a small room with a shitty kitchen and a small bathroom) and an allowance (300-500 a month, it's mostly fun + food money).

Lori was originally going to give him a "Best Mail Clerk!" mug, but then the events of Psychonauts 2 happens and she never gets to give him his mug. When he gets hired as head of hr, she cancels out Mail Clerk from the mug and written down "head of HR"

One of Gristol's duties is to water Truman's plants in his office.

Gristol initially tried to have Raz fired, (everyone thought it was because he was salty Raz ruined his plans, nah it's because y'know he's 10) but with Truman's insistence he stayed on, Gristol had updated his contract. Raz is only permitted to go on less dangerous missions and more frequent mental health inspections. He might've had to forge some documents to be able to register Raz to work. Maybe.

[gothiccharmschool]

Life in the workplace advice from your Goth Auntie

(Caveat: this mostly applies to the tech industry, but there are probably parts that apply elsewhere.) Now that I am on the other side of the management veil, I've learned things that I wish I'd known when I was a regular employee.

A competent or good manager doesn't want to set you up to fail. Firstly because it's the decent thing to do! Treat folks with respect! Secondly, because employees failing signals the manager is failing at their job, and managers up the chain notice. Self-serving? A bit, and anyone in a management slot should be dedicated to helping their team, but sometimes the only thing that will get not-so-competent managers to help their peeps is a sense of "Oh shit, this is going to put my own ass on the line".

A competent/good manager should be giving you feedback all the time, and help you strengthen areas you're weak at. Any annual review talk should never come as a surprise. That goes double for performance improvement plans, extra coaching, etc.

A competent/good manager also asks for feedback on themselves. I have weekly 1-on-1 meetings with all my peeps, and in every meeting I ask where I need to do better, and if I'm failing them somehow. I need to know so I can better defend them, which leads to my next point ...

A competent/good manager actively protects you. From meetings, from sudden randomization, shifting deadlines, etc. If one of my peeps says "BTW, my feature team just cut time from the deadline", I immediately set up a meeting with said feature team to set expectations of what my folks are capable of with less time. I make it clear that the original amount of work isn't possible with the new deadline, and if it has to be done, we take it higher up the chain and play project management thunderdome.

If work gets weird, deadlines get crunched, etc, a competent/good manager gets that IN WRITING from the folks responsible and gives it to you IN WRITING. No vague "Oh, we discussed it in the meeting" or DMs in Slack - in an email that can be saved. Again, actively protecting their team.

I would never have taken a management role at any other company I worked for because I didn't trust the management chain above me to let me protect my team. Because that is the number one job of a competent/good manager. If you're working for someone who doesn't tick these boxes, start doing the arduous thing known as "managing up" (oh how I hate that phrase), and ask your manager for feedback at every meeting. Ask for information in writing, give important information in writing, and (tactfully) give your manager feedback. And the moment it seems that's not helping, start figuring out an escape plan.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

When and how does the GIL do employee/intern performance reviews? Will we get to read some highlights?

At the Gallifreyan Institute for Learning (GIL), we believe in fostering a productive and minimally disastrous work environment. As such, we conduct biannual performance reviews to assess the contributions of our esteemed employees.

In the interest of transparency, we have compiled some anonymous excerpts from the most recent review cycle.

📌 General Employee Observations

Displays great initiative. Sometimes, too much initiative. Perhaps dial the initiative back by 12%.

Since the last review, has successfully prevented at least three (3) minor catastrophes and caused two (2).

Demonstrates strong leadership qualities. Unfortunately, those qualities are only demonstrated when securing additional meal breaks.

Would benefit from a greater awareness of personal space.

Communication skills have improved, though excessive use of sarcasm in official reports continues to be noted.

... Though we do reiterate: simply observing a task is not the same as completing it.

📌 Specific Departmental Feedback

🔬 Research & Development: Contributions to scientific discovery have been invaluable. Contributions to health and safety violations have been… notable.

🌌 Human & External Relations: Excellent at engaging with alien minds. Less excellent at remembering that their own species is technically included in that category.

🍽️ Catering: Food quality remains exceptional. Explosiveness levels continue to fluctuate unpredictably.

💻 Assistant Performance Notes: Extremely vocal about workplace conditions. Constantly demands immediate food-based resolutions. Struggles with long-term planning, though excellent at napping.

🏫 Final Notes

Overall, the March 2025 performance reviews reflected an engaged, talented, and, at times, mildly concerning team of employees. We are pleased to report only minor catastrophic incidents and a marked improvement in interdepartmental diplomacy.

We look forward to another six months of continued excellence, innovation, and, hopefully, fewer fires.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[estranger-and-stranger-still]

First interview has been completed, we didnt get as much as we wanted tragically but we have at least the building blocks to proceed with when we question the next person.

I am going to share the transcript below.

[The following post contains the transcript for a segment of an interview, translated from Kalosian.]

Flynn: Alright, I have a few other questions somewhat unrelated to your performances, is it alright if I go ahead and ask some of them?

Shauna: That depends. What are you interested in?

Flynn: Well, I’m interested in what you may have to share about your experience during the time of The Ultimate Weapon… 

[There was a brief pause before Flynn spoke again, an intent behind his voice.]

Flynn: What did you experience?

Shauna: It was New Year's Eve. Serena had just gotten her seventh badge. There was a weird show on the holocaster where Lysandre told us about his plans or something. It's been more than 10 years, I don't remember completely. No one knew what was going on until the Ultimate Weapon emerged from the ground in Geosenge. There was media coverage about it everywhere, with broadcasts about the holocaster constantly going on. People were convinced that it was the end times, but that was what Lysander wanted it to be.

I followed Calem and Serena to Team Flare's base in Geosenge. I wanted to help my friends. I wanted to be brave. There were a lot of grunts there, admins too. I think Lysandre had recalled just about everyone in Team Flare and a lot of his employees from Lysandre Labs to the base. We had to fight against many of them to get by. We should have done a better job of hiding and sneaking around, but we were just teenagers with a team of pokemon. We weren't experts at sneaking into the bases of criminal organizations.

Calem and Serena took care of most of the trainers inside the base. I could battle, but I wasn't nearly as good as them. They were the ones who took on the gym challenge and always pushed each other to improve. At one point, we came across a door locked with a puzzle. I loved puzzles as a kid and I still love them, so I solved it using an invention by my friend Clemont – The Gym Leader in Lumiose. I remember when I opened that lock, I knew we were close to the end. That there was something through that door that would change us all forever. 

We continued through the door and all the ones that followed until we were in the last room. Serena entered first and she saw what was in there. The power source of the ultimate weapon. By the time I got into the room, it was no longer providing power to the weapon, but I still knew what it was. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it, actually. We didn't have time to marvel at what we had found, though. Lysander had found us. His pokemon were too strong for us. His Gyarados would have killed us. He was going to kill us if he hadn't been arrested. Lysander was defeated, but not without some scars on our side.

Then he fired the weapon. We barely had enough time to get out. We wouldn’t have gotten out if we hadn’t had help, just like how we would have died without it. We watched the weapon launch and the destruction that followed from just outside of town. We didn’t want to move at all. We didn’t leave until some rescue workers checking the outskirts of town for people who escaped the wreckage found us. 

[Shauna takes a shaky breath.] 

Flynn: Who helped you–

Shauna, in a firm and somewhat agitated voice: I think you need to leave.

[max-levchin]

To build a meritocracy

About a year ago, we at Affirm decided to add an OKR to our annual planning titled “High-Performance Culture”, to help shore up the necessary means (for the necessary means) of improving our collective productivity. (Yes yes, big company stuff, whatever – we grew revenue 46% last fiscal year on essentially flat headcount, that’s pretty addictive, and it doesn’t hurt the stock price.)

We measure this OKR by asking every Affirmer a handful of questions about their experience getting work done, eg “do you feel like it’s pretty collaborative here”, etc, scoring it on a 10pt scale, and trying to improve our score quarter to quarter. Generally, our score’s pretty high, and trending gently higher, so all good then?

Maybe, but how do you do better? High-performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do [sir] to have such a culture? And what do you not do? 

So I jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me as Affirm’s founder and CEO. This list is neither exhaustive (I reserve the right to add and remove things here) nor is it even especially well-organized, but culture is like obscenity in Jacobellis v Ohio: you know it when you see it. 

So here’s what I see at Affirm. 

mission

morality is a key ingredient in everything we do (and don’t do)

integrity is what got us where we are today, never compromise it

consumers, merchants, and capital partners are who we serve

stay humble and be curious about the needs of each of our constituents

take pride in providing safe access to fair credit; don’t judge what consumers use it for

bleed the colors, the values, the mission

merit

Affirm is a meritocracy: your talent, skill, and willingness to put it all to work define you here

we solve multivariate optimization problems – a certain minimum intellectual capacity is required

demand excellence from yourself and from your teammates, don’t settle

work-life balance tends to take care of itself if you love your work

…remember that this is a marathon – take care of yourself and those you love

if you can’t keep up, we’ll try our best to help, but eventually you may have to leave

if you see that someone can’t keep up, you should step in to help them

leadership

we are a culture of individuals working together as teams  

once someone is a part of the team, fully accept them as one of our own

whom you hire, and how you help them be productive is your top responsibility 

be an owner, not merely an employee

do not allow “us and them” dynamics to foment anywhere at Affirm

run towards a problem; don’t assume someone else will take care of it

be a stress absorber for your team, not a stress amplifier

an occasional heroic act that helps Affirm win is a good thing, not a sign of poor planning

constant heroic acts required for Affirm to survive is a sign of poor planning

lead by example

how we work

we take calculated risks – do the calculating!

make reversible decisions fast

bring the bad news to the team early – we’ll rally to help

use our product and understand its value to our customers

care about how we make things — mind the quality of the invisible parts

…do not let perfect be the enemy of shipping and iterating

time is the scarcest resource we have, be mindful of how you use yours, and your team’s

we are a writing culture, favor short, pithy n-pagers to novels or live rants

post-mortem everything: the successes, the failures, and the near-misses – and learn

we take our work extremely seriously — but not so much ourselves 

how we disagree

if you disagree, you must speak up, even escalate – especially before a decision is made

fear of being wrong is not an acceptable reason for not speaking up

never accept an unexplained “no” for an answer – ask why

challenge ideas! good ones can handle the scrutiny, bad ones need to die on the vine

even the harshest critique of your idea is not an attack on you, don’t take it as such

no matter how brilliant you are, being a jerk is a ticket out of Affirm

know our business well, and know your area of the business cold

argue using facts whenever possible, but give your gut a voice too

once the decision is reached, commit 

sometimes, Monday starts on Saturday

[the1younevernoticed]

Federal worker email series continued (VA social work):

I am editing some things down. I will be sharing non-political facts and personal concerns as they relate to me on a personal level through my job. My opinions and beliefs do not represent the VA, the government, or any political party. These posts are to encourage transparency for all.

The Fork in the Road email.

I know most everyone has seen the email for federal workers titled The Fork in the Road. I’ll post the full email we received here:

1)

Return to Office: The substantial majority of federal employees who have been working remotely since Covid will be required to return to their physical offices five days a week. Going forward, we also expect our physical offices to undergo meaningful consolidation and divestitures, potentially resulting in physical office relocations for a number of federal workers.

2)

Performance culture: The federal workforce should be comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at every level — our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a right to demand.

3)

More streamlined and flexible workforce: While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.

4)

Enhanced standards of conduct: The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward. Employees who engage in unlawful behavior or other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including termination.

Each of the pillars outlined above will be pursued in accordance with applicable law, consistent with your agency's policies, and to the extent permitted under relevant collective-bargaining agreements.

If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.

If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program. This program begins effective January 28 and is available to all federal employees until February 6. If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason). The details of this separation plan can be found below.

Whichever path you choose, we thank you for your service to The United States of America.

*********************************************************************

Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you wish to resign:

1)

Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your government account. A reply from an account other than your government account will not be accepted.

2)

Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email. Hit “Send”.

THE LAST DAY TO ACCEPT THE DEFERRED RESIGNATION PROGRAM IS FEBRUARY 6, 2025.

Deferred resignation is available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel of the armed forces, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, and those in any other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency.

DEFERRED RESIGNATION LETTER

January 28, 2025

Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from employment with my employing agency, effective September 30, 2025. I understand that I have the right to accelerate, but not extend, my resignation date if I wish to take advantage of the deferred resignation program. I also understand that if I am (or become) eligible for early or normal retirement before my resignation date, that I retain the right to elect early or normal retirement (once eligible) at any point prior to my resignation date.

Given my impending resignation, I understand I will be exempt from any “Return to Office” requirements pursuant to recent directives and that I will maintain my current compensation and retain all existing benefits (including but not limited to retirement accruals) until my final resignation date.

I am certain of my decision to resign and my choice to resign is fully voluntary. I understand my employing agency will likely make adjustments in response to my resignation including moving, eliminating, consolidating, reassigning my position and tasks, reducing my official duties, and/or placing me on paid administrative leave until my resignation date.

I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition during my remaining time at my employing agency. Accordingly, I will assist my employing agency with completing reasonable and customary tasks and processes to facilitate my departure.

I understand that my acceptance of this offer will be sent to the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) which will then share it with my agency employer. I hereby consent to OPM receiving, reviewing, and forwarding my acceptance.

*********************************************************************

Upon submission of your resignation, you will receive a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your email. Any replies to this email shall be for the exclusive use of accepting the deferred resignation letter. Any other replies to this email will not be reviewed, forwarded, or retained other than as required by applicable federal records laws.

Once your resignation is validly sent and received, the human resources department of your employing agency will contact you to complete additional documentation, if any.

OPM is authorized to send this email under Executive Order 9830 and 5 U.S.C. §§ 301, 1103, 1104, 2951, 3301, 6504, 8347, and 8461. OPM intends to use your response to assist in federal workforce reorganization efforts in conjunction with employing agencies. See 88 Fed. Reg. 56058; 80 Fed. Reg. 72455 (listing routine uses). Response to this email is voluntary. Although you must respond to take advantage of the deferred resignation offer, there is no penalty for nonresponse.

To see this from an official federal service is so damn jarring. And it gives us hints on how this will likely play out.

This new email was sent in waves directly to federal front line staff. We were informing our supervisors of the email before they ever received it. There were panicked messages in our online chats to see if this was real. Especially with the passage about our jobs not being guaranteed.

I admit, with the mental exhaustion they have put us through, and the promise to be paid through September, I was tempted at first read.

I fantasized about opening up a private practice with the money, and setting myself and my fiancé up to finally try and be debt free. It would be a hell of a boon. One desperately needed.

But I didn’t trust it. It was too vague.

So I did some more searching. And like many others I found the Twitter “Fork in the Road” email from when Elon took over Twitter a few years back.

We know from Elon’s previous “Fork” email plan that he did not keep promises

These employees had promised pay broken and in times such as these, with rising costs, most Americans can’t afford to miss a single paycheck.

There are no guarantees for federal employees to be treated any better.

There have been talks of pay caps, of employees being forced to work through September even if they choose this option, and worst of all, not being paid at all.

With those in the government reminding citizens that congress controls funding, and that there is no budget for this, we are all sitting with what feels like uncertainty manifested as a weight on our collective shoulders.

We have no way to know if we will lose coworkers to this. And it takes an average of 6+ months to onboard someone into federal service (yes literally. I took 6 months from my FJO “final job offer letter” to get into my position). And that doesn’t account for all the hiring freezes. And work never stops. We will just shoulder any works that comes in and try to make sure our patients are still getting helped.

Cheesy as it sounds, as I stated before, this is really weighing on the mental health of the staff around me. As well as myself. I can feel the fear and uncertainty in the air. All we can do is keep working. And it doesn’t feel right

Disclaimer: this post is for educational purposes and is in no way supporting any particular political party and is not meant to incite any political activity

[quartings]

Thoughts on fan backlash: The Good and the Evil.

With the recent massive Pokemon leak bringing a lot of internal Gamefreak correspondance to light, I wanted to just give a stream of consciousness on my thoughts about people's reaction to fan backlash, and how it can have both really good and completely evil impacts.

I think the Pokemon fanbase has speculated for a long time that low Gen 5 sales caused Gamefreak to begin their excessive Kanto pandering in Gen 6, 7, and early Gen 8 in an attempt to increase profit.

And while I understand the apprehension about fans being unhappy with the Unova dex restriction, I think a sales dip was only inevitable as Pokemon's initial overseas fanbase entered their cringy teen years. Blaming it on foreigners and the entire Unova dex was a gross overreaction. And as someone who was in their early teens when BW launched and only had good things to say about it, it baffles me that the controversy even existed in the first place.

But later controversies had even kid me upset with Gamefreak- the low difficulty of the games (which comes and goes nowadays), games coming out with missing/underdeveloped features, severe performance errors, and of course, Dexit (when I was an adult). BW only having Unova Pokemon in their regional dex was fine, since all the older Pokemon were still in the postgame and game data ready for transfer. So when is fan outrage justified, and when isn't it?

I guess the main problem here is making a series for children, wanting to keep it for children (nothing wrong with that), but trying to get all your feedback from teenagers and adults online, since most kids (at least back in the 2010s) can't access social media as easily to enunciate their thoughts. Because meaningful feedback (Make the stories better paced, make the games at least as tough as they were in Gens 3-5, improve competitive custom games, improve continuity between games, bring back the Battle Frontier, etc) conflict with Gamefreak's backwards mindset of "kids are stupid and want easy games, boring characters, and flashy features we'll scrap next gen". Which leaves the only criticism they can respond to being "Let's appeal to the shallow Genwunners by focusing way too much on Kanto Pokemon."

A part of me worries for the dark potential future where Gamefreak listens to fan backlash about Gen 8's Dexit, and makes a game with all 1100+ Pokemon available. But due to internal pressures and overworking their employees on a poorly planned schedule, the game runs awfully and has next to no postgame. As a result, reception to this game is naturally negative, but both dimwitted Gamefreak executives and a small handful of especially stupid fans think "Oh, this happened because we had all the Pokemon in the game- we should never do this again, and blame fans who want basic features in the games from now on!" instead of the obvious lesson "We shouldn't overwork our employees and instead take our time to make a functioning and fun game."

And for anyone who has followed my blog since its early days, you'd know I am (was?) a huge amourshipping fan, partly because I love the XY anime, partly because I really enjoy Serena as a character, and partly because I had a foolish hope that the anime would try to properly progress Ash as a character instead of what they wound up doing in Gens 7-8. And apparently The Pokemon Company limited Serena's screentime in Journeys because they were too scared of fan backlash at the risk of handling her wrong, with the former XY director getting threats over such issues (I won't comment on what kind of fans were making the threats as they weren't specified in the leak) in her only return episode. And I know this may come across as naiive or insensitve, but... who cares? There's always going to be a handful of crazy fans trying to stan or hate a certain character- what do YOU as a creator think is best for YOUR character and YOUR story? And as long as the overall public is fine with your story, who cares what the few psycho fans think one way or the other? Why sabotage your own story not to appease the majority, not even to please a minority, but to silence a minority? I think more fans both casual and hardcore would be happy to see Ash and Serena get together than the amount who would be upset by it. It just feels like cowardice.

But when it comes for stories made for older audiences, listening to feedback becomes a more complex story. On the opposite end, a lot of fanbases like to bootlick for big companies when they make blatantly discriminatory decisions. For a non-Pokemon example, I'll cite The Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Marvel changed the character from an offensive Chinese sterotype to a self-aware vague Middle Eastern stereotype played by a goofy British man in-universe in order to avoid hate from Chinese audiences.

And there was a lot of fandom drama from this choice naturally, between fans who wanted a real villainous and Chinese Mandarin, and fans who enjoyed the twist and appreciated Marvel's choice to not risk an offensive Chinese stereotype. I was a bit too young to participate in any of this drama at the time, but I generally enjoyed the twist Marvel did, while also sympathising with fans who liked the comic storylines.

Well apparently, the fan backlash to Iron Man 3 was enough to compel Marvel to make a short film called "All Hail the King" in the same year, where they confirmed there was indeed a real East Asian villainous Mandarin somewhere in the MCU. And eventually in Shang Chi (8 years later), the real Mandarin did appear as Xu WenWu, an incredibly cool and compelling villain who wasn't harmfully stereotypical at all! I know the extremely racist Marvel executive Ike Perlmutter getting fired after Iron Man 3 and before Shang Chi probably contributed, but I can't help but wonder if fan backlash was the main cause for us getting WenWu eventually? In the alternate universe where everyone agreed to shut up and happily accept the Iron Man 3 version of the Mandarin, would there be no WenWu? Would that universe be all the worse as a result?

And then, there's the difference between "fans" and "fandoms". Sometimes I think both creators and fans forget that the main audience for a show does indeed love it, but rarely do they "obsess" over it. I've always said that children love good stories, while adults find excuses to love bad stories. Take my brother for example- he loves many cartoons, and has a lot of valid points to say about their storytelling, but I would never at all say he's a "fandom" kind of guy. Meanwhile, myself and all my animation colleagues are very much in fandoms, or at least aware of them. So one of my fellow animator friends was very surprised when they found out my brother and his friends had no idea what a "tumblr sexyman" even was, but still enjoyed cartoons and their stories nonetheless. You mean you can enjoy a cartoon for the actual content it has, without obsessively thirsting over characters or getting attached to completely fictitious ships and headcanons? No way!!

It's important to remember that when making stories for kids, the shipping/thirst/drama opinions of fandoms never really matter as long as you've put genuine thought and care into your characters and story. You don't have to deliberately insult, offend, or repel fandoms (though with enough skill and tact it could be funny I guess), just pay them no mind as you try and make the best show you can. Which is a lesson I'd like to take in making my own stories. As I make content on Youtube and beyond, I keep reminding myself that the most important viewers I have are the ones I'll hear from the least- kids with very little social media presence. And if I barely hear from that audience, the best I can do isn't to pander to my adult fans (though I still hope they like what I do if it suits them), but to keep having faith in my own content, and to be open to constructive criticism when it arrives (obviously different from insults and threats, which I've thankfully never gotten anyways)

[rageprufrock]

Hi Pru, this is a career question... I am in my mid-twenties, female, not quite the most junior employee at my organization but treated often as one. The workplace is highly male-dominated, competitive, the older supervisors sometimes hilariously old-boys'-club, and the younger men (my age) mean well (feminist, etc.) but have their own territories to defend. For complicated reasons I cannot leave. I knew some of this coming in but am ashamed to say that

You’ll love this: my response is so late because I too girlbossed too close to the sun and have accidentally reached mid-senior leadership status at my organization and the past month has been the most hilarious cluster of fucks. Insert clown emoji herey.

ANYWAY.

I have a few thoughts on this one, and hopefully one, or some, of these are helpful as you're navigating your early career.

To address your most immediate question: is it meant to be this hard? I think "is it meant" or "is it always" are two different questions, and each with branching answers completely dependent on your field and profession. Some are notorious for early career hazing--banking, medicine, etc--and then the answers are that the suffering is a feature, not a bug, for these industries (this can be debated ad nauseum but you know what I mean), and then for many, many other professions, the answer is that while it's not meant to be this difficult, it still is, and that it's all we can do to survive it.

But setting aside the macro issues, of whether the role itself is objectively hard or if the environment you're in is objectively sub-optimal, the more nebulous and inescapable thing is that each one of us, individually, in our early career are undergoing one of many puberties and all its attendant implied indignities. I find it weird that culturally we don't talk about this much--at least not in Western or the Eastern cultures with which I'm most conversational--but think about it: in the first five to ten years of your working life, you're often simultaneously navigating a staggering number of life-changing systemic shifts that have a tectonic impact on your lived experience. I

For a lot of us, beginning your life as a working adult means you're likely moving out of your parents' home, which adds a huge amount to your mental load and financial burden.

For a lot of us, these early professional jobs are also the first time we're operating in a performance-reward system for which there is no clear rubric or understandable progression monitoring--there aren't any grades, and I can't tell you the number of people who I've spoken to in my career who have been shocked when they're told they're being put on performance improvement plans even though they thought they were doing fine.

It's like being sent to college with no class list, textbooks hidden in eight different departments run by varyingly helpful people, while trapped in an inescapable group project run by someone who seems just as frazzled as you are, and told "okay well you should need to bring me your completed degree by EOD Thursday." This doesn't even take into account your genetic assignment to play this entire game on hard mode by failing to be a cisgendered man in the dominant cultural demographic.

People who've had multiple jobs and career changes can attest, every new job, no matter how seasoned you are, is fucking exhausting. It's almost a joke among my friends at this point how often I change jobs, and every single time I do, there's at least a six month run where at the end of every day, I'm fucking spent. I couldn't calculate 1+3 if my life depended on it, because I've spent my working day so furiously trying to read the professional tea leaves and figuring out what the actual fuck I'm supposed to be doing--which, funnily enough, is never as clear as you would think! Even if you are at increasingly senior levels of responsibility! It's really fun and good! Your boss's boss's leadership team meetings? Surprisingly similar to when I used go get coffee during my break working at an ice cream shop to complain about our customers and equipment and boss! It's amazing how no matter how much changes, everything stays the same!

So I think in the end, my answer to your question is this:

Is it meant to be this hard? Depending on what you do, maybe.

But should it be this hard? Of course not. Life is short and lush and wonderful, but already so filled with challenges, and it's a shame that being rooted in capitalism, we're all forced to participate in a system that's so unbending and unforgiving.

But does that mean it's going to be forever? Or that you can't survive and thrive and have fun in the process? Absolutely not.

However awful you feel, however bad the job is, it doesn't have to be forever. This role you're in now may be just what you need to find your next, better, better paid opportunity. And maybe that one won't be the ideal for more than a year, maybe two, but that's why you keep an eye out and a keen focus on what you want, and what's most important, and like a shark, you continue to move and grow as you get clearer on where you want to move and how you want to grow. The person I was at 24 could not have imagined the person I am at 38, and I'm guessing that the woman I am today can't fathom who I'll be in another 10 years. Whoever she is, I hope she's still choosing to do hard things and--to the very best of her ability--having a good time in the process.

It's okay to cry about work. It's okay to cry at work, even though I strongly recommend that you do this huddled in a restroom in privacy because otherwise it gets messy--fairly or otherwise. It's okay and normal to do these things. It's okay and normal to feel like a fucking disaster, to feel--or to in actuality!--be categorically failing. It is okay and normal to hate and love your job, and to love money and hate the work. There is no right way to do this, and the only wrong way is to give up on yourself, or to create a situation where you cannot have the freedom of your choices or your future.

It's also going to get easier with time. Even if you don't feel it, every day you're getting more experienced, more confident, more discerning. Those microscopic, atomic changes in you accrue, and I'm sure if you're honest with yourself you can already identify how even today, you are a stronger, more capable person in your professional context than you may have been just a year or two ago. Even if you don't mean to do it, just the experience, the bruises, the callouses from throwing yourself at the brick wall over time will rewrite the person you are--if you do this with your eyes open and intentionally, all the better.

Five years from now, ten years from now, you might still find yourself crying about work. But hopefully you'll share the good fortune I have been privileged enough to have, and find yourself the type of good friends who say, "don't care during work hours, it's beneath you to give them the satisfaction--cry later," and actually have the wherewithal to follow that extremely correct guidance.

So anyway, it shouldn't be this hard, but it is. The good thing is, you're better and stronger than it is, and you can look forward to the day you get to look over the shoulder at all the worlds you've conquered as you get ready to do it all over again.

💖

[laora-ryn]

This is a PSA that when you see things about probationary federal employees, it doesn't mean people with poor performance reviews or those who are underperforming.

Government employee probation is a standard any time you start a new job. Literally everyone who works for the government has been on probation at some point. It even happens with an internal transfer, if you're moving to a new job title or taking a promotion.

It lasts either 1 or 2 years after your start date depending on the job. All it means is that it's not as difficult for your boss to fire you if you're a bad fit for the position.

In order for them to fire you during probation, first they have to go through written/oral counseling with you, and draw up a performance improvement plan, and then you have to fail it.

Laying off all probationary employees unilaterally is not cutting out all the underperformers or slackers or whatever the hell else they claim they're doing. All it's doing is cutting out those relatively new to the job, or those who have taken a promotion in the last 1-2 years

All of this sums up to mean: my coworker in the federal government, who's worked with our department for 4+ years and took an internal promotion about 13 months ago, had a 2 year probationary period for her new position.

And this morning, with zero notice, and no communication with her supervisor beforehand, she got laid off

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

"In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting the state’s public health funding by $300 million. And the Department of Health in Washington state slashed more than 350 positions at the end of last year and more than 200 this year." Tell me again that the Democrats are damage control: They can't even do the right thing in the states where they have absolute majorities. You should be livid, not complacent or complicit.

Analysis by Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez and McKenzie Beard

Good morning. I’m Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, a KFF Health News correspondent based in Elko, Nev., which is about as high in elevation as Denver, the Mile-High City. Email me about your experiences with health care in rural America at jorozco@kff.org.

Today’s edition: The Harris-Walz campaign rolled out a plan to improve rural health care. Nebraska voters are set to weigh in on two conflicting abortion-related ballot initiatives. But first …

The boom-and-bust funding cycle for public health hits states

During the coronavirus pandemic, states received a rush of funding from the federal government to bolster their fight against the disease. In many cases, that cash flowed into state and local health departments, fueling a staffing surge to handle, among other things, contact tracing and vaccination efforts.

But public health leaders quickly identified a familiar boom-and-bust funding cycle as they warned about an incoming fiscal cliff once the federal grants sunset. Now, more than a year since the federal Department of Health and Human Services declared the end of the coronavirus emergency, states — such as Montana, California and Washington — face tough decisions about laying off workers and limiting public health services.

In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting the state’s public health funding by $300 million. And the Department of Health in Washington state slashed more than 350 positions at the end of last year and more than 200 this year.

Public health experts warn that losing staff who perform functions like disease investigation, immunization, family planning, restaurant inspection and more could send communities into crisis.

“You cannot hire the firefighters when the house is already burning,” said Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, an organization that advocates for public health policy.

In late September, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a public health emergency for states affected by Hurricane Helene, allowing state and local health authorities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to more easily access federal resources. Last week, ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida, Becerra declared another public health emergency to aid the state’s response.

If states don’t have robust public health resources ready when disasters like this hit their communities, it can have devastating effects.

Local health department staffing grew by about 19 percent from 2019 to 2022, according to a report from the National Association of County and City Health Officials that examined 2,512 of the nation’s roughly 3,300 local departments. The same report found that half of those departments’ revenue in 2022 came from federal sources.

But in some places, the pandemic cash did little more than keep small health departments afloat. The Central Montana Health District, a public health agency serving five rural counties, received enough money to retain a staff member to help handle testing, contact tracing and rolling out the coronavirus vaccines. It wasn’t enough to hire extra workers, but it allowed officials to fill a position left empty when a staffer left the department, said Susan Woods, the district’s public health director.

Now, five full-time employees work for the health district — enough to scrape by, Woods said.

“Any kind of crisis, any kind of, God forbid, another pandemic, would probably send us crashing,” she said.

Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the national health officials’ group, said she expects layoffs and health department budget cuts to intensify. Those cuts come as health officials work to address issues that took a back seat in the pandemic, such as increases in rates of sexually transmitted infections, suicide and substance misuse.

And rural health departments deserve more attention, Casalotti said, as they are likely to be the most vulnerable and face compounding factors such as hospital closures and the loss of services including maternity and other women’s care.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.

[mariacallous]

The widespread layoff of Department of Agriculture scientists has thrown vital research into disarray, according to former and current employees of the agency. Scientists hit by the layoffs were working on projects to improve crops, defend against pests and disease, and understand the climate impact of farming practices. The layoffs also threaten to undermine billions of taxpayer dollars paid to farmers to support conservation practices, experts warn.

The USDA layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s mass firing of federal employees, mainly targeting people who are in their probationary periods ahead of gaining full-time status, which for USDA scientists can be up to three years. The agency has not released exact firing figures, but they are estimated to include many hundreds of staff at critical scientific subagencies and a reported 3,400 employees in the Forest Service.

Employees were told of their firing in a blanket email sent on February 13 and seen by WIRED. “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” the email says.

One laid-off employee described the weeks preceding the firing as “chaos,” as the USDA paused (in response to orders from the Trump administration) and then unpaused (in response to a court order) work connected to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—the landmark 2022 law passed under President Joe Biden that set aside large amounts of federal money for climate policies. “It was just pause, unpause, pause, unpause. After four or five business days of that, I’m thinking, I literally can’t get anything done,” says the former employee, who worked on IRA-linked projects and asked to remain anonymous to protect them from retribution.

The IRA provided the USDA with $300 million to help with the quantification of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. This money was intended to support the $8.45 billion in farmer subsidies authorized in the IRA to be spent on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)—a plan to encourage farmers to take up practices with potential environmental benefits, such as cover cropping and better waste storage. At least one contracted farming project funded by EQIP has been paused by the Trump administration, Reuters reports.

The $300 million was supposed to be used to establish an agricultural greenhouse gas network that could monitor the effectiveness of the kinds of conservation practices funded by EQIP and other multibillion-dollar conservation programs, says Emily Bass, associate director of federal policy, food, and agriculture at the environmental research center the Breakthrough Institute. This work was being carried out in part by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), two of the scientific sub-agencies hit heavily by the federal layoffs.

“That’s a ton of taxpayer dollars, and the quantification work of ARS and NRCS is an essential part of measuring those programs’ actual impacts on emissions reductions,” says Bass. “Stopping or hamstringing efforts midway is a huge waste of resources that have already been spent.”

One current ARS scientist, who spoke to WIRED anonymously, as they were not authorized to talk to the press, claims that at their unit almost 40 percent of scientists have been fired along with multiple support staff. Many of their unit’s projects are now in disarray, the scientist says, including work that has been planned out in five-year cycles and requires close monitoring of plant specimens. “In the short term we can keep that material alive, but we can’t necessarily do that indefinitely if we don’t have anybody on that project.”

In a press release, the USDA has said its plan is to “optimize its workforce,” with this including “relocating employees out of the National Capital region into our nation’s heartland to allow our rural communities to flourish.” But ARS units are located across the US, each one specializing in crops that are important to local farmers as well as bringing jobs to the region. “We’ve always been very popular in rural areas because the farmers and growers actually want what we’re doing,” says the ARS scientist. The USDA did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

The hollowing-out of staff capacity will limit the USDA’s ability to implement IRA policies, says Bass, but it is not clear that this was the sole intention of the cuts. “This seems to be a sledgehammer to the workforce in a way that will just roll back the number of folks on payroll,” she says.

The purge could also indirectly hit farmers in red states, who are the main beneficiaries of proposals such as EQIP. “It was necessary research to preserve our agricultural lands and fight climate change,” says one ARS employee who was fired last week after serving more than two years of their three-year-long probation. “Compared to the rest of the government, ARS is tiny,” they say. “But we were able to get a lot done with relatively little money.”

On her first full day in office, US secretary of agriculture Brooke Rollins told USDA staffers gathered at its headquarters in Washington that she supported the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempt to optimize the USDA workforce. “I welcome DOGE’s efforts at USDA, because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient,” she told the gathering.

But Bass warns that blanket firing of USDA employees is hardly a pathway toward a more efficient agency. “This approach of wide-swath firings throws the USDA and affiliated agricultural research enterprise into a world of uncertainty,” she says. “Projects that cannot be seen out to the end, cannot result in a peer-reviewed research paper or technical expertise being provided, are a waste of taxpayer dollars.”