#trump dei workers paid leave

[sports45]

Trump orders all federal DEI workers put on leave

President Donald Trump's administration directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. It also moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting.

Read more

[nando161mando]

Donald Trump orders all federal DEI workers to go on paid leave starting Wednesday

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/donald-trump-orders-federal-dei-925433

[saywhat-politics]

Jan. 21, 2025, 7:53 PM MST / Updated Jan. 22, 2025, 8:50 AM MST

By Zoë Richards and Caroline Kenny

The Trump administration is ordering all federal employees in diversity, equity and inclusion roles placed on paid leave by Wednesday evening, according to a new memo from the Office of Personnel Management.

The memo, issued Tuesday to heads of departments and agencies, sets a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to inform the employees that they will be put on paid administrative leave as the agencies prepare to close all DEI-related offices and programs and to remove all websites and social media accounts for such offices.

It also asks federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for dismissing the employees.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, with DEI offices and programs being ordered to shut down.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zoë Richards and Caroline Kenny at NBC News:

The Trump administration is ordering all federal employees in diversity, equity and inclusion roles placed on paid leave by Wednesday evening, according to a new memo from the Office of Personnel Management. The memo, issued Tuesday to heads of departments and agencies, sets a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to inform the employees that they will be put on paid administrative leave as the agencies prepare to close all DEI-related offices and programs and to remove all websites and social media accounts for such offices. It also asks federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for dismissing the employees. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, with DEI offices and programs being ordered to shut down. “President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday night. “This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.” It was not clear how many employees would be affected. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump Regime orders all federal DEI employees placed on paid leave, beginning later today. This is all part of plans to close DEI programs and harm marginalized communities.

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: Trump Orders All Federal DEI Staff Put On Leave, With Plans To Fire Them

NPR: Trump administration puts federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff on leave

[misfitwashere]

Musk’s dangerous bullying

ROBERT REICH

DEC 2

Friends,

No one better illustrates the sinister consequences of great wealth turned into unaccountable power than Elon Musk. 

Musk, the richest person in the world, is not only claiming presidential authority to fire federal workers, but he’s posting the identities of those whose jobs he wants to eliminate — with the clear intention that his followers harass and threaten them so they quit. 

Musk is utterly unaccountable. He has never been elected to anything, but he spent $120 million helping Trump become the president-elect and is now acting as if he’s Trump’s co-president, calling himself Trump’s “First Buddy.”

After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk turned it into a cesspool of disinformation and conspiracy theories and manipulated its algorithm to give himself 205 million followers, to whom he is now distributing treacherous lies. 

In recent days, Musk boosted posts on his website singling out the names and job titles of four federal employees working in climate policy and regulation who have done nothing other than hold titles Musk dislikes. All four targets are women. 

In one instance, Musk quote-tweeted a post highlighting the role of 37-year-old Ashley Thomas, a little-known director of climate diversification at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. 

Musk’s repost — “So many fake jobs” — garnered 32 million views, triggering a tsunami of taunts against Thomas, such as, “Sorry Ashley Thomas Gravy Train is Over” and “A tough way for Ashley Thomas to find out she’s losing her job.”

Musk apparently took the word “diversification” in Thomas’s title to mean the “D” in “DEI,” which Musk considers “woke.” 

Thomas (who holds degrees in engineering, business, and water science from Oxford and MIT) is focused on climate diversification to protect agriculture and infrastructure from extreme weather events.

Following Musk’s tweet, Thomas shut down several of her social media accounts. 

In another repost, Musk mocked Alexis Pelosi, a relative of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who works as a senior adviser to climate change at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Nancy Pelosi’s niece should not be paid $181,648.00 by the U.S. Taxpayer to be the ‘Climate Advisor’ at HUD,” the original account wrote. “But maybe her advice is amazing 🤣🤣” Musk snarked. 

Musk also singled out the chief climate officer in the Department of Energy’s loan programs office and shared the name of an employee serving as senior adviser on environmental justice and climate change at the Department of Health and Human Services.

IMHO, Musk’s targets should sue him for defamation. 

This is hardly the first time Musk has targeted specific people, and he obviously knows how dangerous such targeting can be. 

After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk targeted Yoel Roth, the platform’s former head of trust and safety, who had recently left the company. Musk tweeted, incorrectly, that it looked like Roth had argued “in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services.” Some platform users interpreted this as Musk calling Roth a pedophile, and they posted calls for Roth’s death. 

Roth moved out of his house because of the threats. 

Musk has also singled out specific civil servants. In 2021, he targeted Missy Cummings, a former fighter pilot and senior adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, whom Musk claimed was “extremely biased against Tesla” because she questioned the safety of Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system. 

Cummings said she received death threats and was forced to leave her home as a result of Musk’s posts.

Musk’s current targeting is even more dangerous because he has the apparent authority of the president-elect. Although the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” that Musk is co-heading (with Vivek Ramaswamy) isn’t a real department and has not been authorized by Congress, Musk is acting as if it’s real. 

Cummings says Musk’s personal intimidation is already leading some longtime federal employees to leave their jobs: “He intended for them, for people just like this, to be intimidated and just go ahead and quit so he didn’t have to fire them. So his plan, to some extent, is working.”

**

I worked in the federal government between 1974 and 1980, first at the Federal Trade Commission and then at the Justice Department, and from 1993 to 1997 I served as secretary of labor. 

Most of the federal employees I came to know cared deeply about the common good. The vast majority did their work carefully and thoughtfully. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. 

But ever since Richard Nixon attacked “unelected bureaucrats” as America’s enemy and Ronald Reagan blamed “liberal bureaucrats” for government’s failings, government employees have been scapegoated. And now Trump is preparing to attack the so-called “deep state.”

In fact, America spends less each year on the federal government’s civilian workforce (roughly $200 billion) than we spend annually on federal contractors ($750 billion). 

Much of the “fat” is found in these private, for-profit contractors, who aren’t accountable to anyone except the office that draws up the contracts. 

The biggest waste is in the Defense Department, where many contractors have avoided competitive bidding because they have a monopoly over critical technologies. 

Which brings me back to Musk, whose businesses are fast becoming among the government’s largest contract monopolists. According to USASpending.gov (the government database that tracks federal spending), Musk’s SpaceX and his Starlink satellite division have signed contracts totaling nearly $20 billion. 

I don’t know how much waste and inefficiency are to be found in Musk’s government contracts because I haven’t been able to find any reports on them — which is precisely the problem. 

While Musk seeks to intimidate federal civil servants whose job titles he dislikes, forcing some to leave government because his postings have elicited threats to their lives, Musk is distracting attention from himself and his own profitable dips into the taxpayer trough. 

I invite any of you with an inclination to root out waste and inefficiency to find out what you can about any likely abuses in Musk’s government contracts, and let us know what you come up with.

[agitateandeducate]

Season 2 of Severance comes out tomorrow…. so just a reminder that Covid is also LABOR ISSUE! If you haven't watched it yet, check out FightCovidNOLA's event "What Your Boss Won't Tell You About Covid" on youtube! Support the Legoretta Family via their GFM here: https://gofund.me/ce4cce24

– – – – Image Descriptions – – – –

[id 1] a screenshot from the television show, Severance, featuring severed Macrodata Refinement team at Lumon. They are all staring in concern at someone offscreen, and holding Dylan back as they huddle around him. There is a white speech bubble with black text above Dylan's head: Undocumented workers are trying to survive through disasters and multiple pandemics, and the fucking state is doing raids. Abolish ice! [end id]

[id 2] a screenshot from the television show, Severance, featuring Helly, a severed employee. She is wearing a N95 bifold respirator and is staring into the screen at the viewer, with a confused expression on her face. There is a white speech bubble with black text below her face: employees need rest to recover from illness, but how can they do that when there’s no paid sick leave? [end id]

[id 3] a screenshot from the television show, Severance, featuring Mark's outie, who is sitting in his car in the Lumon parking lot before his shift. He is wearing a N95 bifold respirator and is crying. There is a white speech bubble with black text to the left of his face: another day forced to work for shit pay while trying to afford housing, healthcare, food that has mostly been recalled, PPE to avoid the spread of deadly diseases despite pandemic denialism, and be witness to multiple genocides perpetrated by our fascist government… [end id]

[id 4] a screenshot from the television show, Severance, featuring Seth Milchick, the supervisor on the severed floor at Lumon. He is wearing a duckbill respirator and has a fake smile on his face. There is a white speech bubble with black text to the right of his face: People are losing their jobs (and have been silenced and blacklisted for years) because of their support for a liberated Palestine, but sure, let’s pretend fascism is only just arriving because of Trump… [end id]

[id 5] a screenshot from the television show, Severance, featuring the Macrodata Refinement division team. They are all posing stiffly for a team photo and wearing n95 respirators. There is a white speech bubble with black text below their torsos: the coworkers that discuss their salaries & concerns can also discuss how to unionize - leverage your power! fuck the bosses that tell you not to talk about your pay, it's illegal! [end id]

[id 6] a screenshot from the television show Severance, featuring Mark's innie. He is wearing a cup N95 respirator and is looking past the viewer with a tense and somewhat nervous expression. There is a speech bubble to the left of his face with black text: I can share some studies and statistics that demonstrate Covid-19's long term effects & disproportionate racial impact on the community… we serve. taking covid precautions is actually one of the material ways to practice worker safety & the anti-racism in our DEI statement! next to his torso is white text within a black border: nonprofit employee trying to advocate for policies that protect themselves & the people they work with. [end id]

[id 7] a screenshot from the television show Severance, featuring Harmony Cobel, the manager of the severed floor at Lumon. She is maskless and screaming with her face scrunched up in fury. There is a speech bubble to the left of her face with black text: Implement covid precautions in our workplace? did you forget? we serve capitalism, you child!" next to his torso is white text within a black border: bootlicking executive director that hands over some hand sanitizer and tells them they need to be a team player [end id]

[aqquai]

The Democratic party needs drastic changes in messaging to win the next election. The party is seen as old, affulent, and out of touch with middle America.

Harris did, in part, what she attempted to: make gains in white, college educated suburbs while minimizing losses everywhere else. She did the first part relatively well.

The Democrats believed that by moving to the right on specific issues, they could win moderate suburban (generally wealthier) voters. Harris portrayed herself as tough on crime, strong on border control, and put forth means tested welfare policies. She did her best to portray herself as an extension of the status quo, and Trump as a radical.

Democrats made gains they desired: in the suburbs of Atlanta and Dallas, and shifts to the right were minimized in wealthy suburbs outside cities like Milwalkee and Austin, even as those states made hard turns to the right. In 2024, more than any other election year in recent history, voters for the Democratic candidate were comparitively wealthier and older.

It is clear that voters wanted a change to the status quo. If the Democrats want to get back the voters they lost: Hispanic and Black voters in high cost of living cities, working class voters in the rust belt, young voters, they need to acknowledge that the issues they are facing are real.

Globalization and neoliberal economic policy have led to a loss in manufacturing jobs. Poor planning has made large cities too expensive to live in. Inequality and midde class flights have led to poverty concentration in urban centers and increased crime. Job growth is strong, but most of this growth has been in lower paid service sector work: underemployement is a real issue for young voters, and they are generally worse off than previous generations. And politicians, wealthier than ever, seem more bothered by fundraising and corporate interests.

And Republicans have been able to make these issues stick to Biden-Harris.

Workers feel screwed over and overworked, and Trump is telling people that they are. He says immigrants and "coastal elites" are bringing crime and taking jobs, while Americans are being left behind. Trump, to the working class voters who left the Democrats behind, was seen authentically pointing out issues "everyones thinking about:" job loss, crime, immigration, war, and inflation. Trump's platform is short and to the point, while Harris's takes 600 words to answer one policy question.

Elections are based on vibes, and the "Vibe" of the Democratic party is that it's dominated by liberal intellectuals and party machine candidates. Policy such as student loan forgiveness, tax cuts for first-time homebuyers, etc, mean nothing to voters who never went to college and can't imagine buying a home in this economy.

If the Democrats want to move to the right on issues like crime and immigration--if they think this will better reach voters--they cannot simply just take a page out of the Republican's playbook and start talking about border security and being tough on crime. Using Republican framing will fail and will just legitimize Republican talking points.

If they want to move right on issues of immigration and crime, Democrats need to frame the issues in "Democrat" ways. Talk about the potential depressing effect immigrants have on wages. Talk about how big agribusiness loves illegal immigration because they can exploit that labor more, and this is why nothing is done. Talk about inequality and its relation to crime. Talk about how large chains have eaten away at small businesses in middle America, killing downtowns and a small town middle-class.

Democrats also must talk about issues that are generally relatable to voters and motivate their base. Issues like expensive health insurance, strong union rights, high housing costs, stagnant real wages, and money in politics.

A Republican would tell you that it was DEI, abortion, and lgbt issues that caused voters to leave the Democratic party, but I would disagree. Harris, more than Hillary, minimized her gender and focused on policy. Voters broadly agree with the democratic party on issues of abortion and lgbt, but those issues are simply not as important as the core economic issues that bring people to the polls.

I voted for Harris, but I could see her loss coming before the election started. I work with people on the ground, and they feel unheard.

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ‘s administration moved Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.

The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring.

The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by President Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It’s using one of the key tools utilized by the Biden administration to promote DEI programs across the private sector — pushing their use by federal contractors — to now eradicate them.

The Office of Personnel Management in a Tuesday memo directed agencies to place DEI office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday and take down all public DEI-focused webpages by the same deadline. Several federal departments had removed the webpages even before the memorandum. Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and end any related contracts, and federal workers are being asked to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”

By Thursday, federal agencies are directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of Election Day. By next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to execute a “reduction-in-force action” against those federal workers.

The memo was first reported by CBS News.

The move comes after Monday’s executive order accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discrimination” programs into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI.

That step is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to upend DEI efforts nationwide, including leveraging the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate private companies pursuing training and hiring practices that conservative critics consider discriminatory against non-minority groups such as white men.

The executive order picks up where Trump’s first administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism. Biden promptly rescinded that order on his first day in office and issued a pair of executive orders — now rescinded — outlining a plan to promote DEI throughout the federal government.

While many changes may take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first and comes amid far more amenable terrain in the corporate world. Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.

Here’s a look at some of the policies and programs that Trump will aim to dismantle:

Diversity offices, training and accountability

Trump’s order will immediately gut Biden’s wide-ranging effort to embed diversity and inclusion practices in the federal workforce, the nation’s largest at about 2.4 million people.

Biden had mandated all agencies to develop a diversity plan, issue yearly progress reports, and contribute data for a government-wide dashboard to track demographic trends in hiring and promotions. The administration also set up a Chief Diversity Officers Council to oversee the implementation of the DEI plan. The government released its first DEI progress report in 2022 that included demographic data for the federal workforce, which is about 60% white and 55% male overall, and more than 75% white and more than 60% male at the senior executive level.

Trump’s executive order will toss out equity plans developed by federal agencies and terminate any roles or offices dedicated to promoting diversity. It will include eliminating initiatives such as DEI-related training or diversity goals in performance reviews.

Federal grant and benefits programs

Trump’s order paves the way for an aggressive but bureaucratically complicated overhaul of billions of dollars in federal spending that conservative activists claim unfairly carve out preference for racial minorities and women.

The order does not specify which programs it will target but mandates a government-wide review to ensure that contracts and grants are compliant with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance. It also proposes that the federal government settle ongoing lawsuits against federal programs that benefit historically underserved communities, including some that date back decades.

Trump’s executive order is a “seismic shift and a complete change in the focus and direction of the federal government,” said Dan Lennington, deputy council for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which has pursued several lawsuits against federal programs. The institute recently released an influential report listing dozens of programs the Trump administration should consider dismantling, such as credits for minority farmers or emergency relief assistance for majority-Black neighborhoods.

He acknowledged that unwinding some entrenched programs may be difficult. For example, the Treasury Department implements housing and other assistance programs through block grants to states that have their own methods for implementing diversity criteria.

Pay equity and hiring practices

It’s not clear whether the Trump administration will target every initiative that stemmed from Biden’s DEI executive order.

For example, the Biden administration banned federal agencies from asking about an applicant’s salary history when setting compensation, a practice many civil rights activists say perpetuates pay disparities for women and people of color.

It took three years for the Biden administration to issue the final regulations, and Trump would have to embark on a similar rule-making process, including a notice and comment period, to rescind it, said Chiraag Bains, former deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Biden and now a nonresident senior fellow with Brookings Metro.

Noreen Farrell, executive director of gender rights group Equal Rights Advocates, said that she was hopeful that the Trump administration “will not go out of its way to undo the rule,” which she said has proved popular in some state and cities that have enacted similar policies.

And Biden’s DEI plan encompassed some initiatives with bipartisan support, said Bains. For example, he tasked the Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council with expanding federal employment opportunities for those with criminal records. That initiative stems from the Fair Chance Act, which Trump signed into law in 2019 and bans federal agencies and contractors from asking about an applicant’s criminal history before a conditional job offer is made.

Bains said that’s what Biden’s DEI policies were about: ensuring that the federal government was structured to include historically marginalized communities, not institute “reverse discrimination against white men.”

Despite the sweeping language of Trump’s order, Farrell said, “the reality of implementing such massive structural changes is far more complex.”

“Federal agencies have deeply embedded policies and procedures that can’t simply be switched off overnight,” she added.

[streamingfanatic1963]

Dozens of Education Department workers are put on leave over Trump's anti-DEI order

Source: The Associated Press

Dozens of Education Department workers are put on leave over Trump's anti-DEI order

Source: The Associated Press

[home-inspiration-blog]

Dozens of Education Department workers are put on leave over Trump’s anti-DEI order

By COLLIN BINKLEY WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of employees at the U.S. Education Department were put on paid administrative leave in response to President Donald Trump’s order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, according to a labor union that represents hundreds of workers in the agency. Related Articles National Politics | USAID headquarters blocked in…

[ericalto]

Trump administration orders DEI workers to be furloughed | Donald Trump news

The US president is running a strong campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The administration of United States President Donald Trump has ordered that all federal diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) workers be placed on paid leave and eventually fired, as the Republican leader takes aim at efforts designed to address systemic racism. The Office of Personnel Management…

[raleighinthegarden]

Trump orders all federal diversity, equity and inclusion employees placed on paid leave starting Wednesday

[memotrends]

The White House OPM ordered all DEI offices to begin closing by the end of the day Wednesday

WASHINGTON – The federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has notified agency and department heads that it must begin taking steps to close all diversity, equality and inclusion Fox News Digital has learned that the offices by the end of the day Wednesday and will place government workers in those offices on paid leave. TRUMP PROMISES ‘NEW ERA OF NATIONAL SUCCESS,’ SAYS AMERICAN DECLINE IS…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alayna Treene, Rene Marsh and Veronica Stracqualursi at CNN:

Dozens of employees at the Education Department were placed on paid administrative leave Friday as part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to rid the federal workforce of employees associated with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts, two sources familiar with the move told CNN. The department sent letters to employees informing them that their email accounts were being suspended but that they would continue to receive paychecks for an indefinite period, the sources said. The department cited guidance from the White House’s Office of Personnel and Management, issued on January 21, that directed government agencies to notify “all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.”

The agency is the latest to face upheaval amid the White House’s efforts to weed out DEI programs within the government and reshape the federal workforce in President Donald Trump’s image. At least 55 Education Department employees, including senior-level career workers who have served at the agency for decades, were notified Friday night that they’d been placed on paid leave, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the agency’s career officials. “Effective January 31, 2025, you will be placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits pursuant to the President’s executive order on DEIA and further guidance from OPM,” the letter says, according to a copy obtained by CNN. “This administrative leave is not being done for any disciplinary purpose.” According to the union, these employees do not hold job titles nor official duties related to DEIA, but they included staffers such as civil rights attorneys who handle student discrimination and antisemitism complaints; an employee working in a grant office; and a member of the artificial intelligence team helping the department understand AI in education.

But Sheria Smith, union president for Department of Education career employees, told CNN the employees placed on paid leave had attended a two-day diversity training seminar in 2019 during the first Trump administration “that was required for senior-level employees and strongly encouraged for others,” as well as similar training under the Biden administration. Others affected had either participated in a one-day lunch training on DEI or had volunteered with an agency group or committee that plans programs such as Black History Month celebrations.

The diversity training for Education Department employees was encouraged during the first Trump administration under then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose goal was for 400 employees to attend the sessions, according to the union. Because of the large participation in the 2019 training seminar, the union is worried that hundreds more Department of Education staffers could be affected.

The consequences of Trump Misadministration’s anti-DEI crusade are being felt, as at least 55 US DoE employees got placed on paid leave. The purge is set to also include those who attended a 2019 diversity training seminar under Betsy DeVos in Trump’s first term.

[third-new]

White House OPM is ordering all DEI offices to begin closing by the end of the day Wednesday

WASHINGTON – The Joint Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has notified the heads of agencies and departments that they must begin taking measures to close all. diversity, equity and inclusion offices at the end of the day Wednesday and put government workers in those offices on paid leave, Fox News Digital has learned. TRUMP PROMISES A 'NEW ERA OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY,' SAYS AMERICA'S 'DECLINE…