In an earlier post I shared that “The judge suspended a deadline for federal workers to apply for a delayed resignation offer until at least Monday afternoon, when a hearing will be held. The offer had been set to expire at 11:59 p.m.”
Since I am retired from the federal government and free from attack, I have heard from countless colleagues, sharing their stories and their fears. These are a reminder to me that much of the American public do not fully grasp the face of these civil servants, these federal government employees. I also think far too few politicians and members of the American public can see the stark difference between a reasonable approach to a smaller federal government versus a reckless attack on these dedicated individuals who have selflessly served their country.
For those of you who cannot separate the two and choose not to demand fair treatment for these people, you are either ignorant of the facts, devoid of empathy, or simply without a compassionate soul. Maybe a combination.
I have seen federal employees work 70+ hours a week and not declare or receive any overtime pay above 40 hours. I have seen more employees than I can count make massive personal sacrifices to go help fellow Americans at their greatest time of need, without question or complaint. I have seen federal workers work through holidays, miss weddings, miss funerals, and much more because work had to come first. Across the federal government the great majority of these workers are already doing two or three jobs, again without complaint. And as one of my friends and former colleagues points out in the letter I share below – for what?
We are supposed to learn from history. I am old enough to remember the horrific treatment soldiers received when returning from Vietnam. The looked death in the face only to come home to being spit on their face. But it was the politicians who sent them. Politicians. Again, now, politicians are acting without a plan, breaking laws, giving illegal power and access to unelected individuals. And yet, who is standing up for the federal employees? If you do not stand up for these people to be treated with dignity and respect, you are absolutely complicit in spitting in their face. They can’t speak. They do not have the luxury of a voice. If we do not speak up for them after all they have done for us, then what did they all do it for? For What?
That is the question my friend and former colleague asks here. She deserves answers. She deserves our support. She is saying what close to two million federal employees are experience and feeling. These are her words….
Service and Sacrifice to my Country for what??
I remember as a little girl looking up in the stands of the softball field. Mom isn’t there, Dad isn’t there. Although I was always disappointed not to see a familiar familia face I knew it was for the greater good. Mom was working more shifts as a Nurse’s aide helping patients at Shriners and Dad was off on a deployment. I envisioned my dad as something similar to Steven Seagal in one of his bad ass movies. Yet still there was always the selfishness inside of me missing my dad and mom there. Among other things my dad’s military career took a toll on their marriage and by the time I turned 12-years old, they divorced. I always loved hearing stories of my dad’s adventures while deployed and his “war” stories of things that happened before I was born. He has been to a lot of places and did a lot of things that required such courage and sacrifice.
I decided after watching the planes hit the Twin towers that I do wanted to make the sacrifice to serve my country that I loved so much. Although I felt sheer panic knowing as each plane hit, not only because it was a realization that our country was under attack, but also again my dad would without a doubt be going on yet another deployment and this time a much more scarier one. He ended up deploying to DC to serve on a Physical Security Detail for the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a year. Knowing that he was going there instead of overseas where Soldiers would be killed in masses was not any easier because terrorist already infiltrated our country and in the exact location he was going.
Eventually he came home safe and sound and I am truly grateful for that. Three years after 9/11, I still continued to have this aching feeling in my heart that my calling in life was to serve my country. I joined the Army at the age of 22 and my goal was to be part of something bigger than life and I knew it was guaranteed that I would deploy to Iraq. The thought of dying didn’t scare me because if that were to happen I would have died with honor and for my country.
I did deploy to Iraq for a few months. I had a couple scares with mortar rounds in our compound but I made it back safe and sound and never felt so alive. I eventually started having children and married another soldier in my unit and separated from an Active duty soldier to be a military spouse. We lived in Germany for six years. When I got out, I remember feeling this deep sadness and thought, “What do I do next; what could ever compare to serving my country?” Yes, I was now raising my children and I was a dedicated mother but, as a person outside of being a mom and a wife, I still wanted so much more for myself.
I decided to continue my service to my country as a federal employee. I started in 2008 and except for a three year break because I was moving with my Active duty husband to his duty stations I have continued to serve my country. Aside from being a mother to my children it has been the greatest honor of my life. But during these recent days I have to ask myself for what?
For what? For what did I as a little girl have to sacrifice all that time with not having my hero my father who was just doing what his entire family had done before him? For what did I have to lose a home with two parents who without his deployments may still be together this day and I would not have had the struggles of the behaviors of a child of a broken home who in reality just missed her dad? For what did I have to put my own life at risk with my own military service? For what did I have to go through my own failed marriage because of the struggles of military marriage life? For what have I had to watch my children cry because their father was on a deployment and they were missing out on the same things I longed for as a child? For what have I had to miss so many milestones, birthdays, holidays of my children and family for my own federal service career and deployments within civil service? For what have I gone through multiple administration changes and adhere to every single change and obstacle put in-front of me? For what have I worked so hard for in my career to go from a GS 5 to a GS 14?
FOR WHAT???
So that I can be told out of nowhere that 50 percent of our agency will be let go without any reassurance that it will be done in accordance with the law. It is a slap in the face to have dedicated your entire life, the good and the bad, to have been honorable and loyal and have put everything and everyone second to serving a country that will send an email and say Thank you for your service if we decide you are no longer needed. Where do I go now? My entire life and career has been for this country I don’t have anything else to fall back on. My skillset is specialized for federal service.
What was all of that sacrifice for…For what?
Stoneking Strategic Communications (SSC) 