1d ago

It's not illegal to be ineffective

62 comments

While technically true, you're neglecting that a lot of these agencies employ quotas and performance awards and other metrics to track and promote the more hustler-mindset goons while dumping the less enthusiastic. That's been at the heart of the DOGE campaign - finding and removing anyone who might potentially obstruct the administration's agenda in any agency suspected of hosting opposition bureaucrats.
The purges guarantee the admin can bring in loyalists, more dedicated to the optics of the administration than the role of the office. The performance metrics produce a high rate of false positives in investigations, arrests, and prosecutions. But that's not a bug in this system, its a feature. The "oops I'm bad at my job" strategy of internal disruption isn't a bad one on its face, but it is also not one higher ups aren't fully aware of (and often unjustifiably paranoid about). When the fascist regime begins to fail and starts searching for scapegoats, some of the first they pounce on are the incompetent or unenthusiastic agents on the inside.
That's a big reason why mid-level bureaucrats best serve the system by exiting it entirely. Simply leaving an empty desk does more to clog the gears than doing a mediocre job in the role. And you're not around to take the heat when a Trump AG feels the need to arrest a judge or prosecute a prosecutor for failing to torment local residents fast enough.
- There's been quotas and monitoring at every single one of my jobs, and all they do is alienate the talented staff and leaves the loyal morons & the money-driven behind.
  The last two firms I worked at are still desperately begging me to come back, three years after I resigned, because the ship is rapidly sinking since their AI replacement strategy did not plan out.
  I just resigned my latest position, and I'm gonna take a week or two to get back into making art and music, and then I'm going to take my talent and energy to the organizations fighting back against fascism.
  
  Man if they offered me like 4x my current pay, I'd go back, but if it's been 3 years I would probably be 3 years less efficient than they expected.
  
  There was a time when I would have accepted to go back for 3x the pay, or just go back and slack my ass off until I got fired, laughing my way to the bank.
  But what changed for me is that I realized they are a bunch of self-serving liars-- and if they screwed me over once, they will totally do it again.
  I would be stupid to put myself into that position and be stressed out the whole time trying to anticipate when they are going to pull the rug from underneath me again.
  Instead, I rather move on to a new job, meet some new people, get paid to watch training videos which are often interesting and valuable (and if they are not, I just play Balatro on my phone while I half listen to them).
  I also almost always get a pay raise when I move on to a new job, but not always. Moving from public accounting to state government accounting was a significant pay cut for me, but now I am going to get much better benefits, work less hours, my coworkers I've met so far are awesome, and the work I am going to do actually helps protect my state and my community. I know I'm going to be much happier in this new role and I value that more than I value money. And if I'm not, I'll just bounce and find something else.
  And I know we often think that's easy to say when you don't have kids to feed, and while it is true that I do not, I would much rather explain to my kids that we will all have to learn how to plant a veggie garden together and make do with less before I teach them to accept being abused and exploited for the extra money.

62 comments