Posted on 03/04/2013 3:23:09 PM PST by SubMareener
To the Soldiers, Civilians and Leaders of the U.S. Army,
As you are aware, sequestration went into effect on Friday, March 1st.
Over the past several years, we have faced a lack of predictability and flexibility in our budget cycle and a series of cuts. This fiscal year alone, we face the potential of at least an $18 billion dollar shortfall in our Operations and Maintenance accounts, due to the combined impacts of sequestration, the continuing resolution and contingency funding. These are the funds that allow us to support operations, maintain readiness and pay our civilian workforce.
While our attention here in Washington is on the fiscal situation and the difficult decisions that will shape our force into the future, we need you to remain focused on the fundamentals: develop your Soldiers, Civilians and our future Army leaders; conduct tough, realistic mission-focused training; maintain and account for your equipment; be good stewards of your resources; and sustain the high level of esprit de corps in your organization. Our top priority is to ensure that our forces defending the homeland, those in Afghanistan and Korea, and those next to deploy and rotate into theater, have the resources required to execute their missions. We also recognize that along with risks to readiness, sequestration will also bring particular hardship to our Civilian workforce.
We will share information through official Army channels on the impacts of sequestration as soon as it becomes available. You can also expect your Army leadership to visit major installations in the months ahead to facilitate a dialogue and listen to your concerns and those of your Family members.
Our current fiscal situation is challenging, but we must approach this as an opportunity to demonstrate, once again, our commitment to selfless service and our profession. Our Army will always remain, in every respect, the Strength of the Nation. Army Strong!
//Original Signed// Raymond F. Chandler III Sergeant Major of the Army
//Original Signed// Raymond T. Odierno General, United States Army Chief of Staff
//Original Signed// John M. McHugh Secretary of the Army
...conduct tough, realistic mission-focused training
Uh-huh. With no money.
maintain and account for your equipment; be good stewards of your resources
I hope this went to the units in Afghanistan first, then non-combat arms units CONUS-side next.
Did the Army staff mention that the Kenyan Assclown was the motivating force behind the cuts? Did they mention the assclown’s party refused to consider targeted cuts—via a bill passed TWICE by the Republicans in the House of Representatives?
word floating around the Army areas of the Pentagon is that the Army will furlough folks 2 hours a day, four days a week and have one full 8 hour day, that way the Army will be able to show it can work every day despite the furlough. And I’m not joking on this one. The Navy and the Air Force want to close all operations every Friday.
Plenty of money for gays in the military, gay weddings in military chapels, gay spousal privileges and women in combat units.
We just got to get our priorities right...
MEMORANDUM FOR DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES
SUBJECT: Preparations for Potential Sequestration on March 1 and Furlough Notifications
For more than a year and a half, the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I have repeatedly voiced our deep concerns over the half a trillion dollars in automatic across-the-board cuts that would be imposed under sequestration and the severe damage that it would do to both this Department and our national defense.
I am a federal employee for the Air Force and as a result of my post, I got roasted by about 50-60% of those who responded. Unfortunately I got lumped in people who do waste the dollars, people like those who have a military retirement, a federal civilian retirement, and who are still working part-time for the federal government.
Yes, I agree, there are many who abuse the system. I work with several of them so I see the waste, but I am not one of those causing it. Matter of fact, the reason I am still in a GS-04 spot is because I raised the issue with management and they blacklisted me from getting any higher paying positions because I did choose to speak out.
In my defense, for those who are still not convinced, there are many people working in the federal system who are going to be hurting really bad, really soon. Take me for instance, I do not have a military retirement (I separated after 10 years), I worked 3 years on STEP (Student Temporary Employment Program) and I've been a full-time employee since June 2007. I am only a GS-04. My take home pay right now is about $1800 a month. The 20% deduction in my pay will take that down to about $1400.00 a month.
I hope to lump my military and civilian time together but even it that happens, my retirement pay in 2022 will be (drumroll please), a whopping $415.00 a month BEFORE TAXES! I know people like the ones I described above who bring home over $3,000 a month in retirement who are still working!
So before everyone goes off saying that the "everyday" federal employee is milking the system, keep in mind that is the ones like I described above who are milking the system, not the thousands of others like me who struggle to make ends meet every day.
Are you talking about civilian employees or the actual Soldiers? I haven’t heard a peep about the latter.
For civilian employees. There is full funding of active duty military pay. As far as USAF & Navy closing on friday, it was to be all the civilian employees would be furloughed that day. And that is the plan that DoD is apparently favoring. We are waiting for Hagel to get in his haggle.
“word floating around the Army areas of the Pentagon is that the Army will furlough folks 2 hours a day, four days a week and have one full 8 hour day, that way the Army will be able to show it can work every day despite the furlough.”
I can’t think of a better way to royally piss off the civilian workforce. Bad enough they’re taking an unnecessary 20% cut in pay, but now they would make them work that kind of schedule.
Besides, it’s not totally the pentagon’s decision. How the furlough is implemented must be negotiated with the federal unions.
OK, that’s what I thought. I was under the impression that if funding for military pay ran out, then we’d just work for free.
Whatever you did to piss off local management to stay a GS-4 for 6 years must have been epic. That’s right up there with not making E-4 in your first enlistment. I’m sorry that your career has not progressed normally.
When I hired into the full-time spot I was forced to share an with the two more despicable people in the entire building. IF you every want to think of anyone as evil incarnate, these two people fit the bill perfectly. They hated everyone, didn't want anyone to come into the office (even though by the nature of their jobs people had to), wanted people to leave them alone until they retired, and always kept the lights off in the office. Yes, you read that correctly, they kept the lights "off."
When I started work in the office Base Safety approached me about the working conditions. They knew about the lighting situation and wanted to "stick to them" because they hated those two for things they had done throughout the years, and they wanted my help. I told in very strong words to leave me out of it because of they included me war would break down and my life would be miserable. They didn't listen and used me anyway, and thus I was branded a traitor and a turncoat, and those co-workers treated me like crap for the next 4 years until they retired.
The blame for their behavior fell squarely on the shoulders of management, and they knew it, but they refused to addressed the issue. I would file complaint after complaint alleging harassment, creation of a hostile work environment, the fact that they bathed once a month (I'm not joking either), they would go outside and smoke for 6 hours a day and not do any work; anything that showed they needed counseling or even administrative or punitive action taken against them, but they did NOTHING, against them that is.
Management took action alright, but they did so in regards to my yearly appraisal. Instead of giving me the customary high marks for my work they cut my scores in half as a warning to stop the complaints. Of course, that itself was a form of harassment, this from management this time, and this came, I was told, all the way from the Wing Commander to get me to shut up. They didn't want it going off the base.
Like I said, epic. Your post was detailed enough to understand your situation of being caught in a power struggle so you don’t need to PM unless you just want to get it off your mind. It certainly appears you did everything possible to resolve the situation but it was not a winnable struggle. I hope you find a route to a successful job and career but I’m not certain how I would turn in your situation so I don’t think I can add any value here.
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