Reductions in Workforce Hit Intelligence Agencies
When the current administration started rolling out executive orders calling for a reduction in the federal workforce and sent federal workers the “fork in the road” email, Defense and Intelligence agencies were exempt. However, it was not long afterwards that we started hearing stories indicating otherwise. Applicants on ClearanceJobsBlog were reporting their Conditional Job Offers (CJO) were being rescinded, Final Job Offers (FJO) were delayed or on hold, and security clearance processing was halted.
All of the Intelligence Community (IC) agencies were given marching orders to give their employees the same opportunity to take the “Deferred Resignation” option and get paid through the end of September. The National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Central Intelligence Agency have all confirmed they are taking actions to downsize their workforce by offering buyouts, laying off probationary employees or through a Reduction in Force (RIF).
This will result in a large number of now former federal employees with security clearances who had access to all the nation’s classified information. Also, with the speed of the cuts, many clearance holders are not getting out-processed and debriefed properly. These cuts include highly trained intelligence officers that took years to perfect their tradecraft. Not to mention, these potentially disgruntled employees will be targeted by our adversaries for recruitment. All in all, the contractor job market will now be inundated with those still looking for cleared work in the private sector.
Come to the IC they said, job security they said.
The crap-show many of us tried to avoid at the ballot box.
Riffs are nothing new. Happened in the 1980s and we all survived. Man up, people!
I have spoken to dozens of GS-15 and SIS officers directly and they unequivocally say it’s never been like this. Your comment is tone deaf and just factually incorrect.
I would agree if this was actually a RIF that was conducted in a way that is defined in well-established rules and regulations. What we’ve seen so far is an illegal and in some cases unconstitutional slashing of the federal workforce (deemed as such by federal judges appointed under both sides of the aisle).
And regular RIFs are still coming on top of it.
Since when is a federal job considered constitutional? It’s not. Unfortunately, it’s been a huge expectation for some. I used to be government red tape. I am not interested in paying for that anymore.
Illegally dismantaling departments and bureaus without congressional approval is unconsitutional. Its also illegal to fire a federal worker claiming poor performance when that is not the case. There’s a perfectly legal way to downsize the federal workforce but so far that has not been the case.