I was a 35+ year Fed and retired in December 2022.
My husband was a 35+ year Fed and retired 10 years before me.
We both deployed many times over the years as civilians; Afghanistan being the last.
My husband and step-dad, and their dads, all served in the military during WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam War.
My son-in-law is active duty Air Force and has done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is personal for me. And there is more...
I spoke with my Federal employee military spouse daughter tonight. The career she thought she would be able to cultivate working in her field as a military spouse while her husband serves will likely end. She learned her position is not exempt from the cuts at the VA. She was teleworking every other week but is a social person so isn't worried about the RTO. In fact, she's happy about it.
Her job, provides:
▶️ a much needed cushion to supplement her husband's enlisted pay income in a high cost of living area,
▶️ the ability to pay off student loans, which will likely need to be deferred,
▶️ a purpose and sense of service that she can be as proud of as her husband's, and
▶️ a "family" and friends for support when she's so far away from her own, particularly as her husband gets ready for a long deployment.
She had just been through a selective leadership course. She was asked to lead a townhall activity of her own creation...and she nailed it. She is an informal leader in her office.
But now she's making plans. Well, a Plan B, that is. She's researching retraining grants for military spouses. She's looking at anything that brings in more money than she will have to outlay for childcare. She's stressed but she plans to stand strong and ride this situation out until she's RIF'd or fired. Why? The possibility of collecting unemployment pay that could bridge her to the next opportunity. Hopefully. Like many others.
As a mom who knows how much she loves her coworkers and GS-6 job she feels gives her purpose by supporting veterans (like her step-dad, my husband), I'm heartbroken for her. I worry that as a young mom without a job and place to go each day for support that her husband's long deployment could be difficult, having been in her shoes myself a long time ago and knowing how I struggled through long months alone far away from family. I started my Federal career as a military spouse and I know what a life-line that job can be when you're all alone raising kids as a "sometimes sole" parent.
She said morale is very low and the lost production on the job from meetings and chaos is more than people imagine. It's taking minds off critical tasks to support Vets and those that do the work in support of the doctors and nurses. They are pushed and pulled into meetings about the "Fork" and people are feeling pressured to take it.
But she's not. She's a smart cookie. She knows words matter and if something seems too good to be true it likely is. She picked up more from me and all the contracting and Federal rules talk over the years than I realized.
Her story is only one among hundreds of thousands of Federal employees and what their positions mean to them and their family.
She will stand strong, staying or going with grace and dignity.
She is resilient.
You all are. 💙
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