Looks like further states are also interested.

> US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say

> Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, according to four people familiar with recent US intelligence on the issue and a document reviewed by CNN.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/us-intel-russia-...

Why adversaries? Just think of all the big beautiful deals you can make with them.

Do a background check to make sure employee has financial security to avoid damaging leaks.

Make employee feel job insecurity.

???

Profit?

> US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say

Why, Trump doesn't follow orders well enough?

He's doing alright but might not have all the data.

Makes sense that the kind of people who would flip to espionage against their country are the exact kind of people you'd want to keep employed by your government.

It's not only government rates. It's government benefits and also some less tangible benefits of working for a federal government, especially on a project like this. So it should be more expensive, but still well, well worth it.

It's depressing to think that this recent half-random half-stupid-keyword-revenge firing spree is going to cost much more than it ever "saves", since it is destroying the intangible reputation of the federal government as a stable employer, which was used to defray wages.

In other words, the federal government will have to raise wages to get qualified candidates in competition with private-sector jobs, probably costing more money in the long term.

These are all consequences of the choices of the American people over last years. Choices do have consequences; we need to understand them and explain them to others, one way or another. Reality is helping us with that.

Reality is not helping. An alarming percentage of people in the USA are extremely insulated from reality. They are even insulated from pure logic. For a great many people it seems completely consistent to say that the federal government is a swamp of corruption and bureaucracy that requires drastic action to bring it back in check, then also say that we should do whatever it takes to put the management of the Panama Canal back into the hands of that same government.

I just listened to Trump say, "You're playing cards with the lives of millions of people. You're playing cards with WWIII. I am forcing you to play cards because you made a campaign appearance for a different candidate." I was dumbfounded. Then I looked around at all the people nodding their heads and saying, "Right on!"

Some people think that "reality" TV is reality. And some people think that reality is just another TV show. What a world when you put the word "real" in front of the word "reality" to try to differentiate it: real reality. The spinning top trick doesn't work.

Reality cannot not to help. Reality is objective. Ignoring reality means making worse decisions. People will try to make best - for them - decisions, and the results will be worse because reality is changing, as a consequence of the choice made. It will just take some time, but some are putting a lot of efforts to reduce the time until easily visible - and felt - changes.

I'm sure there are states - perhaps not nearby - that will offer exciting opportunities to former civil servants.

Iran, NK, China would love em!

My point exactly.

They could even let then work remotely!

Just about all of the blue states could benefit from a good team of engineers imo

Would be cool if California hired them all and made a nice but inexpensive office building somewhere near housing and public transportation and had them help clean up all the inefficiency in our state's tech systems.

Would love that. Does California have housing and public transportation though? (Joking)

Solid point. These workers might find a better fit in the private sector these days.

Most of these workers had better-paying jobs in the private sector. 18F existed specifically to hire top tech-industry talent to work on federal-government modernization and efficiency projects. The people there almost certainly took a pay cut because they wanted to do with that was good for their country.

Yes. There are, of course, plenty of people who work in the federal government who do it because it’s a job with decent benefits and so on. But there is a significant chunk of them, I would guess the majority from my dealings, who take pride and working for the government and serving the country. It’s one of the intangible benefits of the job. That’s what makes this insanity all the sadder.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t met a single federal employee that regards their job as some form of patriotic duty. Quite the opposite from what I’ve experienced, it’s mostly “I don’t make as much but at least I can’t get fired”.

I don’t think it’s most people’s primary motivation, which is how it sounds like you’re interpreting me.

Fair enough

It's going to dramatically depend on department. EPA? Probably a passion, but also not a lot of other places to work for those exact jobs. IRS auditor? Maybe; maybe that's the job they could get, or maybe it's a choice between that and making $$$ at a big-name consultancy. 18F? Almost certainly a choice of patriotic duty, because those people could walk into any big-tech job and make multiple times their salary.

Very rarely is helping a country’s government achieve its goals good for that country’s people.

The aims of the people and the state are quite different.

We are the government. We are a republic.

Do you apply this logic to DOGE as well? Absurd.