Federal employees contend with an administration that doesn’t understand—or care about—their value.

Pam Marino here, thinking about how crummy it must feel to be a federal worker at the moment, where the new bosses are demonstrating a lack of knowledge/feeling of contempt for what their employees do. If you’re a federal employee, I’m sorry you’re in that position.

My news story this week, “Living in Limbo,” is about some federal employees at the Defense Language Institute and Naval Postgraduate School applying for deferred resignation offered by the Trump Administration one week after he took office. If their application is approved, they are promised pay and benefits through Sept. 30. It’s currently being challenged in court by a coalition of unions.

A “frequently asked questions” page for employees features one question and answer that stood out to me:

“Am I allowed to get a second job during the deferred resignation period?”

“Absolutely! We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so. The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.”

So public sector jobs equal lower productivity, private sector jobs equal higher productivity? Definitely contempt for the work of the public sector.

Just one example of many: Were the 350 federal employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration fired by the administration earlier this month in lower or higher productivity jobs? Seems like the answer was higher, since the Trump Administration has been scrambling to get them back.

Bringing it to a local level, is a foreign language instructor at DLI, teaching military personnel a language critical to the mission of the U.S. Armed Forces—in an accelerated format—a lower productivity job? I think we all know the answer.

Another FAQ:

“Can I take an extended vacation while on administrative leave?”

“You are most welcome to stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination. Whatever you would like.”

Such a flippant and cavalier answer when no one can really say if the government will make good on its promises for pay and benefits through September. One DLI employee I spoke to says many people didn’t apply for resignation because they don’t trust the Trump Administration.

Now that we’ve lost many thousands of federal employees, we’re about to find out the hard way just how valuable they really are. In addition, we’re about to find out how valuable a federal workforce is to keeping the overall economy working. My take is that in the end, the cuts to the federal workforce will cost the country more, not less. 

By the way, in his first 42 days in office, Trump has spent 12 days golfing, or 28.5 percent of his time, according to Trump Golf Track, which also tracks the price of eggs and the price of gas. The Economic Times reported on Feb. 19 that to that point, Trump’s golf trips had cost the U.S. $10.7 million.