December 28, 2023

On This Day In 2018

As his gov’t shutdown lingers, Trump’s HR department offers remarkably bad advice

Trying to be helpful, OTDI 2018 the Office of Personnel Management gave suggestions to federal workers furloughed by Trump’s ongoing gov’t shutdown: They should ask their mortgage companies, landlords, and creditors for leniency, and they should work with their “personal attorneys” to make that happen.

The OPM drafted several form letters Americans could use to help make that happen. One letter, for example, advised our out-of-work federal employees to offer janitorial services to their landlords in exchange for lower rent payments. Even the OPM had the decency to remove that particular letter once the backlash began. Trump may not have cared that his shutdown was continuing, but some of his agencies did.

Former Obama official and current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform @ChrisLu44 pointed out the absurdity of it all.

o   Nicole Ogrysko at FNN compiled some other reactions: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2018/12/opms-advice-for-furloughed-employees-who-cant-make-rent-payments-isnt-sitting-well/ 

o Screwed by the Shutdown? @eenayo has the saga in Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/12/trump-shutdown-sample-letters-for-federal-workers/