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Comment by justin66 | Hacker News Reader

> IMHO it's a bit of a shame that the productivity and efficiency gains that computing and cybernetics can bring to complex systems

They're just firing people at random, they haven't discovered any innovative new way to make systems more efficient.

("at random" is a bit generous and ignores the retaliation against political adversaries)

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From the reporting I've seen, they're not firing "at random", they're firing more or less every single new hire they can, because new hires have less protections than more established employees.

Not just new hires, but also anyone who took a promotion or lateral move, which also puts them into a probationary period. So they're firing all the new employees and all the employees exceptional enough to be promoted or recruited to another department.

You mean Peter Principled into another department...? Sorry, just joking. It's terrible and unfair to fire people like this. They are removing the low hanging fruits first.

Dude, what is wrong with you? Tens of thousands of real, human people trying to support tens of thousands of real, human families. That's what your joke is about.

I take back my apology. lol

You need to find more reporting then. It's both, and more, and worse. The folks fired at DOE's NNSA were not exclusively probationary employees. DOGE doesn't even know the function of the departments they're eliminating. It's not evident they even know _what_ they're eliminating. See the "find and fire" approach to the word transitional. Oops... turns out that one's used in more than the context of gender.

Even firing all probationary employees explicitly _for cause_ when there's no evidence of performance problems with most of them is worse than random, it opens them up to legitimate legal backlash. Have you ever worked anywhere where the last two years of hires were all just completely worthless as employees? Of course not, that's basically impossible. Eliminating these people would have been harsh but understandable if it were said to be done for simple budget reasons, because yes they indeed are in a vulnerable less protected situation, but to call them all poor performers at the same time is worse than random, it's an obvious and transparent lie.

The people they fired at the VA weren't probationary and one of the first changes they made to the VA was removing gender identity from the account information.

This isn't about efficiency, money, or employees. It's about power and the consolidation thereof. They will have ransacked the VA and the American people not only gave them the keys but they cheered them on.

Not just new hires. They are firing people on "probationary" status, and people in civil service go through a brief probationary period after being promoted or moved to a new position.[1] This means some people being fired are long-time senior civil servants with expertise and knowledge. The reason they are firing probationary people is because they are easier to let go, by civil service rules.

I suspect the people in charge of the firings are under the same mistaken impression as you are, that all the probationary people are new hires who aren't yet essential. Witness the "oops, we fired the wrong people" rush to rehire.[2][3]

1 https://www.npr.org/2025/02/15/nx-s1-5298182/trumps-probatio...

2 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o

3 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/usda-accidentally-fire...

It's not just new hires. Employees who move to a new position, even if they've been in that agency for a long time, also have less protections and are being fired.

But as others have noted, these are not the only ones being mass fired.

It's not "at random". Every shuttered department had been investigating one of Elmo's properties...

> It's not "at random". Every shuttered department had been investigating one of Elmo's properties...

¿Porque no los dos? Firing the folks that maintain nuclear weapons:

* https://apnews.com/article/nuclear-doge-firings-trump-federa...

Firing the folks dealing with bird flu:

* https://apnews.com/article/usda-firings-doge-bird-flu-trump-...

Also firing a whole bunch of folks at the FAA (including maintenance mechanics) even though it's already short staffed:

* https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9y1e1kpjo

Random and spiteful (?).

pseudo random then ?

To add to hrow0101c's list

USAID was investigating Starlink

Consumer Protection Bureau has numerous investigations open vs Musky companies

Treasury is involved in regulating Muskys X for Finance thing

I personally support trimming bureaucratic fat, but the way the current administration is doing it is the worst way possible - with no due diligence - and will lose public support soon.

> lose public support soon

Sooner than you think.

My tax refund is quite late.

I told my family that if they expect a refund and haven't already filed their taxes to do so ASAP.

I have to wait until March to get all my documents from brokerages, so I guess I am personally screwed by DOGE if returns are delayed.

No kidding. Been waiting 15 days for what should be a routine return.

I really wish I could still believe that last part.

Yeah unlikely. I don’t even care that Elon isn’t just being altruistic and is in on all this just to benefit himself. My support of what they’re doing thus far is pretty steadfast, and I just want to see more and more people fired, and more and more budget cut.

I don’t care what happens to Ukraine, just don’t want us to send another dime. Hoping it can just end soon, which is more likely now than it was with previous administration.

Tariffs are a terrible idea though, but would take them if we got rid of the income tax.

As of now DOGE and Trump are doing exactly what I hoped, and I’ll check back in a year and see if I’m worried.

> Tariffs are a terrible idea though, but would take them if we got rid of the income tax.

$4,700,000,000,000 income taxes

$...100,000,000,000 tariffs

He's going to fill the empty slots with loyal cronies he can fire at will.

This is, I think, just "stage 1"

Changing the rules so gov employees can be fired "at will" is an explicit goal of Project 2025

Right. Even random would be more principled.

This[0] doesn't seem random, and is just one example of many similar ones.

And that's not counting the firings at the DOJ and FBI which were explicitly retribution (though you could argue DOGE had nothing to do with those firings, which may be true, but I'm referring to Trump's mass firings in general).

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-18/fda-offic...

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