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my name is Ralph Smith and for those of
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you who've seen some of our other
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fitsmith videos you know that I'm a
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writer with fedsmith.com we've been
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doing a series of videos on what's
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happening in the federal government with
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regard to optimizing the government or
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restructuring downsizing reorganizing
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whatever term you prefer to call it
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there's a lot of activity and if you
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read stuff like the times the New York
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Times The Washington Post and numerous
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other Publications you're probably
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and according to their articles you are
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uh dispirited discouraged angry upset
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Etc now the reason for the video on a
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Sunday morning is pretty straightforward
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last night Saturday night Elon Musk sent
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out a memo to employees actually was a
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post on X to be followed by a memo from
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OPM which did follow and went out to 2.1
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or so million federal employees and BAS
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basically it says by Monday at midnight
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you are to provide a list of your
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accomplishments last week in bullet form
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and list at least five accomplishments
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now according to the Press uh
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interviewing various federal employees
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and seeing the responses from the couple
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of the unions uh people are not happy
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about this they're upset about it
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Etc so what are you going to do are you
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going to respond keep in mind Elon Musk
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has roughly 218 million subscribers to X
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so he reaches a lot of people and
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there's been a lot of reaction on X
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regarding his proposal and generally the
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response from people has been pretty
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favorable they think that's a good idea
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as a federal employee you probably don't
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think that but keep in mind as a federal
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employee you're working for a political
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organization uh most of you probably
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worked under President Biden a lot of
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you probably worked under president
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Trump in his first term a few of you
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probably worked for President Obama and
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some of you may have even worked for
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President Bush when he was president
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things change policies change
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organizations change and there's more
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change than usual under President Trump
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but what are you going to do about it
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keep in mind as a federal employee
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you're subject to the objectives uh that
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the administration and power sets you've
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got certain rights as a federal employee
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certainly you can file appeals you can
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file grievances uh you've got a good
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retirement system so there's a good
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reason for keep keeping the job and
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trying to do a good job and I think most
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people do but how are you going to
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respond some people from seeing the
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reaction is that they're going to show
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their displeasure they may go out on the
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mall if they live in the DC area uh it's
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cold it's windy it's very unpleasant but
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lack of satisfaction with how this is
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progressing you can hold up signs you
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can file grievances perhaps under the
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unions negotiated Grievous procedure if
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you're at a bargaining unit you can
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write letters Etc or you can say well
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this is a good opportunity my advice
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would be to treat this as a good
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opportunity in effect you're being told
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what did you do last week how are you
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important to the organization Elon mus
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sent out actually a series of tweets
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after his first one saying that I
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understand there's a lot of people who
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are collecting paychecks of f federal
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employees but they don't really exist
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they're dead they used to work there I
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don't think that's true but regardless
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of whether it did happen to be true
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you're not dead hopefully you're a
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productive employee and take this as an
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opportunity he also said in a subsequent
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tweet we've already gotten a lot of
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responses to this some of them are very
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good and these are the people that
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should be promoted so what are you doing
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take the opportunity take it as a chance
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to put in bullet form what you did last
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week how it helps your agency why you're
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productive why the American people are
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lucky to have you as an employee and let
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your boss know and having work for the
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federal government and in private
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companies sometimes the boss may not
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really know what you're doing so use
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this as a chance to explain this is what
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I did this is why it was helpful don't
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treat it as a reason to get mad or get
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angry file a complaint treat it as a
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chance to make yourself more valuable to
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the organization that's a personal
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opinion now what happens if you don't
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respond according to the musk post used
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to be called a tweet uh those that don't
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respond uh will be considered to have
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resigned now honestly I don't know that
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that would hold up if you get fired
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because you didn't respond you can file
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an appeal with the Merit system
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protection board and say I was
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improperly terminated and you might
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win you might not I don't know but I
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would take it as a chance to show why
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I'm productive why I'm a team player and
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why I should continue to remain in this
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job in fact why I should be promoted
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because I do a good good job and I'm
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going to help make us a successful
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federal government by doing this good
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job take that advice for what it's worth
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and the unions have already come out
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with a response says basically going to
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fight it this is just another and a
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series of uh actions that are designed
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to discredit the workforce to make it an
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unpleasant place to work and we're going
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to do everything we can to help you out
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one other aspect to take to
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consideration if you're a federal employ
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you've got a good job you might want to
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keep it now maybe you won't be able to
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and that happens but consider your
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career consider the impact of your on
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your family if you leave several people
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have written actually actually more than
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several in comments sent personal emails
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or whatever and said I saw your memo on
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resignation and I thought about taking
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it but I was advised by some colleagues
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by my union Etc not to take it it was
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illegal it was unfair it wasn't funded
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and I'd regret it so I didn't take it
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now I wish I had uh probationary
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employees are being let go quickly tens
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of thousands of them apparently
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throughout the government there's a riff
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coming Dei employees have already been
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terminated or put on administrative
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leave at any rate they're not here
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anymore and I want to keep my job maybe
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I should have taken the Deferred
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resignation I didn't and now I'm stuck
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so here I am well this is your second
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chance perhaps you can use this as a
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chance to prove you're a good employee
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that may not be good advice for
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everybody take it for what it's worth
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but don't just get angry and respond
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think about what you're going to do and
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perhaps make this a positive instead of
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a negative we wish you the best of luck
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we hope to hear from you we hope you
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subscribe to our Channel on YouTube uh
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we have another article on this topic on
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the fedsmith.com website so send in your
7:16
comments we always read them thank you
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very much and have a good weekend and
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have a good week we hope it goes better
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for you than it it may be starting out
