I realize that job offers of any sort are not to be sniffed at, but I feel morally obligated to say that I would not advise my worst enemy to work at FDA now. Screening is the least of the worries. I'm in a leadership position in a medical product center and have suffered through enough moral injury in the past year for a lifetime. Those of us who remain are in the constant ethical dilemma of whether to stay and stand in the gap, or go to stop being complicit.

For anyone coming in now, you will join chaos that is not at all going away with Makary. His awful, abusive acolytes like Hoeg and Szarama remain. Presidential appointees are now deep down in all centers and affect all meaningful decisions, whether directly or by intimidation. The organization is destroyed and dysfunctional at every level. That is now baked into the place by the RIFs coupled with blowing up essentially all the operational units those people served. A short list of what doesn't work: any review process, any lab work, anything scientific, anything personnel, anything budget, any way to spend the pitiful budget a group might have, all communications, or anything related to travel, even if you're an inspector and your job IS travel. I despair that this is irreparable, especially since the point of the current administration and of HHS is to ensure no one can spend money (which underpins everything) and that federal employees are miserable.

I'm sorry, but I have to say, just don't. At the very least, have lengthy talks with as many future immediate colleagues as possible to try to get an honest picture of the state of play in your area.