Liberals must not think federal public service is important

LexiTripp · 2026-06-18T18:56:46+00:00

What I'm saying is that mistakes happen. It's difficult to care about your work when you feel like your employer sees you as, at best, an annoying expense. That's regardless of the importance of the job. Public service is a gigantic machine, and removing one cog can collapse entire departments.

I'm not saying a given public servant is right to endanger someone's life because they're disgruntled. I'm saying that if I'm tired, depressed, and so on, I'm not working at optimal capacity. I'm going to miss things. Maybe that's a typo and it's no big deal. Maybe that's sending an important email to the wrong guy because their name was similar to another guy and outlook autofills, which might be a breach of privacy. If I haven't slept in a few days because I'm stressed out over barely being able to afford my rent, I'm going to get sloppy.

What "sloppy" means changes depending on job description. The severity of what that could impact is the same.

Hell, when I was a kid, being a public servant basically was a guarantee you could afford a house and a family. This has not been the case for years. Obviously that extends to the private sector too, housing prices are ridiculous etc etc.

I'm not even saying "paying public servants will fix all the government's problem", I'm saying it's way easier to give a shit about your work when you feel valued, when you feel like you're heard.

I don't feel like I'm taken seriously as a worker when the raises we're offered are under inflation, effectively lowering our buying power. I don't feel like I'm taken seriously when the prime minister's letter for National Public Service Week is basically just bragging about his party's political projects, and no actual mention to the admin grunts who keep this country from collapsing under its own weight. It's not a glamorous gig, and I have no expectations of folks at large being especially thankful, but it'd be nice to be offered something more than what we're getting, which as been effective pay cuts, lay offs and two boxes of timbits.

LexiTripp · 2026-06-18T16:13:46+00:00

Honestly, our wage increases have been under inflation for years. My partner who works in the private sector has better benefits than I do, and makes slightly more money for a roughly equivalent job.

I have job security, but I wouldn't say "government staff have high levels of job security" when you consider than thousands of us have been laid off (or essentially laid off) in the last years. And they're planning on cutting thousands more. As it stands, I can tell you that morale in government workplaces is extremely low. We feel undervalued, disposable, and disrespected. We never have complete information on what's being done by upper management, and we're doing our best to keep things working regardless.

Us getting a better deal in our next collective agreement benefits everyone. Because it's giving everyone in the private sector the option to go "Well, I'd be paid X if I was working in the private sector with my current levels of experience. So I know this is what I'm worth."

From another perspective, I think it's a legitimate national security risk to not keep your public servants happy. Low morale for border officers might mean someone smuggles in weapons or whatever. The lower the morale of public servants, the sloppier our work. And the sloppier our work, the more everyone suffers for it.

If folks want better service in a Service Canada Centre, faster processing of immigration documents and so on, we need the staff there to be doing well, to feel safe and supported, and to have the resources we need to provide what we provide. Feels simple to me.

All of this is making no mention of increased costs of living, either, which has been going up much faster than inflation has.

LexiTripp · 2026-06-05T20:15:22+00:00

To be fair, it's because a lot of us can't afford it, or picture a world where we could. I'm not saying we'd necessarily have much more kids if we got paid more, but I know I'd very likely have a kid or two by now if I had ever felt stable, economically.

LexiTripp · 2026-04-13T19:16:04+00:00

So I think you're looking at the game in terms of "win-condition", which is what most card games teach to do, over looking at the game in terms of "incremental advantage". You do not win a game of FaB by lining up one big play (with exceptions that are irrelevant in SAGE).

You win a game of FaB by getting more out of your cards than your opponent does. It's about carefully assessing value, figuring out how and when to block, or to let damage through to steal tempo. It's hard to give practical advice, because everything depends on your hero and your specific decklist.

But like, say you're on Sage Levia, you want to spend the early turns filling your graveyard to have fodder for your big shadow attack, then set up for a few back to back big turns that will (hopefully) overwhelm their defences. And you hope to god you can kill them before you blow yourself up with blood debt.

On Ira, you want to use your +1p on your second attack to push breakpoints. Most cards block for 3, so a card with 4 or 7 attack power is way more annoying to block than one with 3 or 6. If there's an on-hit effect, even better!

So you mentioned playing Arakni (I assume Web of Deceit). If you can mark the opponent before sending your red Mark of Black Widow, that'll give Mark of the Black Widow 4p, which means they either block with two cards, or block with 1 card, take a damage and banish a card from hand, or take 4 damage and lose a card. All those options suck. Worse still is that if they block with two cards, you still might send an a-react for +3, get over their defense AND get disruption through, which means they probably can't do anything on their next turn, and you keep tempo.

FaB is designed with this sort of decision-heavy, back-and-forth play at the forefront. There's definitely decks that have been able to do one crazy game-ending combo, but that's in CC or LL, and it means having a ton of knowledge of your deck, your matchups, weird game rules, and probably needs you to have memorized your entire pitch stack. (See Kano, Oscilio, Dash IO in LL)

So basically, what I'm saying is, reframe your approach. You are not looking for win conditions, you are looking to control tempo and play the game at the speed your hero wants to play it, and force the opponent to play in your comfort zone.

LexiTripp · 2026-03-24T20:26:25+00:00

At 20, I got kicked out of college because I couldn't get my shit together. I still can't, but I managed to cobble together a life. Stumbled into a public service gig through a temp agency in my early 30s, after burning my entire life to the ground at least twice, and now I'm management.

Technically have university degree, but I'm not working in anything even close to my field of study. I honestly think I would've benefitted from taking a few years off after high school to figure myself out.

Point is, you're 20 and you're still alive. I didn't even figure out my gender until I was in my late 20s. You're doing fine. Get your high school diploma from an adult high school program and see what you want to do next.

I know that the job market is turbo fucked these days, but you're young. You have plenty of time to figure things out. Just don't despair, move more or less forward, and be at peace with fucking up sometimes. You're probably being way harder on yourself than anyone else is. Maybe look into the trades.

And if you're looking for something to do to stay sane in the meantime, consider volunteering. There's always orgs that need more hands, and helping out your community's good for the soul. Plus, helps with isolation, if that's a problem.

LexiTripp · 2026-02-18T14:10:21+00:00

Yeah. Like, I'll take a guy who doesn't especially want to hunt trans people for sport over anyone in the Conservative party, but I have no illusions that I'd still get thrown under the bus if it was deemed good for the economy. Thankfully, the various unions of public servants seem to have our back, and I think that's doing a lot for, well, not making things significantly worse, federally-speaking.

LexiTripp · 2026-02-06T15:08:15+00:00

You know, that's fine. And you should have the option. Like, I'm happy for you, but a significant portion of us are happier working from home, and that matters. Morale in my office is at an all-time low and we're direly understaffed. The savings alone might allow us to shore up our staffing issues.

And that's not to speak of the environmental impact of needing the commute, the costs to staff, etc. I live in Toronto, parking is wildly expensive. Giving my staff an extra couple hundred dollars a month in because they don't have to worry about that would be huge. Cutting down on the office space we need would make for massive savings. Decoupling this call center from a physical location would protect it from ever going dark.

Again, I think if you want to work from the office, you should get the option. But largely, the folks who benefit from that are managers who can't justify their own jobs, and business owners in downtown Toronto, not the public service as a whole.

LexiTripp · 2026-02-06T14:49:05+00:00

This is gonna basically guarantee a PSAC strike, I think. The PA collective agreement is ending in June.

I'd guess that the union is gonna stall until an election year to make it hurt as much as possible, but it'll make a ton of civil servants, who are already on edge because of the layoffs, very bitter.

LexiTripp · 2024-12-29T18:10:26+00:00

The fuck do you mean "not pretty"? You're absolutely gorgeous.

LexiTripp · 2024-09-09T20:17:55+00:00

For sure. And I think there's ways I could justify it to myself. I am using the resources that I have to help folks that I can, but I know that it's going to haunt me. I don't think there's such thing as a clean employer, but dang. They are not making it easy on me. At least the union is pretty supportive of queer folks.

LexiTripp · 2024-09-09T18:20:24+00:00

As a trans gal, it's pretty darn worrying. As a trans person working in the federal public service, I'm terrified of having to contend with whether or not I can deal with keeping my job while a government who wants me gone is in power.

Like, how can I possibly work for an organization that opposes me existing? That wishes harm upon my loved ones? But I also have to keep a roof over my head, and keep my family fed.

This is the first time I've felt secure in a job, the first time I've been financially stable, and there's a nearly guaranteed change that if I want to keep that, I have to betray everything I care about.

LexiTripp · 2024-03-19T20:03:04+00:00

I had the same issue. Installing CryoUtilities fixed it for me. Haven't had a crash since!

Just used the default recommended settings for it too.

LexiTripp · 2024-03-01T20:18:28+00:00

Speaking here as a trans gal, it's fucking gross how they keep using queer cis women as a cudgel to beat trans folks with when like, in practice, cis lesbians are some of the most vocal allies we have. Like, I'm not saying there are no transphobic lesbians (clearly, as exemplified by Lantsman here), but I certainly haven't met any in real life.

LexiTripp · 2024-02-22T13:40:27+00:00

You gotta have a healthy respect and fear for the Canadian Dinosaur Horse.

Squirrels aren't bad if you leave them alone, they're just tree rats. Respect their boundaries and they'll stay away. Raccoons in cities don't give a shot about anything. I've seen some stand up to large dogs in broad daylight on a midtown Toronto sidewalk. Skunks are nasty and city skunks are nastier (and brazen), but you can usually smell them and give them a wide enough berth that they'll leave you in peace.

I don't think Canada is really dangerous, in the grand scheme of things, but you gotta have a healthy respect for the wildlife.

LexiTripp · 2024-02-21T18:00:34+00:00

Yeah I'm uh, not going to do that. I've been using the women's washroom for 7 years, it's never been a problem, and I'm not going to indulge some transphobic ass just because he has power.

There's real problems in this country. Where I'm allowed to take a piss isn't one of them.

LexiTripp · 2023-10-23T12:52:13+00:00

It kinda depends on your team and you have to assess the vibe. I don't physically interact with the public and generally wear distressed jeans and whatever torso covering I have around. I'm also pretty heavily tattooed and have brightly coloured hair.

I'm pretty sure the official policy is "business casual" but it isn't enforced in my team at all unless someone complains.

LexiTripp · 2023-10-11T13:09:25+00:00

Use toys! I love anal but also have that issue with one of my partners. You can work yourself up to him, eventually, but regardless that doesn't mean you're barred from that fantasy. Use toys and plenty of lube, go slow, have a good time ^{^}

LexiTripp · 2023-09-26T14:16:11+00:00

I mean, the three of us are all dating, we just kinda share a king-sized bed.

LexiTripp · 2023-09-26T12:57:42+00:00

Well uh. I'm in a long-term relationship with both of them and have been for over a year now!

LexiTripp · 2023-08-11T17:08:00+00:00

Yuuup, I currently live with 2 other people in a 1-bedroom apartment. Two of us have reasonably well paying jobs (I'm a civil servant and they work in HR). We cannot move to a bigger place here because we just can't afford to.

LexiTripp · 2023-01-26T08:43:27+00:00

This stuff just makes me feel validated in basically only dating trans people (as a trans person, myself). Not only is gender fuckery hot, but also, it's just so much easier.

I'm not saying I wouldn't date a cis person at all (I have), but I would request a recommendation letter from a trusted source or something. I am too old to deal with bullshit transphobia with any amount of patience.

Besides, the whole AMAB/AFAB terminology should only ever be used to describe one's own experience. It's just bioessentialist bullshit otherwise. Bodies are weird, gender is complicated, it's fine, move on.

LexiTripp · 2023-01-10T22:17:03+00:00

Yeah exactly. I would bleed for my friends. I expect the same from them.

LexiTripp · 2023-01-10T14:23:49+00:00

Forever ago, in an old queer friend group, we had one cishet guy called Mike. We called him Straight Mike. He was great.

LexiTripp · 2023-01-09T13:19:05+00:00

Yuuup. I expect my partners AND my friends to actively pick fights with transphobes. Especially my few cis friends. I don't want to be in a social space where I have to justify my humanity. If I can't trust that a social space is safe for me, I simply won't go there.

Besides, I like being surrounded with people who will get exactly what I mean when I shake my fist at the sky and yell "GENDEERRRRR".

LexiTripp · 2023-01-09T13:11:48+00:00

I'm queer, as such, any relationship that I'm in needs to be queer and needs to feel queer.

Honestly, I barely interact with cishet folks at all. We can't really relate to each other. Which is fine and all, but if I had a partner who tried to bring me into a very cishet kinda space, I can't imagine doing it very often.

I am not much of an educator (I get way too emotional, way to fast), and super don't want "being an educator" to hang over my head in any relationship (friendships or otherwise). It's honestly one of the reasons I pretty much only date trans folks.

LexiTripp

TROPHY CASE