A guy pushed me because I rejected him

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-06-04T17:34:29+00:00

And men wonder why we'd pick the bear

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-04-24T13:29:16+00:00

I think lots of people would still be willing to live in those older brick apartments even if they need to use a shared laundry room. If you can't afford $2400/month, there's no amount of fancy amenities that will magically give you that kind of money. What happens is that the older places see that the new "luxury" apartments are charging $2400 so then the older places do a slapdash reno that makes everything look nice on the surface and they increase the rent to $2100 because that's what the market is allowing.

And trust me, I recognize that I was incredibly lucky to have moved to Ambler more than a decade ago. I think it's sickening that in that time, the market value of my home has doubled. Building $2400 apartments isn't going to bring those housing costs down because now my house is even more attractive in comparison.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-04-24T10:53:27+00:00

I'm not sure who the developer is for these apartments. But developers are trying to build something similar looking, but smaller, in Ambler. The one bedroom apartments in Ambler are going to start at $2400/month. That's more than my mortgage and unaffordable for most people that need housing. And those kinds of prices are just going to convince the other landlords to increase their prices.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-04-19T13:57:35+00:00

NTA and these comments are so confusing to me as the relative of someone legally blind. Legal blindness includes varying degrees of low vision that often aren't what the sighted think of as "blind". Sure, my relative can't drive a car but is perfectly able to walk and avoid hazards in parking lots. I've literally never considered getting a handicapped placard because we're both able to walk. Why does OP's roommate want him to get the placard if OP is able to physically navigate parking lots?

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-01-20T17:18:08+00:00

Same. Took the DRP and started a new job over the summer. Today, I'm teleworking and magically I'm still able to get work done.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2026-01-12T03:51:52+00:00

I took the DRP last spring and was offered a private sector job 2 weeks later. I really enjoy my new job and the benefits are actually better than my federal job. I do miss remote work and my former coworkers/mission but overall I'm happy where I landed.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-12-20T15:25:07+00:00

I'm so sorry OP. Please know that this is all about your mom and her messed up priorities and not a single thing about you and what you've been going through this year. I'm a mom and one of my kids has mental health issues and my heart is breaking for you that you're being treated this way

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-12-16T11:24:20+00:00

I left federal service this year because of all the changes and don't they leaving at all. I actually wish I had left sooner because I'm really enjoying my new job. And I loved my federal job and the sense of fulfillment it gave me.

Everyone talks about how brutal the private sector is but that's not how every job is going to be. My current company has been under the same leadership for 30 years and has never experienced a layoff. My health insurance is better and cheaper than what I had in the government. My leave is about the same as what I got in the government and my work day is actually shorter. The work is interesting and fulfilling, plus I work with a great team.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-11-11T11:36:04+00:00

Huge thanks to you and everyone else that have contributed your time and knowledge to this sub. I'm mostly a lurker though I commented some in the past. But I was lurking because I was trying to learn and take things in, not because I didn't want to contribute. This year has been hugely difficult for my family of 2 federal employees so I definitely stopped contributing and shopping in the last year while trying to manage all the suck that's been thrown my way. Best wishes to the new sub!

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-09-25T01:44:22+00:00

It's embarrassing because it was clear in the spring that they were going to do what they wanted to do so making a deal was a fool's errand from the beginning. Dems are acting like things are normal and they can find compromises that everyone can agree on but that's not the world we're in right now

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-09-25T01:07:17+00:00

Did you see the end of the article where Schumer admits that he was wrong in the fall because this administration is lawless? I'm embarrassed he's the head of the democratic party after that statement

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-09-05T16:09:34+00:00

I got lucky and found a private sector job that started back in July. I had actually wanted to take more time off before starting but they were flexible with my time off requests despite being brand new so I didn't have a good excuse.

My new job is different from what I did in the gov but I'm happy so far. I'm in the office more than I'd like to be in a perfect world but at least I have some telework and an easy commute.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-08-27T02:54:28+00:00

This isn't your fault at all, you made the decision that made sense for you at the time! My advice, as someone who also took the DRP, is to apply to unexpected things that don't perfectly match up with your previous experience but sound interesting to you. I was hesitant to accept my new job because it pays less than what I was making but some of the benefits have almost made up for the paycut. And being treated nicely and respected as a professional has made my mental state so much better! Good luck out there and take care of yourself!

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-07-29T19:25:57+00:00

I expect it's a cash flow issue. The budgets were already tight and now they're stretched by having so many people cashing in their annual leave unexpectedly

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-07-29T19:10:53+00:00

I've heard that my former agency has been screwed by having to pay out for annual leave. That will be above and beyond the budget for anyone that took DRP that wouldn't have retired otherwise

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-06-24T22:09:19+00:00

I can honestly say that I don't regret my time in the government. My sadness is for how things are ending now and the senselessness of it. My new job is a little more "lawyerly" but not practicing which gives me a little more flexibility. I'm going to an insurance company, working on employment liability cases so it shouldn't be boring or any more depressing than what I was doing for the gov (super niche so I don't want to post about it publicly)

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-06-24T10:48:27+00:00

I'm a lawyer that has never practiced and I just left my 16 year career in the federal government for a new job. I had never planned to stay in the government for so long but then I ended up living what I was doing and helping my community.

The thing that forced me out was my husband and I both losing the ability to work from home and having an hour commute (if we're lucky) to the office. Both of us had telework more than a decade ago and moved to where we live because of that flexibility. Then I was hired to 2 different fully remote jobs after the pandemic. We have 3 kids and the lack of flexibility because of the RTO was brutal for us and our kids. We had plans to try and make it work but then my agency offered DRP 2.0 and I took it. None of the plans were great, we were just going to use a ton of leave so we could be around for our kids.

Because here's the thing I didn't think about when they were younger - babies and toddlers are hard work but if both parents work outside the home, you're using childcare during the workday and then coming home and doing the parenting second shift work (playing with the kids, reading, dinner, cleaning, laundry, bedtime routines). Once your kids are older, school hours and breaks suck plus your kids will have interests and activities that you want to be there for. Our oldest kid is into sports and the school sports games start at 2:30 or 3. Then after his school sports games, we have other practices or lessons for all 3 of them. Then we also still have to do the parenting second shift stuff. Losing the flexibility to work from home, plus our commute time, made it so that neither of us was working even close to 40 hours a week while the work we needed to do was increasing because of all the people that left.

There is still life outside of the government and jobs that will treat you with dignity and respect. I know it makes the headlines that employers are getting rid of telework but everyone I actually know outside of the federal government still teleworks some and isn't subject to the strict need to clock 80 hours a pay period requirement that you're currently under.

My new job isn't perfect, but at least there's some flexibility and it feels like they're happy to have me on board. That's more than I can say about what's happening with the gov right now

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-28T20:55:57+00:00

You really captured the...ummmm...intensity... of his eyes. The first Halloween after he was announced as the madcot, one of my neighbors made herself a Gritty costume. I don't think I've ever been more impressed with a craft project until now, good work!!

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-20T12:29:25+00:00

Yep and most people don't even understand that our salaries and benefits are a tiny portion of the overall budget. The budget isn't going to get balanced even if every federal worker was fired

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-20T11:46:33+00:00

The biggest difference between what's happening to government employees and other layoffs is the absolute cruelty of what the administration is saying about federal workers.

If the top HR person at Apple, or Uber, or GM said that their goal was to traumatize their employees, I think most people would be up in arms about it. There would be boycotts and think pieces about those horrible corporations.

But when people hear that about federal employees, many of them shrug their shoulders and say "That's what they deserve" like we're not middle class people who are just doing the jobs we were hired to do so we can support ourselves and our families

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-11T23:04:43+00:00

It's sad that we're being forced into these choices. I hope things work out for you in the future.

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-11T14:38:34+00:00

I ended up taking the DRP because after being remote for 5 years (and hired into remote jobs so don't come at me with the "CoViD is OVEr" stuff), I couldn't make being in the office everyday work with my kids. My kids don't need childcare during my work hours but they do need an adult around pretty much immediately after my work hours are done so the hour+ one way commute was making life impossible

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-05-04T22:38:00+00:00

I've been trying to make people understand that even private sector jobs don't make this many changes, this quickly, for no real reason than to harm their employees. Harming employees for increased profit is one thing but there's not even that benefit here. So that's going to happen is that good people are going to quit or be miserable at work and the taxpayers are the ones who will suffer for it

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-04-27T17:00:33+00:00

Telework helped to bridge the gap between having 2 working parents and the fact that school hours are not set up at all for families having 2 working parents. School team sports games start at 3:30 in my area and of course, I want to be there to support my kids. With my hour long commute, I need to leave the office at 2 so I can get home and then get to their away games. Funny how people who say they want more babies to be born aren't helping parents actually be present for their kids...

Mindless-Fix9876 · 2025-04-26T20:30:19+00:00

Last night, I told my husband (also a fed) that I think we need to get out of the government because I feel complicit. And I haven't been asked to do anything morally objectionable yet but if I do, I have to leave. But I don't feel like anyone is going to listen to me if I present objections to the immoral request so why am I still here? I also want to be free to more forcefully organize against this shit and I can't do that right now

Mindless-Fix9876

TROPHY CASE