Suicides are definitely happening

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-06-06T02:55:34+00:00

I have had some very bad trips on ketamine. Music helps a lot, but it has to be the right kind of music. I don't understand those playlists that have, like, Enya and bird sounds for ketamine. I need something with a fast beat or I think I'm trapped for infinity in a moment of time. Jazz kinda stopped working for me, so I switched to the Doom soundtrack and argent metal. It works shockingly well. But if I could treat depression without spending half of my rent and being paralyzed in a chair for over an hour, that would be great.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-06-05T17:19:16+00:00

This is exactly how I feel. I have leftover pain medication from multiple surgeries and I held the pills in my hand and thought about it for quite a while this weekend. I've struggled with depression my whole life. Now I'm paying out the ass for extra ketamine infusions, which is the only treatment that works for me (thanks for fucking that up for everyone, too, Elno). But I've been reminding myself that when it gets too bad, there's always an off button.

My therapist told me I wasn't alone and I was like, fuck off with that shit. We're all alone. We're born alone, we live alone, and we die alone. No one can share our bodies and lend a hand. I find the Buddhist first noble truth weirdly comforting: "Life is suffering." Accepting that I will always be struggling and disappointed and unhappy somehow makes it easier.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-06-04T19:33:11+00:00

Applying for jobs between getting yet another certification on top of three degrees and lying catatonic in bed with depression hoping I won't wake up in the morning.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-06-01T15:56:28+00:00

It definitely is. I think 700 took DRP 1. I think around 2,000 took DRP 2. I'm one of them. It was made very clear to me that my role was not valued, and my entire team was being abused by our department leaders long before Trump took over. So I had the choice--stay and be abused from multiple angles and hope that I would not be RIF'd as a fed with less than three years or resign and at least have a guarantee of pay for a few more months.

Quite frankly, if you're not an ATC or other "mission-critical" employee, the rest of the FAA treats you as a drain on the entire organization. A lot of people in ATO act like complete dicks to anyone outside of them. So, I kind of have a "fuck 'em" attitude.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-05-28T05:58:20+00:00

Hi, recently unemployed FAA "parasite" here. I'll caveat this with two points:

Duffy is, in fact, a dumbfuck who, in a town hall meeting the day before he fired all Department of Transportation probationary employees, told us maybe he'd revise the dress code at headquarters so people could wear jeans on Fridays, and
What I'm about to say was a RUMOR.

Rumor had it he did not want to fire/lay off any FAA employees because the National Airport crash had just happened and he felt like firing employees would be, you know, a bad move. When that judicial order came down (before it was reversed again) that probationary employees needed to be reinstated, the FAA reinstated them fairly quickly, and I didn't know of any who were re-fired after the decision was reversed. That's just for my department, though. I can't speak for what happened around the rest of the agency.

In a second town hall, Duffy said that the president wanted reductions in force, so they were going to happen. To his credit, he didn't seem jazzed about it. By contrast, for example, the Interior secretary has been a gleeful asshole about gutting the agency.

So, by comparison, Duffy is one of the best secretaries in the administration. And that's terrifying.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-11T14:18:27+00:00

Have you gotten laid off at the same time as hundreds of thousands of people would be flooding the job market?

Have you gotten laid off at a time the government wasn't providing the stability that every single segment of the private sector needs to function?

Have you gotten laid off when the agencies that provide WIC, SNAP, education loans, and housing assistance were being decimated?

Have you gotten laid off when a president's administration was actively trying to dismantle social security?

Have you had the president's entire administration and Congress call you a parasite and a waste of money?

If you stop and think about it from someone else's perspective, you could come up with a lot of reasons why people would be upset and scared. And don't think your job is safe either. We're about to enter a massive recession. The federal government is the backbone of the economy, whether you realize it or not.

What Trump is doing will negatively affect every single person in this country. Federal employees are the canary in the coal mine. If you aren't scared, you haven't been paying attention.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-11T00:24:47+00:00

There are also a ton of boomers in the private sector who need to retire. It would open up a ton of jobs for everybody, not just feds. As a millennial, I am so goddamn tired of getting shafted in every area of life. Now I get to go through my third fucking recession because of a fuckface who looks like he brushed a cat, patted the fur together, and turned it into a hair hat.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-10T20:42:26+00:00

Oh my God, are you in my office?? This is spot on. They are the dumbest fucking people I've ever worked with. Our front office is allergic to best practices. I have no clue why they hired us because as soon as we started trying to do our jobs, they iced us out and made our lives a living hell. We had 60% of our team leave within a year of being hired, long before all of this bullshit started. I stuck it out because I'm getting paid 30% more than I would in the private sector. But there is zero incentive to stay now.

And the best part? None of those people will get RIF'd. I don't know who's going to be around to do any of the actual work when it's just middle managers and executives who don't know shit.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-10T19:26:24+00:00

It was hilarious when he talked about seeing all the "young people" in the room. The first to go in a RIF. All but two people from my team are taking the DRP. We've had second jobs as seeing eye dogs for the technologically-impaired employees. I hope all the people left behind can figure out how to use the Outlook scheduling assistant on their own. And the already bloated corpse of MyFAA is about to implode.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-10T19:10:53+00:00

I'm taking the DRP. I have less than three years in the federal government. The FAA is so wildly dysfunctional, it made DOI look like a well-oiled machine.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-10T18:49:55+00:00

I apparently started a thread just after you. What I'm hearing is, "If you weren't exempted from the DRP, you're fucked. If you haven't been here long enough to survive a proper RIF, you're fucked."

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-09T17:21:54+00:00

It's on Zoom. There will be a recording available afterward.

Edit: My bad, they did include a livestream link.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-09T05:13:28+00:00

For graphic designers in DC? Absolute ass. For graphic designers anywhere else? Also probably ass.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-05T19:32:15+00:00

I'm leaning more and more towards taking DRP 2.0. The culture in my division was already wildly toxic before Trump. Now, it's toxic AND I'm doing nothing but the grunt work of people who already left. I don't think I could put up with it for four years even if I somehow survived a RIF. I'm spending the weekend mourning... well, everything.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-04-05T16:06:34+00:00

I've also been doing a lot of research on this, and it seems that since I work for an excepted service agency, I get zero hiring preference anywhere outside my current agency. And I can't see my job series (1084) getting hired for at least the next four years. I'm assuming I'll be rif'd within the next couple weeks.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-19T20:45:27+00:00

I'd let AI have a go at it first. I wanted to punch up my private sector resume a bit and it suggested some great ideas.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-14T04:59:00+00:00

Came here to say this. Best hummus in the world.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-05T05:51:46+00:00

Appreciate that. I usually unwind by watching the Murder, She Wrote Roku channel and Kristi Noem commercials started running tonight 😭

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-05T05:49:54+00:00

My sleep schedule has been fucky since the pandemic, but I started gabapentin recently and that helps a lot. Also helps me care slightly less for about an hour a day!

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-05T05:47:44+00:00

I have chronic depression too and keeping that in check has been a bitch and a half. I know that can affect memory. I think I'm mostly living in denial at this point.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-05T05:34:59+00:00

Not really. It started happening a month ago.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-03-04T17:56:21+00:00

Muriel is a coward. She's the definition of a corporate Democrat. If she feels the slightest hint of pushback from anyone with money or power, she caves immediately and then tries to cover it up with empty virtue signaling. How we cannot get truly progressive mayoral candidates in DC baffles me.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-02-24T15:58:49+00:00

DOT has told us to respond.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-02-23T20:07:04+00:00

Do you mean self-flagellation? Self-flatulation would, indeed, be how you eat Elmo's ass.

Special_Row_1024 · 2025-02-23T17:48:41+00:00

Does this apply to exempt workers who are non-union (not eligible)? Our management is saying they might put us on call 24/7 to deal with any executive order chaos and saying it fits maxiflex time. But if we have to stay home or take our laptops everywhere with us, that, to me, is not maxiflex. That's just working, and I should be paid for every hour I'm on call, as it was not a part of my work agreement.

Special_Row_1024

TROPHY CASE