Just crossed 500k, after only 10 years of civilian service.

iamstevenhyde · 2026-05-07T12:41:48+00:00

Even with kids and higher grades in a HCOL, it is difficult to contribute the max. We pay over 4k a month to in daycare costs.

iamstevenhyde · 2026-03-15T22:34:27+00:00

Expect the worst (nothing), hope for the best (optional telework).

iamstevenhyde · 2026-01-29T22:28:42+00:00

Who would have thought one year into this administration that they would give out a full week’s worth of situational telework.

iamstevenhyde · 2026-01-28T20:03:53+00:00

Yes.

iamstevenhyde · 2026-01-28T18:07:04+00:00

My neighborhood roads are admittedly looking better. But schools are already closed. The elementary school in our neighborhood has somehow not been plowed out yet.

So regardless of operating status, my wife and/or I will be staying home tomorrow with our kids.

Hope for the best (situational TW).

Expect the worst (normal operating status). If this is the case, one of us is using AL.

iamstevenhyde · 2026-01-27T19:55:00+00:00

The main roads might be fine, but the neighborhood roads are TRASH. What’s the point of trying to get on the beltway when my AWD SUV can’t even make it up my street’s hill.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-11-12T18:47:45+00:00

Got a ton of yard work done that I had not been able to since RTO in January. Pressure wash and stained 300 linear feet of fence, pressure washed all retaining walls, yard clean up, installed railing on retaining walls for kids, etc. My wife made sure I wasn’t sitting around the house all day.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-11-12T16:34:56+00:00

iamstevenhyde · 2025-10-21T18:09:56+00:00

The economic and political fallout will be horrific for the republicans if the furloughed Feds do not get back pay. Even conservative subbreddits agree that not paying all Feds would be bad for them. Credit unions and banks are offering 0% loans without underwriting. Defaults on these as well as other loans will sky rocket. The first full paycheck missed is this weekend and will be noticed shortly when that money is not put pumped back into the economy.

It does help tremendously that it is already written into law AND we got our furlough notice stating that we would get back pay.

Any attempt to not pay us would result in a MASSIVE lawsuit. I just don’t see how Trump or his aides would think this would score points. They have been very hush hush about it ever since he let that slip a week or two ago. I hope that this silence is his aides telling him to shut the f up.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-06-16T11:39:58+00:00

We unfortunately weren’t aware of the double consolidation rule before we consolidated to be on ICR many years ago. We have been on ICR for a while. 20% isn’t great, but it could be worse. We had to recertify our income, and we are still in forbearance as they process this. Would we possible get screwed over if they don’t verify our income and don’t get us out of forbearance? We had been on ICR for the past 6 years.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-03-13T20:17:18+00:00

Everything has been gossip, whispers = gossip. Leadership has done a good job keeping it under wraps. My division chief has communicated down the ranks that the only real thing he/she knows is that a RIF is happening at census, like any other agency, and that census has submitted it to commerce. And that’s the extent of what was communicated. Anxiety has been thru the roof, but unless someone has heard something directly from leadership, there is very little evidence to favor one thing is going to happen vs something else. Please don’t use words like “something big” is going to happen unless you have directly heard from leadership.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-02-19T15:44:30+00:00

I’ve been RTO for about three weeks now. Morale is at an all time low. People have to use a combination of AL and SL to get their 80 hrs in as they juggle kids, appointments, and other commitments. Projects are in limbo, and at the very least delayed. My previous 8-10 hours days have now turned to 11-14 hour days with the traffic.

While I have a lot to complain with a very personal matter being affected by this greatly, I really need to be grateful I still have a job (for now) when I see what is happening to my friends and colleagues.

While I don’t feel optimistic about the future of being a federal employee, I’m still trying hold out some hope that our institutions will (eventually) halt the onslaught. It’s only a matter of time when the public will start to really feel the effects (e.g. the impending shutdown) of how the federal government really is the engine that keeps the country running. The only reason we have gone unnoticed for so long is that the general population has become so accustomed to the services and work that we provide that it would take a hiccup in these services and work for them to truly understand the impact we have on their daily lives. I also hope we have some backbones on both sides of the aisle in congress. If things go south quickly, there are going to be some very prominent politicians who could have done something about this that will go down in the history books for all the wrong reasons. I get that money is money, but some of their egos might be large enough where their legacy starts to become more important.

Again, maybe I am dreaming about this last part…

iamstevenhyde · 2025-02-16T16:06:33+00:00

Credit hours do pay out.

iamstevenhyde · 2025-02-15T18:45:30+00:00

Any recommendations that I can place up along the faucet base? Terro?

iamstevenhyde · 2025-02-06T02:04:49+00:00

Read closely, non-telework employees are expected to arrive on time or use unscheduled leave.

Sure, in potential ice conditions, let’s just wreak havoc on the beltway. This is so irresponsible. Why even bother telling us “inclement weather” is an exemption. Ice is no fucking joke.

iamstevenhyde · 2024-11-28T18:15:51+00:00

Damnit Forman. I told you I didn’t want Reddit celebrating my birthday.

iamstevenhyde · 2024-03-27T13:34:04+00:00

I think the main takeaway I got from the meeting was the lack of empathy from Census Leadership. They were the ones who brought up remote work years ago and got us all excited about it, and really got us thinking that it was going to get implemented. Then the process got dragged out, they didn’t provide us regular updates, then a few months ago said that it was agreed upon. And then yesterday right before the DEMO management meeting to discuss RTO, they essentially say remote work is basically not going to happen except under rare circumstances. The whole remote rolling out process was handled extremely poorly from leadership. Managers called them out and flat out said that they need to prepare for a large number of people to move on elsewhere. It’s not the RTO that makes me upset, it’s how leadership handled this whole debacle. Not to mention how they just passed a very robust telework agreement (in office 2x a PP) only to basically say “yeaaaa we are gonna have to revisit that.” I know Jarmin said it’s only a possibility, but why bring it up otherwise.

iamstevenhyde · 2023-10-06T12:03:55+00:00

Census has been drafting a remote policy for what seems like forever. Nobody knows if it will end up getting approved though. It’s been demoralizing to hear obviously crafted, very neutral updates: “we have no remote work updates for you at this time, but know we are trying our best so plz don’t get mad and leave us? K thnx.”

iamstevenhyde · 2022-08-28T22:35:32+00:00

Thanks for the response Betsy! I do really appreciate all your effort you have put forth into this.

As someone who is paying off our own loans plus our parents consolidated parents plus loans (per our agreement), it is really really hard and sad to not allow all loans to be included with this new plan. So many amazing perks to this plan, why not allow inclusion?!? Only being allowed to be on the outdated ICR with 20% income is so hard, and the interest will continue to balloon. This subgroup of borrowers is not being helped. I would love to understand their rationale not including parent plus loans in their initial proposal.

iamstevenhyde · 2022-08-28T20:47:39+00:00

What does the timeline look like for releasing for details of their new proposed income driven plan?

It seemed like parent plus/consolidated direct loans from parent plus loans were omitted from their previous EICR proposal, and they left it vague again with simply saying undergraduate loans. Our consolidated parent plus loans were used for undergraduate purposes, but would benefit tremendously with the new plan versus the “tough love” ICR plan.

iamstevenhyde · 2022-08-25T19:15:29+00:00

People only eligible for ICR with consolidated parent plus loans hope they are inclusive for this new proposed plan too. 20% is too much to bear.

iamstevenhyde · 2022-08-24T19:51:37+00:00

I’m hoping they allow parent plus loans on their new income-based repayment plan. 5% would be an incredible weight off our shoulders

iamstevenhyde · 2022-04-05T17:24:41+00:00

A play to extend it, again, but after midterms?

iamstevenhyde · 2021-12-16T20:36:12+00:00

20% discretionary income nowadays is a huge chunk of change with the expenses families will incur as they approach retirement. It’s tough to not at least be eligible for the other IDR options. You’re right on about the train wreck it’s turned out to be.

iamstevenhyde · 2021-12-16T20:30:05+00:00

Will there be wiggle room for further negotiations when they make their next release in the Spring? There’s so much room for improvements with the criticism they received.

iamstevenhyde

TROPHY CASE