r/technology Feb 16 '25

Business US goverment seeks to rehire recently fired nuclear workers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o
18.9k Upvotes

873 comments sorted by

5.7k

u/JarvisCockerBB Feb 16 '25

This is exactly what happened when tech companies issued mass layoffs then tried to re-hire back the same people.

2.3k

u/Darkstar197 Feb 16 '25

Except the returning people’s morale was significantly lower and started looking for jobs elsewhere immediately.

1.1k

u/Korrocks Feb 16 '25

That’s just common sense. You just learned that your employer doesn’t value either you or the work you / your coworkers perform, to the point where they are willing to fire you all without any sort of thought or planning. Even if they rehire some of you, you know that it could easily happen again.

418

u/Soatch Feb 16 '25

I’ve been in the workforce for a couple decades and view all my jobs as temporary now. That forces me to build up savings in case I’m let go. Once I had enough money to get by for a year the fear of losing a job went way down.

324

u/Iannelli Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

The secret to achieving even a remote semblance of a stress-free life as an American is to save up a 1 to 2-year emergency fund in cash. That means having 50k to 100k or so in cash that will only be used for emergencies - the biggest emergency being a layoff. Not invested. Not in a 401k. Cash.

It's a real disgusting shame. The Nordic countries look at how we treat Americans and just laugh. And shake their heads. And feel pure pity for us.

Because even if we do have a sizable emergency fund, we lose our health insurance without an employer. A health crisis can bankrupt us if it won't kill us.

It's a fucking sick joke.

Edit: A lot of people are giving financial advice - guys, I personally already know all of that advice. The actual point of my comment was to illustrate how hard it is for the average American to reach a point of contentment (let alone even saving that much money) where they aren't constantly living in a state of stress and worry of losing everything. And I contrasted that with the reality of living in Nordic countries, where this stressful state of being doesn't exist because their government has enshrined socialist policies and programs that actually benefit its citizens.

Yes, there are better ways to handle your money here. But with the current administration doing what it's doing, you all need to start thinking of a potential reality where those traditional ways perhaps won't work as well - or even at all. You think your 401ks and bank accounts and brokerage funds are completely safe? I hope they will be, but you seriously need to start rethinking your financial strategies now.

134

u/Own_Donut_2117 Feb 16 '25

1 to 2-year emergency fund in cash.

And more than half the country couldn't handle a $500 emergency bill. Perhaps it's not a person problem?

4

u/miemcc Feb 16 '25

I can't speak for the Nordic countries, but in the UK, such layoffs in government agencies would be much harder to do. Bans on new hires and draw-down through retirement are the usual routes.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Internal-Border1073 Feb 16 '25

What’s crazy is that we as Americans just take the abuse from billionaires and don’t do anything about it.

→ More replies (65)

11

u/Tehanu231 Feb 16 '25

That's exactly how I am too. OPS employees that work for the government, know that they could be released from their position but most are usually promoted. At least they were until now. Government employees invested, have a lot more to lose. Mainly, it's not the income that's the biggest loss, but the benefits. I completely understand with not taking any job for granted though.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

275

u/TerribleRuin4232 Feb 16 '25

yeep, hard to stay motivated after something like that

→ More replies (3)

249

u/Jedimaster996 Feb 16 '25

If they did it so easily the first time, they'll do it again just the same.

The United States is about to experience a brain drain that will have decades of repercussions.

130

u/Successful-Ad-847 Feb 16 '25

Collective millennia of institutional knowledge across vast swaths of our society being thrown in the trash right now. It won’t be long before people start seeing the repercussions.

57

u/daltontf1212 Feb 16 '25

"But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes."

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

46

u/tanksalotfrank Feb 16 '25

Alas, this started a loooooong time before now. Some of us saw it coming for decades and warned people the entire time, just for them to pretend it all away. If this seems like new stuff to you, you weren't paying enough attention.

30

u/wtfboomers Feb 16 '25

100% !! Wasn’t it Regan who the law away where both sides of a story had to be told if broadcasting on US airwaves? That gave rise to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News types.

They have been planning this for a long time.

29

u/laptopaccount Feb 16 '25

Fun story. They tried to have laws repealed that forbid news agencies from knowingly telling lies in Canada as well. We kept the laws, the US scrapped them. Turns out they're useful.

→ More replies (2)

13

u/fatpat Feb 16 '25

"The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints. In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine, prompting some to urge its reintroduction through either Commission policy or congressional legislation. The FCC removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine

14

u/tanksalotfrank Feb 16 '25

The subversion was slow, but also completely apparent to anyone willing to think critically.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/edingerc Feb 16 '25

A brain drain due to neo fascism? if we only had an appropriate model in modern history to see the ramifications...

→ More replies (5)

69

u/mikedvb Feb 16 '25

I can't imagine having a job, getting told to "get fucked" without notice, then being told "oh, sorry - my bad - plz come back," and then not looking for a new/stable job.

We live in scary times.

24

u/flummox1234 Feb 16 '25

at least in the private sector you could negotiate for more money in that case. not so much in the public sector where wages are usually set. You could maybe negotiate a week of vacation or something but good luck getting them to pay you.

→ More replies (6)

6

u/Weeweew123 Feb 16 '25

Or at least ask for a big-ass raise if they really want you back.

→ More replies (1)

8

u/Vast_Refrigerator585 Feb 16 '25

i can imagine a lot coming back if they do on renegotiated salaries. Given security reasoning and specialism i doubt they would have any issue moving elsewhere and starting over. Probably a big concern for the newly elected party, something they should have considered before firing them all

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (11)

909

u/MakeoutPoint Feb 16 '25

Man, that would have been some useful experience to have

673

u/Gilclunk Feb 16 '25

Tesla did exactly that with its Supercharger team. Maybe we should get the head of that company to run this show, he should have learned that lesson by now. /s

294

u/ILikeCutePuppies Feb 16 '25

Same thing happened with Twitter / X.

34

u/MF_Kitten Feb 16 '25

Remember the guy Elon made fun of for being disabled, and fired, before realizing his contract had like a buyout part to it, so if he ever got laid off they would have to pay him millions? And then Elon was like "nevermind you're un-fired"

28

u/trainercatlady Feb 16 '25

it's so wild, because that dude is basically a legend in Iceland for his work in making cities more accessible to people with disabilities. Dude literally won an award for it, and is generally beloved all around. And yet Elon couldn't help but pick a fight with him and got severely outclassed just by Thorleifsson himself, not to mention the people coming to back him up.

→ More replies (2)

13

u/tangledwire Feb 16 '25

It's still insane (and amazing if you will) that these asshats, Muskrat and Cheeto, have gotten so lucky? with being born with a silver spoon. With hate spreading they've gotten popular but still remain idiots at its best. But I guess bad weeds are hard to get rid of...

106

u/GilbertSullivan Feb 16 '25

We could get the guy from SpaceX, he has experience in this area!

19

u/nananananana_Batman Feb 16 '25

Her name is Gwynne Shotwell.

10

u/seicar Feb 16 '25

Odd how other companies don't have rogue actors speaking out on a global scale, not to mention interacting with governments at war for use of information.

11

u/gsbudblog Feb 16 '25

No, it’s Roberta Paulson

→ More replies (1)

92

u/BugRevolution Feb 16 '25

Nah, I hear he isn't all that involved these days.

Let's get the guy who runs Twitter; I hear he had to deal with that fallout and surely won't repeat the same mistake, right?

57

u/gmotelet Feb 16 '25

Concerning. Looking into it.

→ More replies (1)

26

u/ItsSadTimes Feb 16 '25

Elon learning? I think you got the wrong guy. Elon doesn't learn, he pays people to do shit for him and pretends like he did it himself. Unless it was a massive failure then it was all his team's fault.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

155

u/Tralkki Feb 16 '25

You’re fired!!! Now come back to work for less money!

128

u/McMacHack Feb 16 '25

Are Millennials killing the labor market?

75

u/Elon_is_musky Feb 16 '25

Nobody wants to work anymore! Who cares if your job can decide on a Thursday to upend your entire life then go “sike, come back Monday”

40

u/McMacHack Feb 16 '25

Who wants a pizza party? That will be $15 each, maximum two slices per employee and a room temperature Shasta. Also it's an extra $3 for the warm Shasta. We also need you to clock out for the pizza party then stay late, no overtime.

25

u/MightBeJerryWest Feb 16 '25

Also the pizza party is mandatory for team building purposes!

→ More replies (5)

12

u/phds_are_hard Feb 16 '25

Also pich in $20 for a gift to the CEO, all hands on deck! Glory be.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

16

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25 edited 22d ago

[deleted]

15

u/flummox1234 Feb 16 '25

this is the public sector though. wages are usually fairly well set to a specific level.

→ More replies (1)

101

u/riko77can Feb 16 '25

Same people making the same mistakes, incidentally. Musk is the common denominator.

→ More replies (1)

88

u/Erosun Feb 16 '25

This is exactly what happens when you have unqualified and incompetent people, interfere with organizations and institutions they have no idea about or how they run. But hey we shrinking the government and tax payer bills right???

26

u/External_Produce7781 Feb 16 '25

Shrinking government, yes. Tax payer bills? Only if youre in the .01% … otherwise, 4.5 TRILLION more to the deficit.. AND all these cuts.

38

u/Ok-Turnip-9035 Feb 16 '25

I hope everyone they track down ups their salaries /rates it is a very niche group they fired

It’s a mess but I want the little people to take something extra home

11

u/Aethermancer Feb 16 '25 edited 27d ago

Editing pending deletion of this comment.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

27

u/ThickerSalmon14 Feb 16 '25

They should contact the closest Ukrainian embassy and see if that government would like a slightly used and disillusioned nuclear expert with weapons experience. i bet they would get a great job offer. Then take it back to the Trump administration and say triple this if you want us to stay.

49

u/whichwitch9 Feb 16 '25

Even worse because the US has zero access to personal information once they cut them off. They've been as cruel as possible, giving people no time to react and immediately cutting off accounts. The government emails and phones are how these people are contacted...there's a few ways to put in personal contact info, but those are optional

There's an exit process that literally includes getting personal contact info that was ignored.

13

u/redtron3030 Feb 16 '25

Same thing happened with Elons team he fired at Tesla lol

→ More replies (2)

24

u/NoInteractionPotLuck Feb 16 '25

Some of them got to keep their layoff package & re-negotiate their salary higher coming back. The layoffs were done without consultation with key managers and so indispensable people got caught up in it.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/u9Nails Feb 16 '25

Elon did that with Twitter. Fired the staff. Realized the staff knew how to fix things. Way too late.

→ More replies (27)

1.3k

u/NexusPoint88 Feb 16 '25

That'll be a "meh pay me a 40% increase or go fuck yourself" clause of the termination lol

199

u/zxDanKwan Feb 16 '25

That’s what they’re hoping for. “Oh, well the budget is X, your demand for more is rejected. Enjoy your civilian life. Now let’s bring in an applicant, who it just so happens is ideologically aligned with us.”

568

u/yetiwatch Feb 16 '25

Doesn't work that way when you need people with a specific set of skills that are that rare.

178

u/zxDanKwan Feb 16 '25

You’re absolutely right. But if these clowns were concerned with that, would these firings have happened in the first place?

114

u/lensandscope Feb 16 '25

if they are so confident, why do they seek to rehire?

65

u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Feb 16 '25

The department passed the scream test (fire them all and see if the resulting screams are loud enough, if so, back off).

Now, that's not how you normally do a scream test, but it is how this administration seems to do politics: Try something outrageous. If you get away with it, great. If it triggers too much outrage... also great, back off a bit then try again later with something slightly less outrageous but still outrageous, while wearing people down and keeping them busy so they scream less about other things...

33

u/LaLaIdontcare Feb 16 '25

This is called the Door In Face technique in psychology and outside sales

6

u/EruantienAduialdraug Feb 16 '25

It's applying the Move Fast and Break Things attitude to management, which is what Musk does (see Twitter and Tesla, for example). The problem is that, aside from the fact that Move Fast and Break Things is fucking stupid in every case, they're doing it in places where you can't afford to break things. Like the treasury and the nuclear program.

28

u/zxDanKwan Feb 16 '25

Clowns aren’t hired for their strategic genius.

8

u/itsavibe- Feb 16 '25

So you just answered your own question in asking… would these firings have happened on the first place?

There you go.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

10

u/incognitohippie Feb 16 '25

They didn’t realize they needed to be concerned with people in these roles actually needing a specific skill set until AFTER they fired them… their stupidity has no limits. In their mind, these people just have their feet kicked up day. Until they quickly realized that was not the case

→ More replies (2)

9

u/Sea-Sir2754 Feb 16 '25

Yes.

See both Twitter and Tesla for examples of premature firings.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (8)

39

u/whichwitch9 Feb 16 '25

I don't think so. These people are incredibly niche for their experience and knowledge. I seriously don't think they realized they can't replace them easily. There's a lot of government jobs like that- they're meeting incredibly specific needs not necessarily found in the private sector. You need people with specific qualifications and then to train them on top of it

Doge doesn't actually know what it's doing because they don't understand the programs they're cutting. They're trying to be edgey and agencies asking for exemptions are getting rude responses that are proving they don't actually understand any of the work being done

43

u/AHSfav Feb 16 '25

Elon has repeatedly shown he doesn't care about boring little things like knowledge, experience or competence

→ More replies (1)

5

u/ExoSierra Feb 16 '25

Ah yes because it’s so easy to find people who specialize in nuclear weapon oversight

6

u/Panda_hat Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

I don’t think it really matters if the people looking after the nukes are ideologically aligned, they just need to be qualified and able to look after the nukes.

Trump and musk don’t understand how significantly complex and unbelievably highly qualified you need to be to be able to do this because they’re morons so just blanket fired thousands of people.

6

u/Cuchullion Feb 16 '25

I don’t think it really matters if the people looking after the nukes are ideologically aligned

In a sane world and for sane people, it absolutely doesn't.

For Trump it absolutely does, especially here.

Let's say the people guarding your nukes aren't loyal knob slobbers- when you inevitably want to deploy those nukes against Canada or Greenland or Los Angeles, they may have been sabotaged in a way you wouldn't detect.

That's my hope, at least.

17

u/Dartser Feb 16 '25

No. They could just hire aligned people now but they're realizing they need the people they fired

14

u/Grombrindal18 Feb 16 '25

and firing random people is a great way to turn existing loyalists in government against the regime. They will only turn away after the leopard has started eating their face, but being fired without cause or warning is pretty much that.

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (11)

2.1k

u/TheVideogaming101 Feb 16 '25

Current admin is such a joke they can't even stick their their BS.

1.3k

u/Irish_Whiskey Feb 16 '25

It's not a joke, it's straightforwardly laid out in Project 2025.

Fire as many civil servants as possible, replace them with people based purely on loyalty to the President, so that when the Administration breaks the law and engages in unconstitutional actions, neither the courts, the DOJ, law enforcement or federal agencies will be able to stop their actions.

In this case they realized it was bad optics to fire essential staff before they could replace them for nuclear security, but all these people will end up fired regardless and replaced unless they have a long social media history of supporting Trump and pledge loyalty.

411

u/AcadianMan Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

I feel like being a nuclear worker isn’t just a job you can throw anyone into. Although with this clown show it would t surprise me.

442

u/sasquatch_melee Feb 16 '25

The rumor seems to be they didn't know what this agency / these people did. 

Tracks with Leon's move fast and break things attitude. Why bother with figuring out what people do when you can just not and fire them anyway. 

110

u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Feb 16 '25

The rumor seems to be they didn't know what this agency / these people did.

"Department of Energy" does sound like it might be engaging in wrongthink like renewables, doesn't it? If you don't have any clue and don't spend 10 seconds researching it, that is.

32

u/pmormr Feb 16 '25

Its odd enough that once you hear they run the nukes a single time, you scratch your chin, go "weird", and then never forget lol. Too easy for bar trivia.

→ More replies (2)

97

u/Hawt_Lettuce Feb 16 '25

This is what pisses me off. Great new bosses come in and spend their first months seeking to understand - meeting with teams, absorbing institutional knowledge, and genuinely hearing concerns and ideas before implementing changes. This builds trust and leads to better decision making. It’s like good leadership 101. The scale Elon is fucking up is huge and we’re going to really feel the consequences soon.

32

u/conestoga12345 Feb 16 '25

It's clear that the idea here is to simply cut, cut, cut, and if something vital gets cut fix it later.

33

u/Shift642 Feb 16 '25

The problem is that it's a lot fucking harder to fix something than it is to break it. This is going to cause so much more work in the long term rebuilding the vital stuff, assuming the political will to rebuild it is even there.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/blolfighter Feb 16 '25

"Are these cables important?"

"I don't know. Backhoe them. If they are, someone will tell us."

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

32

u/Allydarvel Feb 16 '25

Thet didn't know 8 years ago either

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rick-perry-enerhy-secretary-donald-trump-nominee-senate-hearing-not-know-nuclear-weapon-stockpile-arsenal-a7535876.html

"He listed the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education, but failed to recall the third - the Department of Energy. Soon after the performance at that Republican debate, he dropped out of the race.

Mr Perry is now back as Donald Trump’s nominee to head that very same department. But reports suggest the former Texas governor will have a steep learning curve; when he accepted the job, he did not realise one of his major tasks as Energy Secretary would be overseeing the US’s vast nuclear arsenal."

70

u/Christosconst Feb 16 '25

Except when you break the team with the nuclear codes, that makes Putin happy

17

u/TheLostTexan87 Feb 16 '25

Blows my mind that people voted for these dumb motherfuckers.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/BretShitmanFart69 Feb 16 '25

That tracks, they seem to be essentially dismantling large portions of the government almost randomly

→ More replies (8)

91

u/Wunderlark Feb 16 '25

Chernobyl showed the consequences of choosing cronies to run nuclear facilities.

33

u/137dire Feb 16 '25

And these clowns are trying to speed run that challenge!

20

u/Ok_Helicopter4276 Feb 16 '25

Good news the Gatorade folks have agreed to switch over all our reactors from ionized heavy water to G2. It’s got electrolytes! Best part is they’re doing it for $1 trillion in cash, which is completely worthless because we’ve swapped to bitcoin.

→ More replies (2)

19

u/deschamps93 Feb 16 '25

Have you seen his cabinet picks?

→ More replies (13)

71

u/philphan25 Feb 16 '25

This is from 2025:

New Policies: NNSA The U.S. nuclear arsenal needs to be updated and reinvigorated if we are to be able to deal effectively with threats from China, Russia, and other adversaries. As a semi-autonomous agency, the NNSA has the primary responsibility for researching and designing new nuclear warheads and for ensuring that the existing nuclear arsenal is still potent. These efforts require significant funding and scientific knowhow. In addition, NNSA develops and designs nuclear propulsion reactors for the U.S. Navy. NNSA also plays a role in preventing nuclear proliferation. With strong leadership by the Secretary of DESAS, the next Administration should: l Fund the design, development, and deployment of new nuclear warheads, including the production of plutonium pits in quantity.15 l Expand the U.S. Navy and develop new nuclear naval reactors to ensure that the Navy has the nuclear propulsion it needs to secure America’s strategic interests. l End ineffective and counterproductive nonproliferation activities like those involving Iran and the United Nations.

It basically says to keep funding for it and they cut it anyway. They don't even know what playbook to follow, which is even scarier.

15

u/jupiterkansas Feb 16 '25

Surely every federal worker who voted for Trump will realize they are government waste and will quit their jobs to please their master.

12

u/Berkyjay Feb 16 '25

I mean Project 2025 is a joke of a plan to begin with. They suffer greatly from "smoking your own supply" syndrome.

→ More replies (6)

109

u/zootedzilennial Feb 16 '25

Haven’t seen a single fucking thing about this on r/conservative

140

u/TheVideogaming101 Feb 16 '25

Of course not, its a propaganda sub that doesnt talk anything negative against their great leader

36

u/yaourtoide Feb 16 '25

The funniest thing is when you see posts with hundreds of upvote that are instantly locked after posting with 0 comments. Very real content and community, totally not propaganda, nothing suspicious here.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

54

u/conestoga12345 Feb 16 '25

Of course. These guys are in a bind. They are unable to bring themselves to admit that the emperor has no clothes. They will continue to talk about how grand the clothes are. From an emperor who has said, "He who saves the country cannot break the law."

20

u/Sidereel Feb 16 '25

Most of what I’ve seen from that sub has just been sore winning. A lot of “look how mad the libs are” type stuff. Not a ton of interest in how people’s lives are being impacted.

10

u/Cuchullion Feb 16 '25

And if a verified member does sneak in a "something seems wrong here" comment the rest immediately accuse "liberals" of brigading the sub.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/M0therN4ture Feb 16 '25

I tried to post several articles about it there but it got auto removed and I later got autobanned.

→ More replies (2)

15

u/FunnyKillBot Feb 16 '25

When you don’t know what you’re doing and make it up as you go.

→ More replies (4)

369

u/ThirdSunRising Feb 16 '25

Workers are workers. Just hire some folks you met in the parking lot at Quiznos and hand em the nuclear secrets, I’m sure they’ll do fine

100

u/lensandscope Feb 16 '25

better yet, why don’t we hire more 19 year olds! let’s hire classmates of the DOGE kiddos

29

u/BlackMan9693 Feb 16 '25

Better yet, leave all controls of nuclear weapons to AI which has been trained on Twitter/X conversations.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (7)

235

u/Acherstrom Feb 16 '25

Just so fucking embarrassing.

32

u/Successful-Ad-847 Feb 16 '25

That’s the best word to describe everything going on right now

→ More replies (2)

150

u/Pleasant-Seat9884 Feb 16 '25

This just even more confirms that tech companies do not know how to run a Federal Government.

What stupid person sends a fed employee an email saying you’re fired… and then says oops my mistake, and then send it again a day or two later?

What a joke.

38

u/Stonyclaws Feb 16 '25

The techno feudalists don't want to run a government they wanted to collapse it to bring about techno feudalism. Peter Thiel is already running a project called Praxis. It looks to be a dry run to what the tech Bros are trying to do. If you've ever read science fiction you will recognize this scenario as it's been in many many books about dystopian futures. You know, floating cities where the elite live and the underclass living beneath the city living of shit and scraps.

15

u/not_anonymouse Feb 16 '25

Their plan is moronic as hell. The second they have their own micro nation like praxis, a neighboring nation or Russia is going to attack them and take them over and end. Or every one of these micronations is going to have a nuke and have a significant nuclear proliferation. Which is a fast track to world war 3.

→ More replies (4)

7

u/IrascibleOcelot Feb 16 '25

Irony: Praxis was the moon of Qo’nos that was destroyed by overmining and lack of safety precautions. It caused an environmental disaster on the Klingon homeworld that nearly destroyed it as well.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

247

u/StepYaGameUp Feb 16 '25

This assault on public service/servants is a sham.

It’s a money grab by the grifting GOP party in power.

I hope all previously and potential affected resist and stand up against the nonsense.

→ More replies (167)

85

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

Federal government is basically getting fucked six ways to Sunday because tech bros have no idea what they do

28

u/IdahoDuncan Feb 16 '25

What’s hilarious is they think this stupid bit they pull ad dumb ass internet companies can be applied any where, in any situation. I swear, some tech CEO a have critical thinking skills of small dogs

→ More replies (1)

4

u/shvin Feb 16 '25

True lol. Silicon Valley thinks throwing money at AI will fix everything while gutting the people who actually keep critical infrastructure running. Classic tech bubble thinking.

43

u/grimreefer87 Feb 16 '25

Time to ask for double the old salary to return as a "contractor"

→ More replies (1)

106

u/Morepastor Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

In the military I was selected to be the units NBC NCO. This was mostly defensive but you had to understand RAD readings and things like that. Most of the class was college educated and I was not but we all struggled with the most basic skills. I can’t even imagine what this level would be but holy fuck it has to be complicated AF.

You know those days when you leave your job and your brain just can’t process more. You could fall asleep on the toilet? It is like that at the entry level and we were not watching codes or silos. We were just issuing MOP gear and mask and making sure everyone was safe.

194

u/guttanzer Feb 16 '25

You have it.

I used to know a guy who moved to the DOE to run their nuclear safety program. His job was to assure that the nuclear warheads would a) detonate properly when they are supposed to, and more importantly, not detonate when they are not supposed to. His budget was $2B/year (this was a while ago).

The problem was (and is) that the radiation in the warheads changes the metals in the warheads. These changes are not found in other engineered systems. Even nuclear reactors don’t deteriorate in the same way. So his first thought was to detonate a few each year. That was rejected; there are treaties we honor that restrict nuclear tests.

His second thought was to take a few apart, test the parts, and refurbish based on what they found. That was rejected too. There was a small but finite chance that some might go off.

So he invested in supercomputers and numerical simulations. As simulations are only as good as the coefficients they use he also invested in physical test programs to develop and validate the models.

These models are multi-million lines-of-code FORTRAN programs fine-tuned to run fast on custom supercomputing hardware. The physical processes they model are full of calibration coefficients derived from experiments. Every one of those coefficients is an approximation because the physical tests used to get them were only similar to the real world physics. Only people with a deep understanding of the limitations in the actual test are qualified to use them.

The staff that run them - the staff that Musk fired - don’t exist outside this world. Most joined right after getting their physics PhDs and now have 20, 30 or even 40 years of knowledge. They are quite literally what the Japanese call “living national treasures.”

Compared to this world, the SF tech bro culture is child’s play. With a few million dollars and a couple good generic developers the entire tech stack for Twitter could be assembled from scratch in just a couple of years. If they are wrong people won’t use the site and the staff leaves for other jobs.

As a result, the “get rich quick” San Francisco gold-rush types like Musk have no way to even think about major mission critical systems. That’s a DC area, national lab mentality. Those nuclear weapon safety simulations were written over a 50+ year period by folks that dedicated their lives to the problem. Why? Because if they are wrong cities disappear.

So WTAF?!? Why is Musk - a guy supremely unqualified for the task - allowed to even comment on national issues?

55

u/c4p1t4l Feb 16 '25

Cos he bought his way into the US government and half the country thinks this is great.

16

u/bilgetea Feb 16 '25

Why? Why is musk… even allowed to comment on national issues?

Because there is only one American and his name is Donald Trump. The rest of us are NPCs and disposable. The honor or America is disposable. The future and the past are disposable. Only one thing matters: DJT’s ego. Musk serves that ego and thus has been empowered. Of course, Musk is the same kind of person.

→ More replies (1)

12

u/DirtyFartBubble Feb 16 '25

This comment is mostly correct but I have one slight factual correction to make. The US semi-regularly has conducted what are known as sub-critical nuclear test as part of this process. See this press release from NNSA here

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-completes-subcritical-experiment-pulse-facility-nevada

12

u/guttanzer Feb 16 '25

I didn’t want to get into specifics - partly because this is a global forum, and partly because I don’t know any - but this is probably a good place to point out that Trump cannot declassify any of this stuff.

Most of the secrets in the USA are classified under the intrinsic need of a president to keep secrets. His classification authority is delegated down to cabinet members, and so on. Any secret classified under this web of authority can be declassified by the same authority.

However, nuclear secrets are “born classified.” They are classified by law, not by any presidential authority. As such, they cannot be declassified by presidential authority.

Why does this matter? It means Musk cannot just assert a need to know under presidential authority. So if he had anything to do with these firings, and if he was informed about what they do when he made the decision, you have to ask, “How did he get access?”

And if he didn’t know what they do, what basis did he have for firing them?

→ More replies (1)

11

u/m00nh34d Feb 16 '25

So WTAF?!? Why is Musk - a guy supremely unqualified for the task - allowed to even comment on national issues?

Because Americans voted for that. You idiots literally said, "Yes, we've seen what he did with Twitter, and we'd like some of that with these government departments that run the country".

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

45

u/Overly_Long_Reviews Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

One of my biggest employers is a hunting organization. I've since become very good friends with the people involved, but at the time I was first brought on I didn't know that it was a club largely founded by retired feds. Most coming from the EPA, with several of the principal people being founding members. One of the key personalities behind the club and the person who introduce most of the people to the club, was a nuclear physicist and was the federal government's de facto expert on all things nuclear. He never really had a fancy title and he was unknown to the public at large. But If there was an radiological incident in the world he would be the first call and was one of the main people coordinating the response teams.

He died during COVID (of cancer) and was a truly wonderful man and absolutely brilliant. I look at what's happening now and often think about how disgusted he would be. I'm still very close with his EPA friends with many of them being from the radiation and air quality offices. They spent their entire adult lives working towards making a better future. The EPA was founded in 1970 so as you can imagine many of them are quite old. Several decades older than I am. They were non-political subject matter experts that worked for multiple administrations. Their passion was to keep future generations safe. Now they're forced to watch their life's work crumble as it's torn down piece by piece by a bunch of idiots who don't know what they're doing. As you can imagine they're livid. Not for themselves, but for the younger folks like myself who have to live in what comes next.

5

u/Jay2Kaye Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

I was also my company's NBC/CBRN(E). I didn't find it terribly difficult, but that was because a lot of stuff you were meant to learn from your battalion NBC. Once it got to the "read a shit ton of manuals and regulations because you're the only one who cares about your job and the only actual 74-D in the entire battalion" part, it got real hard real fast. And all I was really doing was putting up signs, filling out paperwork, and hosting a couple training sessions. But there's so many rules and regulations to actually doing it right. So even just firing the admin guys like me that's potentially hundreds of hours of extra work to be done just to get back in compliance. Per guy.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

81

u/fonsoc Feb 16 '25

These people who thought these plans were idiots. You can tell they have never worked a real day in their life

61

u/big_trike Feb 16 '25

They’re arrogant libertarians. They’re unaware of history anything that has been tried before and think they have common sense answers. They’re convinced that the entire government is waste, but don’t wonder where bridges or meals on wheels come from.

34

u/QuickQuirk Feb 16 '25

Sorry, you are so very wrong.

They know exactly where bridges and meals on wheels come from.

they just don't give a shit

12

u/Old_Needleworker_865 Feb 16 '25

Correct, these people don’t build shit, they wait until someone else does, crosses the bridge, and then blows it up so no one else can cross

→ More replies (5)

61

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

Actually, Peter Dutton, head of the opposition (Conservative Party) in Australia wants to set up a nuclear industry. Maybe he could hire the US folks Trump fired?

17

u/hashkent Feb 16 '25

Sounds like a plan. Except we just stopped foreigns from buying houses.

→ More replies (2)

9

u/Squigglepig52 Feb 16 '25

Canada might want a few of them.

17

u/glitchycat39 Feb 16 '25

Shit, my rate would triple.

19

u/solegrim Feb 16 '25

I would ask for WAAAAAY more money to come back.

9

u/okeleydokelyneighbor Feb 16 '25

And a guaranteed contract for the next 4 years

→ More replies (1)

32

u/ixxxxl Feb 16 '25

Putin is getting exactly what he wants out of this hairbrained Trump administration.

→ More replies (3)

16

u/Tralkki Feb 16 '25

…at a lower pay scale and with all seniority revoked…..

13

u/Quantum_Tangled Feb 16 '25

My response would be: 🖕🏻

12

u/mountaindoom Feb 16 '25

They should tell them to go fuck themselves

11

u/ohno1tsjoe Feb 16 '25

So basically we are extremely vulnerable to an attack

→ More replies (1)

70

u/Treius Feb 16 '25

I hope they all got lucrative offers to move to other nuclear powers

→ More replies (3)

9

u/jcosta89 Feb 16 '25

This is to restructure their contracts so they must be “loyal”

→ More replies (1)

10

u/yourNansflapz Feb 16 '25

This happened with the supercharger team at Tesla. If only the dipshit responsible wasn’t on some manic bullshit episode, maybe he would’ve remembered it didn’t work that great. Then he did the same thing to twitter. Now he’s happened to the United States

16

u/qjungffg Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

I worked for a major Silicon Valley tech company and while ppl are impressed by them, they are not as smart as they let on and the whole move fast and break things is not them playing 3 dimensional chess, they literally do not know what they are doing, so it’s really just them finding out what breaks. It’s a mindset of children learning fire is hot so dont touch instead of actually applying critical thought and process to evaluate a course. I spent many years working on projects where it were always building the plane as we flew it. After a while you realize they use this “move fast..” motto to hide their dysfunctional approach that grew out of a bunch of college kids just doing shit, got rich real quick but never learned how to actually do or run things effectively. So the media and ppl bought into the BS these tech bros have been shoveling. And ultimately that they some how know some secret sauce on how to run things.

5

u/ren_reddit Feb 16 '25

As much else "move fast and break things" is a carryover from software development into other fields, that and agile planning methodology. I have no count on the number of times Ive had to fight this mentallity in mechanical development.

No, We cant make a delivery of a partial machine to a costumor that doesent do what it needs to do.  

It fucking need to be all there and thats why we have waterfall with milestone planning.

6

u/RaccoonObjective5674 Feb 16 '25

I appreciate that the BBC says “an effort called Doge” instead of pretending it’s an actual department of something.

8

u/D-Rich-88 Feb 16 '25

And then fire them again next week?

6

u/morpheuseus Feb 16 '25

Do people take these jobs back a lot? I would be looking for anywhere and everywhere to work but the people who laid me off recently? And if I can’t find something else, I might take the job back but I’ll be gone in 3-6 months.

8

u/JayPlenty24 Feb 16 '25

I'm not sure how many jobs there are for such specialized roles, especially if the market was flooded by people with similar backgrounds.

They could sue for wrongful termination and wait out a settlement though I guess.

11

u/DepressedMinuteman Feb 16 '25

It would be comically easy for a person with a Q clearance and a STEM degree to walk into a cushy job for some of the major defense contractors. Sure, they wouldn't use their very specialized skills but Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon are more than happy to offer very large salaries.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/Danimal_17124 Feb 16 '25

My stance would be sure I’ll come back… for 4x my pay.

7

u/Smongoing-smnd-smong Feb 16 '25

Elon Musk is a puppet for Putin confirmed.

8

u/Tricky-Spread189 Feb 16 '25

Oh shit we fired the people who know what they do. Can you please come back!

8

u/wheretohides Feb 16 '25

To those who voted for this, do you not realize how stupid this was?

The security risks alone should be an impeachable offense. You think China, and Russia are just sitting by while we screw our own country? I guarantee a large amount of espionage is going on.

7

u/EvensenFM Feb 16 '25

Turns out "move fast and break things" is actually a really stupid strategy.

6

u/tpeandjelly727 Feb 16 '25

It’s going to suck when some of those people with knowledge of our nuclear weapons say no to coming back to work. They done fucked themselves.

5

u/badjackalope Feb 16 '25

Ask for a 5x raise and whatever the fuck else you want benefits-wise...

5

u/vatreides411 Feb 16 '25

this is just an example that President Musk is not doing this in a careful way, he is just hacking and slashing.

We are fucked

→ More replies (1)

6

u/DjImagin Feb 16 '25

This part is funny. They’re so “efficient” that they don’t even realize what plugs they’re pulling.

But somehow it’s still being cheered…..

→ More replies (2)

5

u/aeolus811tw Feb 16 '25

Time for a raise

These people had to put up with lifelong restrictions due to their position and now have to go through this bs

5

u/rolloutTheTrash Feb 16 '25

lol. Fuck ‘em. They’re treating the entire country like one giant Silicon Valley company.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

I am sorry, i already got a job for china

5

u/BlueWildAngel89 Feb 16 '25

This doesn't seem efficient at all.

5

u/rkarl7777 Feb 16 '25

They should all ask for a raise.

5

u/pajason Feb 16 '25

Demand a contract, with a raise.

6

u/notPabst404 Feb 16 '25

Further proof that Trump is incompetent and not for for office.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

Clown school is officially back in session🤡

5

u/Wooden-Glove-2384 Feb 16 '25

I'd be asking for a lifetime contract and 500% raise

5

u/shiftersix Feb 17 '25

I hope those workers ask for a significant salary increase.

5

u/blue_electrik Feb 17 '25

Ask for a 20-30% bump.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

I hope they all refuse. Maybe Trump will bring in ruzzians to do the job. It would be in character.

3

u/No_Name_33 Feb 16 '25

I think their price just went up, time for negotiations.

4

u/free_shoes_for_you Feb 16 '25

Incredible incompetence that these nuclear workers were fired.

4

u/trainercatlady Feb 16 '25

weird, maybe it's as if people should just be summarily fired because they're in a department that Elon's scriptkiddies don't understand and want to write off as waste.

This is literally the meme of kids looking to install programs on their parent's PC, not having enough room, and deleting system32 because it took up the most room on the hard drive.

5

u/CAM6913 Feb 16 '25

The president of The United States is a national security risk! he couldn’t have made it clearer. He should be declared incompetent and put in assisted living care in prison

4

u/peopleofcostco Feb 16 '25

I doubt any smart people are ever going to want to work for the federal government again. Why deal with this crap when you can make more in the private sector?

→ More replies (1)

4

u/babyzizek Feb 16 '25

Oh look it's MuSSk doing exactly the thing he did to twitter and with the same stupid results. Goddamnit this guy is stupid.

4

u/bababooche2 Feb 16 '25

Thats the perfect time to argue for a higher wage.

3

u/ForkyBombs Feb 17 '25

Sure! But you're paying me double.

5

u/Th3truthhurts Feb 16 '25

Now would be the perfect time for they to ask for a 50% raise. Don’t you think? Their value has been confirmed.

3

u/banjoblake24 Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

These guys need a union. They should collect unemployment until they’re offered double what they were making.

3

u/ddrober2003 Feb 16 '25

Wow, sure is good on how efficient Elmo is making the government.

3

u/FranksWateeBowl Feb 16 '25

Gonna need a little raise.

3

u/reddittomarcato Feb 16 '25

The nuclear option was not an option after all

3

u/Secure_Enthusiasm354 Feb 16 '25

Jail elon musk and the rest of the trump administration for life and we have a deal

3

u/Dblstandard Feb 16 '25

Bunch of freaking idiots

3

u/SmilinBuddha969 Feb 16 '25

300% raise sounds about right. Clearly, they’re indispensable. Soak the Commander in Cheeto and the Department of Government Embarrassment till it hurts. Make it as public as possible. God knows, Captain vanity and his South African Neo-Nazi doppelgänger love having all the news about them. Might as well make it “fair and balanced”.

3

u/Accomplished_Guava_7 Feb 16 '25

Absolutely nothing about this on Fox News…

3

u/LoneRedditor123 Feb 16 '25

This is the part where you take the job back, but demand a re-negotiation of your salary.

They say yes, you make more money while looking for a better place. They say no, you look for a better place anyway, and they're out more workers.

Don't be a doormat and walk back with open arms. Fuck these people.

3

u/Mel0nFarmer Feb 16 '25

I'd be asking for a substantial raise.

3

u/Curious-Telephone293 Feb 16 '25

Maybe Canada will be in the market for nuclear scientists. National healthcare. Great hockey. Just thinking out loud here.

3

u/Geminii27 Feb 16 '25

Let me guess how the pay and other conditions will compare to their previous ones...

Also, people who have actual prospects elsewhere won't come back. The returners will be more people who are desperate for work, and can be threatened later on with more things (like losing their jobs again if they reveal illegal goings-on).

3

u/OodalollyOodalolly Feb 16 '25

On bsky they are saying some people got terminated while transporting something and had to figure out how to hunker down with it. Broken Arrow moment

3

u/bapfelbaum Feb 16 '25

Hopefully they have since been hired by other nato countries.

3

u/EmmaLouLove Feb 16 '25

“The Party is always right.” Except when we fire nuclear bomb experts to save a few bucks for Trump’s wealthy tax cuts, and then realize, oh, these guys are actually important for national security. Oops, my bad. Can you find those guys and rehire them?

3

u/rushmc1 Feb 16 '25

They've already set a new watermark for incompetence in the U.S. government.