In the 1950s and early 60s, lots of people built fallout shelters. Given the world situation, and especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis, it seemed like a good idea at the time. The feeling was that if civilization wasn’t destroyed the safe place could someday be converted to a rec room or man cave.

But now a lot of the Cold War-type fears are back (at least for some hearts and minds) because of the new administration. Lots of people, from ordinary folks to prominent media types, are scared stiff. That includes an unknown number of federal workers, and retirees, from the Pentagon and the CIA to the Environmental Protection Agency and even the National Park Service, especially among those who count and estimate inauguration crowd sizes from one inauguration to the next.

According to some in the media, feds in the Washington-Baltimore metro area (with 14 percent of the nation’s civil servants) are walking around in a zombie-like state wondering what’s next. While that is a tad off the mark, it’s probably safe to say that more government workers are worried about their agency missions — and job security — than they have been in a long, long time.

One thing that is back on the worry list for many feds is job security. Every few years some member of Congress decides that the bureaucracy needs shaping up and reshuffling. Proposals are floated to make the civil service more like the private sector where — in their opinion — people work harder and better in part because their jobs are on the line.

Past proposals to shake up the civil service have fizzled on their own or been blocked by opposition in Congress. But with the White House, House and Senate under one party control for the first time in a long time, what has been bluster in the past might wind up becoming reality. Like the serious House plan (H.R. 6278) that would make future hires (for now) at-will employees who could be disciplined and/or fired much easier. Those who oppose it say if it becomes law for future hires, it’s only a matter of time until somebody will make it retroactive. To cover, say, you.

We got lots of reaction last week to columns, and then reader comments, on the new easy-firing plan. To see them, click here. This issue is probably not going to go away. Here’s part of an email from a 32-year Defense Department civilian:

”During my entire… through out my entire career I…. was along with about 80 percent of the people I worked with… were “exempted service employees”… which meant I could have been terminated at-will with very limited recourse available.”

“All this concern today about doing away with “job for life protection” is way over due…why should federal employees receive such a protection that no one else in the country has the luxury of enjoying… ”job for life protection”… just saying that sounds insane… we no longer live in the 1800s where federal employees did what they were told or risk termination… can you just image the outrage today by the news media if someone were to be terminated simply because they did not do what a political hack told them to do… image the firestorm if that were to happen on just a small scale… not mention large-scale termination based on not following the wishes and demands of the political bosses…yeah… sounds silly, doesn’t it?”

“Let’s face it… from my 32 years as well as so many other feds I served with in Al, VA, DC, TX and MD… we do have a “lot” of dead weight in the federal service that do little more than show up for work and put in a few hours of work before they “start phasing down”…from my first day as a new hired fed to my last we followed the basic principle in our work of… “mitigating the cost to the U.S. taxpayer”… that was and should be the mantra of every person in federal service… too many current feds do not work towards that simple goal… it’s time we change just how we hire… employ… terminate… and maintain our workforce…. it’s time to make civil service a respected job title again instead of a joke or punch line.”

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“Let’s face it… federal employees should be the same as private business employees… if you do a good job… you’re an asset and they will reward you… and if you don’t do much of a job…why shouldn’t the U.S. taxpayer terminate you and find someone who will become an asset… time to dump the notion of “but what if such and such happens”…. and make the federal workforce as efficient…. professional…. and respected as any other workforce.”

–Bob T.

“I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly over the years — and my view falls nearer to today’s respondent than yesterday’s. I have a buddy who walked into his office to find an envelope on his chair that instructed him to report immediately to HR, from where he was escorted out of the building. He was a good worker who had no history of bad reviews. We at the very least need some protection and insulation from that sort of inhumanity. Total fireproofing may be overkill, but total lack of fireproofing leads to the house without a lightning rod getting struck and burning before the fire department can arrive to save it.

        Read more: Federal Report

“My two cents (worth about two cents no doubt)…thanks for giving both sides.”

–Jim S.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

One of the few government shelters actually built from scratch was the Los Altos, California municipal fallout shelter, constructed in 1962. The Los Altos facility was 25-by-48-feet, equipped to sleep at least 96 persons, and rested about 15 feet below the surface.

Source: U-S-History

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