A friend sent this, from The Hotshot Wakeup…. Excerpt:
A Forest Service memo went out this week after I reported on the “strategic pause,” which said the following:
“We are still under a 30-day hiring pause while the WO “Washington Office” determines how many employees we have and what the cost is.”
Meanwhile, the best candidates for summer work are now looking elsewhere for summer employment. If Ranger Districts haven’t done their summer hiring, looks like they might be ‘SOL’. I also wonder if rehires are affected.
The “word” in the field was lack of funds! Can you believe that, lack of funds? Where’d the $ go? Oh yeah, all those high-powered Agreements……
I can’t believe how badly the government handles Agency funding; oh yeas I can…..
The FS is lacking “S&E” funds – appropriated funds that can only be used for salary and expenses. Permanent and Trust funds can also be used to pay salary and expenses. But appropriated funds, for the most part, have to have the S&E label on them to be used for salary and expenses. A lot of the funds going in the agreements cannot be spent on salary.
Thanks for that info. I realize that the whole budget process has changed since I retired so I don’t really understand it. From the little I know, I don’t know if the changes were a step in the right direction. So, if you could help me understand some of this better, I would appreciate it. Are you saying that a significant portion of the IRA and BIL funding is only available for agreements or contracting? Do you know if this direction came from Congress or was this from the WO? If this was WO direction, then they are complicit in guiding that money away from salary.
Yes, the lion’s share is/was only available to agreements and contracting. I am not sure who made that decision, but, I agree – I think it is really detrimental that the money is not staying inside the FS for permanent employees.
The letter says that temporary hiring is not affected by the pause.
“…determines how many employees we have and what the cost is.” Unbelievable! I have been hearing some of this from FS employees, that the Agency went on a hiring spree with all of the extra money from the BIL and IRA and now they don’t know how many people they have and what the cost is. I found it kind of hard to believe but apparently, it must be true. I have been wondering if sinking all of the money into the Keystone Agreements was a good idea and now, I really have my doubts.
Randy Moore took a strategic risk based on DEI momentum and his allies in the Biden admin. From the inside there were 2 goals – more fed employees, and more of certain classes of people, aka DEI. I see mixed results. Some hardworking career field techs finally got promoted to grades 7 and 9. But many new employees lack background in agency mission sciences, and are unlikely to make meaningful contributions. There was no workforce planning to consider what jobs were best aligned with priorities. And now the hand wringing over the agency’s budget, immediately after ineffective and poorly planned staffing increases, show a lack of executive leadership. Typical of Chief Moore he writes a poorly disguised blame letter, pointing a finger at Congress. It’s time for him to go.
The hiring process remains one of the most frustrating parts of the agency. Lots of cushy SO/RO positions being filled before needed field positions. There were several national hiring events designed to increase efficiency but in reality completely severed the link between local hiring managers and applicants. As a field going employee I was able to secure a promotion but it took a full 8 months before a firm job offer. That’s a long time for qualified candidates to wait around twiddling their thumbs. The hiring spree was somewhat successful in increasing capacity but several brand new folks were hired without even being interviewed. Not to mention the shortage of office space and vehicles. No surprise there’s not enough funding to go around now…
Thanks so much for sharing your experience as a current FS employee. What you shared confirmed our suspicions, that this was a bit of a hiring frenzy, one without much planning or strategy. It’s troubling, but not entirely surprising, that some of these employees were hired without interviews.
The national hiring events do indeed separate those making hiring decisions from the local leaders and supervisors that will onboard, supervise, and train these employees. It will be interesting to see how many of these new employees, hired during national events by those not connected to local unit, will stick around for the long term.
I don’t know what else the FS could have done with short-term $, clearly you can’t hire permanents. So you need more contracting and grants and agreements people to channel the bucks and hopefully monitor the agreements/contracts. And also CORs and whatever the grant equivalent is (if there is one).
I guess there are three questions, (1) are peoples’ observations that the new hires were not targeted directly at the needs (more deputy RO staff, was what I heard, not sure how true that is) true? (2) why is it difficult to count, and (3) what exactly is a “fire person” in terms of the freeze not affecting them, who is fire and who is “fire support”.
This is what I heard when I asked a knowledgeable person.
“The Chief initiated a “strategic hiring assessment” in early April to get a clear picture of what positions were in the process of being filled. This was for all Non-Fire hiring (fire was NOT included). Lots of different hiring initiatives being handled by different service teams, so yarding up what was in the system and figuring out what the potential budget implications would be (in light of the projected deficit for this FY) is the objective. Once there is a clear picture of what’s in the system, there will be decisions around moving forward, pausing some, or even canceling some hiring actions. This all came about because when the final FY budget was finally passed, it ended up being slightly less than the final budget the agency got last year, so some belt-tightening might be needed. The big concern is with new hires to the agency at this point…not so much promotions/lateral reassignments within the current work force. I expect there will be some prioritization for hiring the rest of the year, such as positions that support fire, fuels. or veg management getting priority over others, but that’s just a guess at this point. For example, there is an initiative to move forward with hiring some fire support positions in the National Fire Cache organization right now (positions that are not covered in FF retirement or have fire quals such as supply techs, warehouse staff, clerical/admin staff, packers, etc.). All fire hiring is proceeding as on schedule as-planned.”
Sharon, you are so right on the need for hiring Grants and Agreements Specialists, COR’s, and even inspectors for all these contracts and actions that have been quickly, and most likely haphazardly awarded. How long does it take a G&A Specialist to become operational? Not quite as long as an IC in fire, but surely the same scrutiny applies.
I like to keep an ear to the ground with field units whenever I can, but it gets difficult to keep biting my tongue all the time. Being a mushroom tends to identify the folks in the field, as far as correct information is concerned. When the field is told there is no money; NO MONEY to fill vacancies, the amplified message is quite dire.
Of course I laughed when I heard that excuse, and now reading the absolute chaos of different hiring events across the country…..
This must be the new “reinvention” we’ve been hearing about…..🤣
Ha! “Reinvention” is so.. 20 years ago? Or was that “Tranformation”? Hard to keep them straight..
I’ll remain silent on some of the above comments…. but….
The pause is not much of a surprise. The non-fire 2024 appropriations is 3% less than 2023. We didn’t get final budget until 6 month thru a FY and operating on 2023 levels. So what’s the surprise? I think the short fall is ~$100M of which $30M for salary etc. So ya, re-evaluate and yes it does take time to know what the numbers are. From the time an offer letter is extended to when there is really a warm body on board is not days but months. The hiring process in the federal government and USFS is messed up. Welcome to todays USFS.
This pause is for permanent non-fire only. (Seasonal hiring is almost a year long process. apply in late summer, hire at beginning of year, onboarding April-June, most of the hiring certs have expired by now.)
So, budget shortfall, re-evaluate, what’s the mystery?
As far as the hiring process in general, the forest service is screwed. The non-fire workforce is down 38% over the last 15 years but there is a ton of short term money (Billions) enacted but it takes bodies to do the work and spend it. We did not have enough bodies to do the work before all the new money! The enabling acts did not provide a mechanism to hire new permanent FS employees (nor would you want to if the money runs out… big RIF’s?) As far as I can tell the FS is prioritizing the new hires (it is a top heavy process done at the RO/WO level, not the forest level.) All the top FS management knows the problem, FS has been asking for more money for years, but understanding that there wasn’t a workforce to manage new money…..