VA Crisis Line Employees Among Those Fired Amid Federal Workforce Purge

COL (Join to see) - What there's actually NO proof of, is that this saves the VA %98 million dollars, as stated in the PR. Yes, I imagine that this is the math of the salaries, all added up - although that would be almost $100k per probationary, first year people - so strike that - it seems inflated by at least a factor of 2. But moreover, their "savings" estimate disregards the COST of being understaffed. The costs of overtime to serve existing Veterans when, you don't have your full staffing. And, I could go on. Meanwhile, 92% of all VA facilities reported being "understaffed" as recently as 2023.

Among the other informational the VA Prees release - the VA currently has 43,000 probationary employees - confirming that they have been massively short-staffed and that the Biden Administration had been addressing that issue - as so many new people who were hired in the last year+ are still in that status. So BL - Joe Biden was serving Veterans - solving the problems of chronic staffing shortages and wait times, and gaps in care providers, and now the Trump Administration is reversing this and turning their backs on Vets!

COL (Join to see) - John, your conclusions based on the number of probationary employees isn't accurate as the VA has an average of about 45.6k accessions (new hires + interagency transfers, i.e., probationary employees) annually for the past 8 years.

I could give you cherry-picked information to bolster your claims (hint: compare total FTEs), but I would steer clear of using probationary employees and vacancies at the VA to show that an administration is "serving veterans by solving the problems of chronic staffing shortages", as the numbers were actually better during President Trump's first term (accessions during 45 averaged 16,532/quarter* & during 46 averaged 13,278/quarter* and vacancies during 45 average 46,998/quarter* & during 46 averaged 62,915/quarter*).
-------------------------------------------
* Information from the 2018 Mission Act required annual reports to Congress - https://www.va.gov/employee/va-mission-act-section-505-data/

COL (Join to see) and he waited until the end of his time in office to increase the Payroll by 10% additional employees. I tend to believe it was because job #s wouldnt look so good with the private sector doing little to no hiring. He added a bunch more cost to the payroll made look better and stiffed the American citizen with an even bigger debt load. Additionally he signed more union contracts with civil service unions- further burdening my children and grandchildren with debt.
What is the avg pay of the civil sector- vs- avg pay of those being required to pay that salary?
There are 473,000 VA employees...A WORTHY UNDERTAKING... less than 0.23% cutback. They allowed the VA to determine titles that were untouchable, they allowed the SES of the 1000 let go to appeal the termination on a case by case.
In my service time I was always taught that it was my job to teach those around me what I could do....and to learn enough of their roles so we survive and fight..... 1/ 4730 people should not shutdown the world.