"She had taken her kids out for ice cream and stopped to chat with a man who was blowing balloons and selling them for a couple bucks. She quickly learned he was a veteran, struggling with housing issues along with serious health issues some psychological. In the past, she would have found a way to bring him into the Veterans Health Administration where she had worked for a decade, providing therapy and connecting veterans with a range of services available to them."
"Just one year ago, being a federal employee was a very different proposition: It meant job security with solid benefits, for the most part, and the chance to serve the American people. Then in January, President Trump returned to the White House and scrambled those assumptions. Month after month of firings, buyout offers and heightened uncertainty for the federal workforce has led to a mass exodus."
"Goggin had quit her job as a clinical social worker in June, after twice being rejected for the "Fork in the Road" buyout offer. She gave the man some pointers on how to navigate the VA. It was all she could do in her new life outside of government. "I had this real feeling of sadness," she says. "It definitely sat with me.""
Liz Goggin quit her job as a clinical social worker in June after twice being rejected for the "Fork in the Road" buyout offer. She had worked a decade in the Veterans Health Administration, providing therapy and connecting veterans with services. A chance encounter with a veteran struggling with housing and psychological health left her saddened because she could no longer enroll him in VHA care. Since January, waves of firings, buyouts and heightened uncertainty have produced a mass exodus; by the end of 2025, about 317,000 federal employees will be out of the government.
Read at www.npr.org
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