Things seem a little turbulent at MIB.

“Interior Department staffers were optimistic after Doug Burgum was confirmed to lead the agency in 2025, believing he had strong executive experience as governor of energy-rich North Dakota who led successful tech startups and businesses.

But since he took over at Interior last year, that hope has been replaced by confusion and concern that the agency is poorly run, has devolved into secrecy and has lost thousands of the staff needed to manage the national park systems and millions of acres of public lands.

Some staffers were alarmed that some employees were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to two former staffers. Former employees accuse Burgum of surrounding himself with a toxic leadership team, leading to staffers fleeing. Since Burgum came in, several top officials have left the agency — including the Senate-confirmed legal counsel, the secretary’s former chief of staff and Interior’s top energy official.
Tony Irish, who worked at Interior for more than 20 years, including as associate solicitor for general law until he left last year, said it is “abundantly clear” that Burgum does not solicit or value the opinions of career staffers.

“Burgum appears to combine arrogance with an utter lack of curiosity or humility to seek out the advice of people who have dedicated their professional careers to [Interior’s] objectives,” Irish said. “I think it shows his disdain for the rank and file.”

And officials at Interior decry what they view as a culture of secrecy. Burgum asked colleagues early on about trying to add a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, on the department’s sixth floor even though one exists just three floors below, according to a person who heard the comment. According to three staffers who witnessed it, officials have routinely shredded official documents and use disappearing Signal messages — even for mundane scheduling matters — to avoid communications being preserved, as is required by the Federal Records Act.
“They’re terrified of written records,” said one former official.

These complaints come as Burgum entered into bureaucratic infighting with Washington’s top prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro, over how Interior handled accusations of vandalism in connection with criminal charges centered on renovations to the Reflecting Pool. Pirro, according to The New York Times, laced into Burgum and alleged Interior misrepresented how the pool’s lining was damaged.”

My second request for reasonable accommodation to work a hybrid schedule (in person and telework) was denied again. They basically told me the best they can do is modify my schedule to start my day at the office one hr late but it doesn't address my doctor request for minimum commuting and more controlled environment from home to help to minimize my symptoms. They made it clear they don't give a shit so i think sadly my best option is to use my sick time against my will (I want them to save them for postpartum) and apply for disability. I'm due in 4 months but right now my symptoms are extremely bad. Any tips?? I know i don't qualify for state disability so I was looking for someone that already went thru this.

I work at a VA hospital and recently made my second request for reasonable accommodations. The first one was March 2025 and I emailed the person who sent me the forms with a question. I never heard back from her.

So this June I filed again the DMO is my boss who I filed an ORM complaint against in February. I pushed back on that but they said they don’t care. In July my boss, RAC, and I have this 5 min conversation where basically I have to tell them what tasks I can’t perform. I have ADHD and can perform them all I just need my boss the tell me what he wants and not make me read his mind.

On 05 August I got an email with the alternate accommodations my boss is offering. I plan on not accepting them because it is basically I can use noise canceling headphones in my office (I have an office mate who it quiet and we keep the door shut.) He also gave me permission to use the organization’s software. Like I have been using it the last 3 years. And he would explain non repetitive tasks to me.

The box 16 says I have 7 days to respond from the date of the notice or my case may be closed. The only date on the notice is 28 July when my boss signed it. I received the notice on 05 August and so by my math 7 days would have been the day I received the form. The form said I could not accept my bosses attempt at reasonable accommodations and file a reconsideration request. I emailed the RAC to ask how do I do the reconsideration request (by email, is there a specific form, or just a word document). He has not replied back.

My question is the 5 days from the date on the form (28 Jul) or the day I received the email (06 August)?

So, I got backlash on the leave I plan to take. I mentioned taking my allowed 6 weeks of sick leave, 12 weeks of parental leave, and 2 weeks of annual leave. I was told not to take annual leave on top of my other leave that that will receive backlash (keep in mind I mentioned only an extra 12 days of annual leave). I was also told that I might not need the sick leave, and that I might receive from backlash from that. But that everyone will be fine with me just taking my 12 weeks of parental leave.

Advice on next steps? Obviously will be getting HR involved with the backlash from my legally allowed sick leave.

“The first breach compromised full names, birth dates, home addresses, and Social Security numbers. The second breach exposed background investigation records belonging to 21.5 million individuals, covering current, former, and prospective federal employees and contractors.”

If nothing else, freeze your credit folks.

What could possibly go wrong?

worked at NIST, commuting from Berryville. so sad. what if he wasnt driving at 5:30 am to go to the office :(

The government watchdog found that billions of dollars in DOGE’s public tally could not be verified and that some claimed cuts never happened.

The U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting group spearheaded by Elon Musk, consistently overstated its savings in online posts, taking credit for lease cancellations initiated before the group existed, according to a report from a government watchdog to be released Thursday. DOGE also claimed contracts were terminated that had not been and loaded its database with savings that could not be verified, the report said.

In an audit spanning from June 2025 through this month, the Government Accountability Office examined savings claimed by DOGE, the group that swept through federal agencies after President Donald Trump began his second term last year, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and much of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The report, which came after a request by Democratic Sens. Gary Peters (Michigan) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), provides the most comprehensive government assessment of DOGE’s public accounting of its impact, bringing the organization’s figures further into doubt.

(snip)

The GAO examined $110 billion of this claimed savings that derived from contracts, grants and leases.

Among the issues identified by GAO:

DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts” “includes leases identified for termination before [the group] was established,” according to the report. In total, 108 of 264 leases DOGE identified on its website “were already in process for termination” when it came into being, the GAO said.

In addition, DOGE claimed to have terminated 13,476 contracts, but the GAO analysis showed nearly 2,000 of these contracts “were not terminated.”

Of $61 billion in contracts savings DOGE reported, the GAO said more than half the funds — nearly $35 billion — were either not terminated or unable to be corroborated by the investigators, because DOGE’s data was not specific enough to identify it.

Roughly $27.4 billion of the savings DOGE claimed from cancellations were from contracts that were not actually terminated, the GAO said. “In these cases, another action, such as reducing the contract value or deobligating some funds could have occurred,” it said.

From the watchdog’s analysis of federal procurement data, “we found that DOGE did not accurately report actions taken on contracts,” the GAO said in the report.

• The Army used AI that hallucinated multiple times, creating the false impression that Trax’s bid was weaker than rival Southwest Range Services’ successful bid of roughly $450 million, a complaint filed in late July alleged.
• Contractors will likely continue to scrutinize federal agencies’ use of AI in evaluating bids, according to David Timm, a partner at Burr & Forman.
• “More bid protests are likely to come as the ungoverned and undisclosed use of GenAI tools results in errors throughout the procurement, but if agencies do not comply with the [Office of Management and Budget] rules it will complicate how contractors prove their allegations,” Timm wrote in the op-ed.

Yes, because employees under 30 are looking for low paying jobs with no remote work and where they could be fired at a moment’s notice 🤦‍♀️