Upper management at the State Department just resigned en masse

VarunaTT

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/management-team-state-department-resigns-en-masse

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b:homepage/story&utm_term=.f4f4d8e8284a

I can't even process this.

charlotte989875

Yah... that's not going to end well. There goes all of the institutional memory on the day to day operations of the entire State Department. 

mrsconn23

At 1pm it was reported that they were fired, they didn't leave on their own accord.

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/824675990983110656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

levioosa

I've been reading that they left on their own accord? This is not good. 

charlotte989875

Yah, that's even worse if he's firing them. Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse.. 

TrixieJess

Who to believe? Trump, 'cause he's known to tell the truth, or the staffers who say they quit? Hmm, conundrum...

VarunaTT

I bet the story is actually they were told they could resign or be fired.  Being fired as a civil servant with that many years in the civil system would ruin your entire end-of-life care.  I'd resign too.

I haven't felt sick or scared until I saw this.  So much institutional knowledge, history, experience, and education just went flying out.  I bet these 4-6 people had over 100 years between them.  This is monumentally ignorant and dangerous.

Heffalump

VarunaTT said:

I bet the story is actually they were told they could resign or be fired.  Being fired as a civil servant with that many years in the civil system would ruin your entire end-of-life care.  I'd resign too.

I haven't felt sick or scared until I saw this.  So much institutional knowledge, history, experience, and education just went flying out.  I bet these 4-6 people had over 100 years between them.  This is monumentally ignorant and dangerous.

>150 years

From CNN:

The firings leave a huge management hole at the State Department, with a combined 150 years of institutional experience among all of the named officials. The second official echoed that the move appeared to be an effort by the new administration to "clean house" among the State Department's top leadership.

charlotte989875

Heffalump said:

VarunaTT said:

I bet the story is actually they were told they could resign or be fired.  Being fired as a civil servant with that many years in the civil system would ruin your entire end-of-life care.  I'd resign too.

I haven't felt sick or scared until I saw this.  So much institutional knowledge, history, experience, and education just went flying out.  I bet these 4-6 people had over 100 years between them.  This is monumentally ignorant and dangerous.

>150 years

From CNN:

The firings leave a huge management hole at the State Department, with a combined 150 years of institutional experience among all of the named officials. The second official echoed that the move appeared to be an effort by the new administration to "clean house" among the State Department's top leadership.

Also, they were upper management in security and operations. Like, the two most important positions when we have Americans working abroad. But cool, we don't need experience in those areas. Someone who has zero diplomatic experience is in control. 

MNNEBride

Also from CNN:

All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.

The letters from the White House said that their resignations were accepted and they were thanked for their service.

VarunaTT

Okay, so, they resigned en masse, but the truth is basically that usually the new administration just says, "Thanks for the tradition, we'd like to offer you the same job you've been doing."

And this administration didn't.  Okay.  I can deal with that.  I think it's stupid, but fine.

But then to come out and say that they weren't accepted b/c of draining the swamp" and that these people's deputies will step up and fill the position...how are they draining anything?  It doesn't even make sense.

charlotte989875

So I think part of the shock of this is not that they are being asked to leave/their customary resignation are accepted, but that even those these are appointments that are confirmed by the Senate, these are not typically political appointments (like ambassadors are), and there no current nominees to take their place. So they offered to resign (as many do), the resignations were accepted (which often doesn't happen, many of these people served in both the Bush and Obama Administrations), they are leaving their posts by Friday, and there is no one prepared to take over (sure deputies will serve in the meantime). Again, these are positions that involve the day to day running of the State Department and these people have so much institutional memory that will simply be lost. 

Just seems like a short sighted way to "drain the swamp".

Heffalump

MNNEBride said:

Also from CNN:

All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.

The letters from the White House said that their resignations were accepted and they were thanked for their service.

WaPo:


Although the diplomats were not technically fired, the Trump administration opted to remove a number of top officials in charge of the State Department’s 13 divisions responsible for policy, security and other matters. Those positions may be filled either by Foreign Service officers or outside policy experts. In past administrations, many have remained in their posts when the White House changed hands.

kimmiinthemitten

From what I read on the Washington Post, they all submitted their resignations per tradition, and when they realized the new admin was really pushing out their top guy, they all quit for real and most of them did so when Trump was in the building.  This is the first time the entire senior management team has ever been replaced.

charlotte989875

kimmiinthemitten said:

From what I read on the Washington Post, they all submitted their resignations per tradition, and when they realized the new admin was really pushing out their top guy, they all quit for real and most of them did so when Trump was in the building.  This is the first time the entire senior management team has ever been replaced.

This was my read of it as well. That this was not simply accepting the traditional resignation letters, but rather a more significant move/removal of senior management. 

VarunaTT

I think the thing that is hurting my brain is that they don't have people lined up.  They haven't been interviewing, there's not been a transition team that's done anything effectively.

I had a very close friend who was working in one of the administration departments.  They said they managed to never be at their desk when the transition team came through, but overheard rumblings of irritation and dissatisfaction with the people who's job it was to handoff the keys to the department, as it were.

Like it or not, politicians that come up through the ladder know this shit or they have people who know this shit b/c that's what politics is now.  It's a business like any other and leaders have people in mind with skill sets to do their bidding.  This is outrageously stupid and dangerous.