More than 700 employees have left the EPA since Scott Pruitt took over.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Since Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt took over the top job at the agency in March, more than 700 employees have either retired, taken voluntary buyouts, or quit, signaling the second-highest exodus of employees from the agency in nearly a decade. 

According to agency documents and federal employment statistics, 770 EPA employees departed the agency between April and December, leaving employment levels close to Reagan-era levels of staffing. According to the EPA’s contingency shutdown plan for December, the agency currently has 14,449 employees on board — a marked change from the April contingency plan, which showed a staff of 15,219. 

“There has been a drop of employees of 770 between April and December. While several hundred of those are buyouts, the rest of those are either people that are retiring or quitting in disgust,” Kyla Bennett, director of New England Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), told ThinkProgress. “Is that number higher than it would normally be? I think it is.”

I imagine the number of exiting employees will only continue to grow. 

After all how many employees do you need at the Environmental Protection Agency if they have no intention of protecting the environment?

President Obama put a lot of effort into plans to protect this planet, so of course Donald Trump's focus is on undoing everything that he tried to accomplish even if it means the death of every creature in existence.

On his last day on the job employee of Twitter shuts down Donald Trump's account, becoming a national hero with the flick of a switch.

Uh guys? Did trump get kicked off of twitter? pic.twitter.com/4AXTqVLD7S

— 👻Imani Gandy👻 (@AngryBlackLady) November 2, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A few hours after President Donald Trump’s Twitter account went dark for a blissful 11 minutes, the company responded to the incident, claiming it was the result of human error on a customer service employee’s last day. 

“Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again,” the company wrote. “Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review.”

I have to admit that when I first heard about this in the comment section here on IM, I thought it was somebody pulling my chain.

But nope, some patriotic American actually did manage to shut the orange tinged shitgibbon up for eleven whole minutes.

Hell even his own Chief of Staff has never seemed to have managed that as effectively.

As you may imagine those who still had functioning Twitter accounts were quick to celebrate this hero.

🎊Twitter's Employee of the Month🎊#trumptwitter https://t.co/xDGwrVkhYt

— Gerard Henderson (@GerardHendersen) November 3, 2017

Just gonna say it, the employee at Twitter who shut off Trump's account for 11 mins could become a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

— David Jolly (@DavidJollyFL) November 3, 2017

Making a kickstarter to tear down a confederate monument and put up a statue of this ex Twitter employee https://t.co/X1Ajh67qD7

— Emily Kirkpatrick (@kirkpate) November 3, 2017

I think that last one is my favorite.

At the very least this person should never have to pay for drinks for the rest of his life. 

Employees at Fox News are embarrassed and humiliated by the cable network's coverage of the Robert Mueller investigation.

Courtesy of CNN:

Some employees at Fox News were left embarrassed and humiliated by their network's coverage of the latest revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, according to conversations CNN had with several individuals placed throughout the network. 

"I'm watching now and screaming," one Fox News personality said in a text message to CNN as the person watched their network's coverage. "I want to quit." 

"It is another blow to journalists at Fox who come in every day wanting to cover the news in a fair and objective way," one senior Fox News employee told CNN of their outlet's coverage, adding that there were "many eye rolls" in the newsroom over how the news was covered. 

The person said, "Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House." 

The employees spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. A Fox News spokesperson told CNN the network covered the breaking news accurately and fairly across both news and opinion programming.

The article goes on to  reveal that though Fox did cover the recent indictments they did not focus on them, and instead spent a lot of time on the NFL protests, North Korea, and Trump's tax plan, while also airing pieces that questioned Muller's credibility. 

My friend emailed me last night and insists that at least one of these nameless folks in the piece above is most likely Shep Smith, who must be constantly cursing under his breath all day long about now.

Fortunately for conservatives in "the bubble" this is coming from CNN so Donald Trump will just dismiss it as "fake news."

Bar owner has all of his employees quit after they learn he donated to David Duke's senate campaign.

David Duke wearing his party clothes.

Courtesy of CBS Minnesota:  

A Minneapolis bar owner who donated money to the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, is going to have to find new employees. 

Workers at Club Jager say they’re all quitting after Thursday night’s shift. About half the staff quit earlier this week when news broke that DeRoma donated $500 to David Duke’s senate campaign.

De Roma told WCCO his donation was “basically free speech.” He also called the controversy blown up beyond what it should be.

Yeah why can't a guy donate money to a former KKK leader's senate campaign without losing the respect of all of his employees?

It's almost like they do not realize this is Donald Trump's America now. 

The "Trump Effect" is negatively affecting employee morale and workplace cohesion, while also hurting productivity in corporate America.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Donald Trump’s abrasive style isn’t just making it hard to run the White House — it’s handicapping corporate America, as well. 

HR and leadership experts say a “Trump effect” has made a new norm of bad behavior, from dropping f-bombs to fudging details on resumes to spreading false rumors about co-workers, all of which stifles teamwork, dampens morale, and hurts productivity.

“It violates all the norms and the niceties of how one should behave,” said Gary Namie, director and co-founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute. “What it’s exposing is the very, very dark side of our society.” 

Career coaches report an increased willingness to engage in unethical behavior, like lying about past experience or performance in a job interview, or making a promise with no intention of keeping it. 

“It’s allowing individuals who may be on the fence when it comes to a moral compass to engage in bad behavior. It allows them to justify that behavior, it gives them an excuse,” said Roy Cohen, a career counselor and executive coach. “We expect people to take the high ground… that’s where the reversal seems to be happening. Bad behavior is almost a badge of honor,” he said.

The acrimony is fracturing workplace cohesion. According to an April survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 46 percent of workers said their relationships with colleagues have deteriorated since the election last November.

Oh so it is not only the racists and xenophobes who came out of the woodwork during the campaign and after the election, now it is also sexists, liars, and vulgarians.

Well I'm certainly tired of all this winning, how about the rest of you?

After election Trump businesses required employees to sign draconian confidentiality agreements or risk losing their jobs.

Courtesy of CBS News:

CBS News has obtained a new confidentiality agreement rolled out after the election. The Trump Organization is requiring employees at all levels to sign it, or else they will lose their jobs. 

Employees must agree to keep secret any information they learn about anyone in the "Trump family" and extended family, including their "present, former and future spouses, children, parents, in-laws." 

"I have reviewed confidentiality agreements in international, family-run hospitality organizations and... I have never seen a loyalty code to a family like this," said Debra Soltis, who has specialized in employment law for more than 25 years.

"This confidentiality agreement looks more like what you would expect to sign if you were a nanny to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children, where you were being brought into the home and exposed to private information," she said. 

Specifically off limits: "all political, legal, social, religious, health-related affairs, activities, views and/or opinions of any member of the Trump family... all photographs, movies, sketches, videos, sound or image recordings or likenesses of any member of the Trump family." 

The agreement lasts forever and is retroactive.

Not surprised by this at all, this family is terrified of having their private information leak out, because they know that some of their secrets could land them in prison.

I imagine that there is a similar agreement which members of Trump's cabinet and White House staff are also required to sign.

Really makes you wonder just how much dirt is out there, doesn't it?

Trump is having a hard time finding Republicans willing to jump onto his sinking ship.

Who wouldn't want to join my team? It's the best, most amazing team ever.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The array of legal and political threats hanging over the Trump presidency has compounded the White House’s struggles to fill out the top ranks of the government. 

Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey last month and the escalating probe into Russian interference in the presidential election have made hiring even more difficult, say former federal officials, party activists, lobbyists and candidates who Trump officials have tried to recruit. 

Republicans say they are turning down job offers to work for a chief executive whose volatile temperament makes them nervous. They are asking head-hunters if their reputations could suffer permanent damage, according to 27 people The Washington Post interviewed to assess what is becoming a debilitating factor in recruiting political appointees.

The hiring challenge complicates the already slow pace at which Trump is filling senior leadership jobs across government.

Of course the Administration is denying this report, because that is what they do.

Here is how Spicy responded:  

“I have people knocking down my door to talk to the presidential personnel office,” said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. “There is a huge demand to join this administration.”

Are those people "knocking down" the door the same people who said that Trump's inaugural numbers were the largest EVER, and that Trump is not being investigated by the Special Counsel I wonder?

Or is this a different group of imaginary people?

The facts really speak for themselves here:  

At this point, Trump has 43 confirmed appointees to senior posts, compared with the 151 top political appointees confirmed by mid-June in President Barack Obama’s first term and the 130 under President George W. Bush, according to data tracked by The Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition.

And it makes perfect sense. 

After all it is one thing to offer verbal support for a president whose presidency is going down in flames, and quite another to strap your career to it's side so that you both plummet to your mutual demise together.

Donald Trump wanted female employees fired if he considered them "not pretty enough."

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

After the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes opened for play in 2005, its world-famous owner didn’t stop by more than a few times a year to visit the course hugging the coast of the Pacific. 

When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired. 

"I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were 'not pretty enough' and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women,” Hayley Strozier, who was director of catering at the club until 2008, said in a sworn declaration. 

Initially, Trump gave this command “almost every time” he visited, Strozier said. Managers eventually changed employee schedules “so that the most attractive women were scheduled to work when Mr. Trump was scheduled to be at the club," she said. 

A similar story is told by former Trump employees in court documents filed in 2012 in a broad labor relations lawsuit brought against one of Trump’s development companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

I am really starting to think that it will be these stories which doom Trump's candidacy.

I know that there is this endless stream of scandals concerning Donald Trump, and the latest one today about illegal business deals with Cuba seems to have legs, but I just think that there are so many of those that after awhile it is all simply white noise to the American voter and that they become desensitized.

However EVERY working woman in this country has had a douchebag boss, or customer, or co-worker who treated them like a piece of meat or made them feel insecure about their looks.

They really cannot help but see Trump as the living embodiment of male oppression in the workplace.

And let's face it, without female voters you absolutely cannot win the White House.

So the more of these stories that come out and paint Trump as some sleazy philandering asshole, the more it will only help the campaign for the first female president of these United States.

I keep imagining women in polling booths all across this country yelling "Take that you chauvinistic son-of-a-bitch" as they cast their vote for Hillary Clinton.

The sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes just keep right on coming.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:

Limiting the damage to Ailes may prove difficult. Multiple sources told me that a number of women at Fox, who work both on camera and off, have experienced sexual harassment and are eager to talk about it with investigators. “Lots of other women want to come forward,” a Fox source briefed on the investigation told me. “They won’t talk to the press. They want to talk to the outside lawyer because that’s safe.” Gretchen Carlson, in her recent interview with the Times, also suggested that the harassment was widespread. 

 Meanwhile, the accusations against Ailes himself continue to pile up. According to sources I spoke with, at least three former Fox anchors have been harassed. One former rising star at the network has said that Ailes approached her during a barbecue at Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy’s house in New Jersey while she was bouncing on a trampoline with children and said, “Are you wearing any panties? I wish you weren't.” Another recently departed Fox host has claimed Ailes made her turn around in his office to show him her figure.

That's not even the worst of it.

There are a number of women who worked with Ailes decades ago, some in their sixties and even seventies now, who are accusing Ailes of inappropriate sexual behaviors.

That would help to establish the same kind of long term pattern of behavior that we have also identified with Bill Cosby, and give much credibility to Gretchen Carlson and the other women speaking out today.

President Obama to urge Congress to pass bill requiring companies to provide seven days of sick leave a year to their employees. Sweet!

Courtesy of USA Today:  

President Obama will call on Congress to require companies to give workers up to seven days of paid sick leave a year, a senior adviser said Wednesday. 

Obama will also take executive action to give at least six weeks of paid leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child, Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett said. 

And Obama wants Congress to spend $2.2 billion to help states and cities develop paid family leave programs.

Damn that's awesome. As somebody who has worked for a number of companies that were very stingy with paid leave I would have seen this as a godsend.

Is it any wonder that the President's approval ratings are on the rise?

Oh yeah, this man is definitely going to be seen as one of the greatest presidents in history.

Count on it.

Employer healthcare cost increases at fifteen year low. Cause cited is Obamacare.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

U.S. employers this year face their “smallest increases in health care costs in 15 years,” according to a new survey showing the latest evidence of health inflation slowing. 

Towers Watson (TW), an employee benefits consulting firm and the National Business Group on Health, an association of large employers, said the cost of providing employer-sponsored benefits will rise 4.4 percent this year. Employer costs, which were $9,157 last year, are projected to rise to $9,560 in 2014. 

The trend comes as employers move to higher deductible health care plans that make workers think twice about choosing expensive tests and procedures, forcing employees to become better health care shoppers. Employers are also installing additional new strategies to encourage wellness activities such as financial incentives to stop smoking. 

“To find more effective ways to manage health costs, many employers are focusing on reshaping their health strategy for the next three to five years,” said Towers Watson senior health care consultant Ron Fontanetta of the survey of 595 large U.S. employers that have more than 11 million full-time workers, including 7.8 million enrolled in health benefits. 

Most respondents to the survey are “recalibrating their health strategy” with 18 percent having either adopted a new strategy or updated an existing one, the Towers Watson executive summary of the report said. Another 57 percent of respondents are “in process,” the summary added. 

Two in five respondents cite the Affordable Care Act as the primary driver of their health care strategy. 

Still, the survey shows little evidence that these large employers will drop coverage for their workers and send employees to the public exchanges under the health law to buy insurance. The vast majority, or 95 percent, of respondents said subsidizing health care coverage is a “very important” part of their benefits packages for active employees.

So to sum up, employer health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifteen years, employees are becoming better health care shoppers and making better choices concerning their health, and despite Republican propaganda employers have no intention of dropping employee health care plans.

And don't forget, this is being reported in Forbes Magazine, which is not exactly known for their cheerleading on behalf of Obamacare.

Time for your checkup Mr. President.

McDonald's employee resource site gives advice against eating their food. Awkward!

Courtesy of CNN: 

It seems that McDonald's has finally realized how tone-deaf its internal employee resource website was. It has shut it down. 

The final straw? A tip on the site to employees to avoid McDonald's fare. 

A graphic on the site shows a meal with a cheeseburger, fries and drink under the caption "Unhealthy choice." Next to it is a picture of a sub, a salad and water under the caption "Healthier choice." 

The fast food giant found itself again having to deflect unwanted attention from its internal site this week after CNBC reported that McResource ostensibly advises McDonald's employees to not eat at McDonald's. 

"Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced, and readily available alternatives to home cooking. While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight." 

Visitors to McResource Line on Wednesday were greeted with this statement: "We are temporarily performing some maintenance in order to provide you with the best experience possible. Please excuse us while these upgrades are being made." 

McDonald's confirmed the site had been taken down in a statement posted on its website. "A combination of factors has led us to re-evaluate and we've directed the vendor to take down the website. Between links to irrelevant or outdated information, along with outside groups taking elements out of context, this created unwarranted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary. None of this helps our McDonald's team members."

You know I am not actually a believer in karma per se, but you have to admit that this is pretty awesome.

You may also remember that in the recent past McDonald's gave employees economic advice that suggested they get a second job in order to make ends meet, or return purchases.

Rather than pay their employees a living wage McDonald's suggests employees trying to stay out of debt pack a sack lunch and sell unwanted possessions on eBay. McPerfect!

Courtesy of NBC News:

McDonald’s is once again getting grilled over its employee advice, this time suggesting ways to get out of holiday debt that include returning unopened purchases and bringing a sack lunch. 

The criticism comes months after it took heat over an employee budget guide that included no money for heat and $20 a month for health care. 

The labor advocacy group Low Pay Is Not OK is lambasting McDonald’s for articles on an employee website that suggest workers visit thrift stores instead of the mall, use stale bread and bruised apples rather than throwing them out, and “quit complaining” as a way to reduce stress. And to pay off holiday debt, it suggested returning purchases. 

“On a short term basis, do whatever it takes to dig out from your holiday debt,” said one article on the McResource Line website, a screen grab of which was provided by Low Pay Is Not OK. 

“You may want to consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did. Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash," it continued. “Consider bringing a brown bag lunch and skipping the takeout …. You might also consider a temporary part time job to dig out of debt quickly.” 

The article appeared to have been removed from the site by midday Thursday. 

McDonald’s did not return multiple calls for comment. A company spokeswoman, in a statement emailed to CNBC, said Low Pay Is Not OK’s video about the website took the advice out of context and characterized the campaign as “an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website.”

Yes they are only trying to McHelp without having to McPay more.

After all how do you post profits of over five billion dollars annually if you are paying your workers enough to live on?

By the way I completely stopped going to McDonald's several months ago and have no intention of ever going back. Not only is their McFood poisonous, but they are also cheap bastards more interested in turning a profit than in paying their employees,

Kind of reminds me of Wal-Mart who held a food drive asking their employees to donate food to help feed their fellow employees who are not paid enough to feed themselves.

Yet another place that I refuse to shop at any more.

Another anti-Obamacare myth bites the dust.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

For those committed to destroying the Affordable Care act by any means possible, who can blame them for seeking to misdirect based on using only a small part of the data as it pertains to employment when telling the full story blows up the entire meme? Such a claim is, after all, ear candy for an audience looking for any reason to hate the law, even if they don’t quite know why they so are so displeased. 

The problem, however, is that this popular line of attack comes with a rather significant flaw—the claim is provably false. 

A more careful review of the latest BLS jobs report out last week—a review in which the anti-Obamacare forces do not want you to engage in—reveals that while we do, indeed, currently have 27 million part-time workers in the economy, only 8 million of these people are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job. 

That means that 19 million Americans are working part-time because that is all the work they desire to have. 

What’s more, not only does the September jobs report reveal that the number of part-timers wishing for full-time work showed no increase when compared to the previous month’s numbers, the report provides a piece of data far more important— 

In September of 2012, the number of part-timers seeking full-time work comprised 6 percent of the workforce. One year later, the September jobs report reveals that the number has shrunk to 5.5 percent.

This idea that the Affordable Care Act is inspiring employers to hire part time workers over full time workers is one of the major talking points. So recognizing that it is based on a misrepresentation of the facts is something that EVERY mainstream journalist should do but doesn't.

These GOP "facts" require darkness and loads of bullshit to grow, the best way to fight them is to shine a light on them and watch them wither away.