Have you ever moved? I would imagine that 100% of the people that are reading this have had to move at least once in their lives. I think that it can be universally accepted that moving is a giant pain in the ass. Even a “simple” move across town takes time, energy, effort, planning, at least one friend with a truck… it’s hard, yo.
I have moved a lot in my life. I was born in Houston, then moved to Longwood, FL, before moving again to Oviedo, FL. This was all between birth and 8 years old, so I don’t really remember the hassle of all of that. Since then, though, I have moved many, many times, including a big one in 2005 from Florida to Connecticut. Every time I moved there was a lot of planning, prep work, the actual logistics of a move, then dealing with all of the post-move unpacking and adjusting. It’s usually been an exciting time as well, as it reflected a “next chapter” of life. That said, I hate moving.
Now, imagine you are a USAID worker in Mozambique. Just three weeks ago you were perhaps relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe you were a bit nervous about what was to come with a new administration, but you likely we planning on a busy week at your job. Then, not even a week later, you start hearing the name of your employer all over the news. Seemingly from nowhere and without provocation, Elon Musk has apparently eliminated the agency you have dedicated your career to. In the midst of trying to figure out what the hell is going on, you are told that you are not to have any contact with, well, anyone, that you are under a gag order.
A couple days later, you get a directive from Washington D.C.: You are to stop work and come back to the United States. Immediately. The original order sent to all USAID employees serving overseas was to return to the United States by Friday. That directive was subsequently updated to place a deadline of March 9th for repatriation. Imagine having four weeks to plan a move halfway across the world, for you and your family, without knowing if you have a job? Without perhaps even knowing where to move to? Many foreign workers in the government have clauses in their employment contracts that provide housing if the employees need to return to the States in an emergency, but it is unclear if the government is going to honor those clauses.
The bull-in-a-China-shop method with which Elon Musk is attacking US agencies shows that he has no idea how the real world works. All of this is simply numbers on a page to him and his Lost Boys, they don’t grasp the real-world effects this is having on real, human people. I can’t imagine the stress that foreign USAID workers are going through right now. The folks in Congress who are supposed to be representing these employees are failing them by not ensuring that they are taken care of. As is often the case, people living and working in the DC bubble are doing things that have drastic effects on real people, and for what? To make a political point? The entire budget of USAID is less than 1% of the Federal Budget, so it’s not like eliminating the agency will advance Musk’s pledge of cutting $2 trillion from the budget. So, why the animosity? Why upend so many people’s lives on such short notice? Only Elon Musk can honestly answer that, but he won’t.
Moving and job insecurity are two of the largest stressors that any person can have to deal with. They are difficult issues when you have the ability to plan for them, so to have Musk drop this on these career servants is, well, bullshit.
Take care and stay strong.
I’m sure his animosity towards this particular organization stems from his South Afrikkkan roots.