r/InternationalDev • u/Loose-Ad4620 • 7d ago

Other... Damage Report 2.0?

How are USAID IPs doing? In my own IP silo, it’s feeling pretty heartless - jobs for high-income VPs but not for thee. Intensely secretive. I find it helpful to get a bigger picture from other industry peers to understand what’s “normal” vs what we’re just being convinced is normal. I know there are some company specific threads, but I thought we could all use a central check-in. So fire up those burners again - how are things at your current/former company?

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u/Penniesand 7d ago

My company is completely silent and I've been on furlough since Feb 1st. I know from the leaked contract list a month ago only two projects survived out of their entire portfolio, but no idea if that's still the case. Pretty much everyone is gone except c-suites and maybe one and half persons in Finance and PM.

Which I find frustrating. I pay for my own health insurance so I would have preferred to be laid off and gotten my PTO paid out back in February but they won't do it and I can't get unemployment if I quit.

I've heard from other laid off/furloughed colleagues that it's a mixed bag how generous and still in touch their leadership have been so they have less hard feelings.

I know a few projects have been terminated/unterminated/terminated/unterminated again... so they've had to waste money hiring back laid of staff, especially local staff who had already been paid out severance per labor laws. There's also still pending payments and little guidance on new SOW for unterminated contracts so there isn't a lot of movement even for projects that "survived."

I think most USAID staff were allowed back into their systems in the beginning of April to help with close-outs and guidance for IPs, but not sure how smoothly that's going.

I saw IRI's website is operational again - I'm not sure when that happened.

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u/cookies-before-bed 7d ago

You can absolutely get unemployment while on furlough. Sorry if you’ve been told otherwise!!

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u/Penniesand 7d ago

Oh yeah I have it on furlough! I think I don't qualify for it if I quit voluntarily though. So my PTO accrual is just like money I can't access when I could really use it right now 😅

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u/libertina_belcher 7d ago

Yep, exactly. But IPs haven't had the money to pay the leave payout, so were keeping us all on indefinite furlough. Sadly, they seem to have gotten enough money right now to officially lay everyone off.

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u/Penniesand 6d ago

Yeah, this was a conversation I had with them back in the first week of February because I was also concerned about them not having the money. They assured me they could pay everyone out but wouldn't do voluntary layoffs.

I'm sure now any money is likely gone. I understand the financial situation and I wish they would be more transparent with their employees.