View allAll Photos Tagged workload

Work keeps me from getting out in the woods and meadows, and this summer was the heaviest workload in a long while. As a result I had to be a lot more deliberate about where I went and when on the few occasions I was in Ottawa with some downtime.

 

One of my goals was to find and photograph some more dragonfly species. Some of these I have already posted and others will come over the fall.

 

This was one of my favourites. Most people in the northern part of the US and in Canada would recognize the Autumn Meadowhawk as a fairly common species, often the last one flying in the late fall (I saw one on the weekend in Toronto). But it’s closely related and less common species is the Band-winged, hard to distinguish except for the fact that its rear wing has a broad amber patch.

 

It behaves, eats, and reproduces in ways well-known to those interested in Meadowhawks. It is found in the places where meadows and wetlands abut - not as common a type of location as it might seem. But that amber band is very striking in the field.

 

And ten points for the bonus insect!

15th June 2017 - McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II '01512' of the Hellenic Air Force's 338 Squadron taxi's back after a sortie.

 

You can see the spotters enclosure in the background. Every congratulations must be extended to all the pilots based at Florennes, as it was them that organised the spotters day in their own time and after their hefty workload as participants and hosts of the 2 week exercise..

 

#SmileOnSaturday - Theme of September 1st, 2018: Thread

 

I am late this time - due to heavy workload this week

 

Nonetheless - or better: for exactly this reason: Happy Smile on Saturday / on the weekend : ))

 

********************

 

Smile on Saturday - Thema am 1. September 2018: Faden / Garn

Here is a shot from yesterday morning's outing on the UP Kansas Sub.

 

Surprisingly, there was no parking lot like usual. I ended up shooting two more, but I'll post later due to my college workload.

A days labour of love workload.

The official takeover date was somewhat around March 1st for CN. Now this week, things are slowly starting to take off, and organization is beginning.

 

I saw the Manly to Butler was southbound out of Manly after midnight. I hope with a workload the job will see sunrise up north. That wasn't the case, as the job made good time after their CP work was done at Nora Springs and got to Butler at sunrise. Here they roll into Butler, done for the day. These jobs all changed at the end of March.

Finally I managed to escape workload and procrastinate a little while taking time out with my cameras! It felt very good! :)

The Cedar Rapids to Waterloo (Bryant Yard) train on the former Rock Island RR main that was once an integral part of a Chicago to Twin Cities route. Normally a nighttime run through here, on account of workload and winter weather they were running late and needed a relief crew on this day.

Nikon D850

Sigma 50MM 1.4 Art

Lee Soft GND 1.2

Lee Soft GND 0.75

Lee Square Circular Polarizer

 

3:1 Panoramic image with 13 vertical images stitched together in PTGui.

 

Ok, this might sound like a broken record. But this is definitely the time I wait for the whole year. Autumn is by far my favorite season in Switzerland. It is extremely short. May 2 weeks, but the nature kind of take the time to put all kind of makeups it can have. This is when you would get the snow, the fall color, amazing cloud formation means beautiful sunset and sunrise. Overall an experience that makes me feel more amazed than any other time. And what could be better place to enjoy the autumn than the magical Engadin? Yes, to me that is also the best place in Switzerland to enjoy the beauty of autumn with Zermall region being close second!

 

With the workload and some other personal reason, I am not sure how much I can really enjoy autumn this year. But every time I see these images, a sweet smile comes to my face. What an experience to smell those fresh snow, hear the crumbling of those freshly fallen leaves and the beauty of those colorful golden mountains. It is an experience I will never be able to explain with my words or images. I can only feel it for the rest of my life.

 

Click here to see the short film documenting the beauty of the region as I have experienced it. Please have a look and you may like it.

 

Please have a look at my website www.avisekhphotography.com for all my recent works.

 

Have a nice weekend.

 

Hope you will enjoy the picture.

 

Any suggestions or criticisms are always welcome.

© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.

 

See my shots on flickrriver:

www.flickrriver.com/photos/mimbrava/

(For months I have not been able to get hot links to work properly in captions or comments.)

 

I’m not back, not just because of the Flickr Contacts problem (http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/63201/) but because, once again, I have a huge workload that demands my attention. But it’s my birthday today, and this is one of my favorite shots that I turned into a Dictionary of Image photo, so I’m giving it to myself, and to my Flickr friends, as a present.

 

Just out of curiosity, when you comment, I would very much appreciate it if you tell me if you came here because you saw this on your Contacts page, through a comment or in a pool. Thanks very much.

 

It is Bine's birthday, too, so please go wish her all the best:

www.flickr.com/photos/buntekuh/

 

Please look at these lovely gifts from my dear friends:

Eric (whose birthday is today too!): flickr.com/photos/rickarr/2200119709/

Jan: www.flickr.com/photos/janoid/2200001562/

Jude: www.flickr.com/photos/meskill/2198921181/

June: www.flickr.com/photos/74244073@N00/2200946424/

Kelly: www.flickr.com/photos/alight/2194915836/

Lucy: www.flickr.com/photos/mslume/2198899429/

Lydia: www.flickr.com/photos/dotlyc/2199608946/

Marianne: www.flickr.com/photos/bush/2199193711/

Rainey: www.flickr.com/photos/raineys/2200401819/

Steve: www.flickr.com/photos/sugarbearsteve/

Trish: www.flickr.com/photos/66179962@N00/2199201725/

Tio: www.flickr.com/photos/pjmcadie/2198836135/

 

There are big castles ahead, but they are not wholly impenetrable.

 

Dear All - I am sorry for being extremely elusive on flickr.

 

Over the past few months I have been working towards retiring from my current work after 30 years. However "work" has not been plain sailing, and as it has been based on other peoples' misfortunes - this year there have a been a lot of misfortunes, "on my shift", leading to a biased work load towards me. I can tell you it is simply fate and nothing more than that. Last year my time at work was relatively quiet with a different colleague suffering a high workload.

 

And with one last holiday to take, I finish work and that evening find my mother passed away at home from a sudden fatal heart event.

 

You must all forgive me for putting the camera and photography on the back burner for some time.

 

In the next couple of weeks I will be retiring officially and may slowly begin to revisit one of the three hobbies that I really enjoy, (the other's have been in the refridgerator for years pending retiring).

 

Here's one to keep you going and hope to be back a little more frequently, soon.

 

Regards

 

Iain

 

Engineer C. R. Petersen and Conductor M. A. Spade are arriving Janesville's west yard limits wrapping up the work of a tardy L355 as the Y301 crew for the day. Certainly not the extra workload you'd want to have kick your day off on top of switching the T001 and any other BS they can find for you on a Monday morning, but this was a priority to get the Chicago bound tanks and return mash in position for T002 to grab coming through town. Mr. Spade appears to greet us, probably mocking us for caring to aim the camera at the former C&O 7519 which probably smells like a rancid rolling port-o-potty on a sweltering hot August morning.

Those low sun angles and an early departure from Loogootee made for a challenge to shoot from the U.S. Highway 50 overpass east of town.

This is a repositioning move of grain hoppers in storage, something not typically on local J780's workload. The crew had travelled west from Mitchell, their normal turning point, the day before. On duty at 0730, they departed Loogootee siding at 0845.

Looking at schedules for B&O trains from 1972, this eastbound could have almost passed for train 88 from St. Louis or an early running CI98, but given that it's a CSX local job, the schedule best fits SWSS, the "Southwestern Switcher" which departed Washington, 20 miles west at 0830.

This was a most enjoyable chase, especially given the fact that a train hadn't used the main here in three years.

There is always wonderful characters visiting Helmsley on Market days

Visibility was reduced this week, and the surge made macro shooting a challenge, but I embraced the workload and came home with some decent slug shots.

View On Black

 

Similar shot from my previous upload, I process this last year. I am quite exhausted for the workload this week. Hope you guys are doing well!!!

A quick getaway from the workload and evergoing kitchen renovations found us in beautiful, historic Québec City. A bonafide UNESCO World Heritage Site, Québec was founded by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and diplomat, on 3 July 1608, and at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona. Champlain, also called "The Father of New France", served as its administrator for the rest of his life.

 

This area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the "Historic District of Old Québec".

Today I will answer the most popular questions. And if you do not find your question in the list, write in the comments 💬 I will be happy to answer everyone.

Where is the best place to hold a photo shoot?

Places for a photo shoot are always discussed and selected exclusively from your wishes. For bad weather, you can always use a photo studio.

Do you

give clothes for a photo shoot?

I do not provide clothing, but I can help you choose the necessary option.

We are not models, do you help on the shoot?

Of course😉. I always tell you how best to put your foot, hand, and where to look after all. You don't have to worry. The main task for you is to relax, and I will also help you with this.

When will we get our photos?

It all depends on the workload of me, the photographer. But usually I always say срок when the photos are ready.

 

#Sky #Streetlight #Temple #Streetfashion #Travel #Jacket #Tree #City #Fun #Leisure #NikonD4

The Cedar Rapids to Waterloo (Bryant Yard) train on the former Rock Island RR main that was once an integral part of a Chicago to Twin Cities route - hence the multi-cross armed code line poles. Account workload and winter weather they were running late and needed a relief crew on this day.

While I cannot officially confirm, a locomotive laid up bad order disappearing out of the computer system is not a great sign... especially after being seen placed on the very same track 3 SD45's were cut up months earlier...If the #127 was indeed cut up, besides being a preservation travesty, it will have at least put on a good show in its last year. Sent to Logan during an ill fated trial to see if two GP9's could handle the workload (they couldn't), it was a fun period seeing these units getting to stretch their legs after being largely confined to Billings for many years. Seen here with a big (for the branch) train headed to Harrison, running long hood forward as the Great Northern intended when they bought it for passenger service in 1954.

I've had a hectic few weeks of event photography in various parts of the country, and managed to grab some time one evening for some landscape photography. I decided to drive over to Arnside on the Morecambe Bay estuary, and felt I was very lucky to capture this image having not checked the tide times or weather forecast. Sorry I've not been commenting on uploads recently, workload has been pretty manic !!! Have a great weekend.

Niagara Yard's Saturday extra U035 blasts through a mighty snowdrift at Comstock Rd near Lockport, heading back to the Falls with a handful of hot cars from the prior day's Falls Road Railroad run.

 

While regular old L035 runs weekday evenings, U035 gets called as an extra just about every weekend now. It started back in 2023 when a new CO² transload popped up in Medina, NY on the Falls Road. The tank cars, once loaded, demand fast freight service and an immediate ticket out of town, necessitating CSX running an extra trip out to Lockport every week. Up till this business arose, normal fare was the twice a week Tu/Th interchange. However, Falls Road runs their road trains Wed/Fri, the mornings after CSX delivers, thus if not expedited those tank cars were sitting the whole weekend and another weekday till the local crew gets back out there. The result was an unhappy Falls Road, and unhappy recipient. Supposedly the cars go down to a Pepsi bottling/canning plant in New Jersey, whereby the tank cars carry the carbonation factor for my father's favorite brand of pop. Initially they were making L035 take the extra trip on Fridays, either before or after their normally scheduled customer work in the Tonawandas depending on the workload. But some weeks the crews would simply spend all their time switching the customers till it was too late to run to Lockport, resulting in angry trainmasters and shortlines alike. At the same time in 2023, L035 was also on duty at 1800, an hour I considered to be late at the time till I shot L355 this summer. Talk about putting things in perspective. I wasn't the only one who thought that was late though, as crews regularly marked off of the job, leaving spots vacant and laying the job in quite a lot of nights that year. The most common day L035 didn't run? Fridays. And so the Saturday extra started gaining traction as a regular move, not just for Lockport but to switch the customers neglected from the weekday absences also. On a handful of occasions, the Buffalo to Niagara transfer L032 even made the jaunt light power out to Lockport on Friday or Saturday evenings if they couldn't find a crew for L/U035. That stopped when the trainmasters refused to pay out the penalty days for L032 since Lockport isn't part of the job's territory.

 

By summer of 2024, the Tropicana traffic had started populating the area, which gave even more reason to keep the U035s they were already running to make up for other missed work. In the middle of the summer, the trainmasters finally conceded and let L035 go back to its original 1600 start time, no longer needing U035s to switch customers with crews actually wanting to work L035 again. Now that the Tropicana traffic was on the rise though, there were two points of hot traffic to pull out of Lockport: loaded CO² tank cars, and empty Tropicana reefers. I originally thought it was the inbound loads which dictated the extra schedule, but in reality it's actually more important that the empties get moving back to Florida quickly so they can be re-loaded. And so U035 has been kept on the docket as the easiest means of getting those hot cars where they need to go.

 

WNY saw a lot of snow this past winter. More consistent than any of the previous years. 2022 was the last big year for snowfall, both early in the year and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas storms later on. Given the recent yearly trends this upcoming winter might not deliver what we're used to. But then again it's Buffalo, so you never really know. While all the crossings had been cleared by the eastbound trip out to Lockport a few hours before, I just happened to choose Comstock Rd as my first shot chasing back west. The bitterly cold wind gusts which were in abundance that day had pushed a lot more snow back into the tracks. I had to high-step my way through it all into the field adjacent to the line, and quickly as my dudes Nick the Dick and Caged Lion were closing in on my location. (Niagara is a yard for colorful nicknames.) I planted my feet in the knee deep snowbank and braced for any errant flakes which might scatter in my direction. After struggling to find snowburst shot opportunities like this the last few years, 2025 delivered quite a few for me to rake in with ease, notwithstanding the otherwise bone-chilling temps. Ironically, the 2008 in this photo is still leading the northtowns locals all these months later. Those dash three varieties are good for 180 days at a time. Normally the crews can't stand them, but this one runs well and most importantly is without an inward facing camera. When you know you crews and the crews know you, there's shenanigans to be had.

The brakeman on the Aberdeen Turn leans against a loaded BRIX covered hopper as the head-end approaches with the rear of their train from the CSX interchange. To shore up space and make the 4% grade, the crew had switched a plastics customer and dumped this cut of loaded grain cars on the siding here a few hours earlier. At the time, the conductor told us their workload might preclude any further chasing, but they got on the move in time for a few memorable run-pasts in screaming light with the power maxed-out. Over the years, my friend Stan Short and I have had some good fortune reward our patience at the end of the day. By the time this train continued west with a fresh crew, we were enjoying steaks with friend John Turner.

… of the Forth Rail Bridge, Inchgarvie Island beneath.

 

I'm not altogether happy with this one however, considering the workload with an ever changing perspective and light coupled with the choppy waters tossing the boat about beneath me, I'm pleased enough.

The image looked OK in colour however I prefer the more stark feel of the mono conversion.

H31 has a small workload on this Sunday as they head east to work one last customer before returning to Reading. NS 3001 trails in the push-pull configuration. This particular Geep is on true home rails, as it was originally built in December 1973 as RDG 3674. After service with three different railroads over nearly 50 years, this GP40-2 is still earning its keep.

Fresh snow (since Saturday, September 2) on the Pre-Alps and Alps. In January I made the decision to work slightly less than 2/3 of the defined normal workload, starting August. This is the first photo to celebrate that: on most mornings I can now choose (more freely anyway) where to be for sunrise at this time of the year. The exif info lies by one hour. The fog was rising fast; the later photos taken with more suitable settings did not please my eye as much as this first shot. Minor editing in iPhoto.

Having a couple of work appointments up in the Highlands in the week I couldn't resist a detour to Glencoe to see what it looked like with its winter overcoat on. A really worthwhile exercise that entailed a couple of late nights to catch up the workload that had accrued.

 

Wading through the snow and over the icy rockery with a work suit and smart shoes wasn't easy or sensible.

A recent increase in workload for DCR saw 56091 summoned to work the company's sand empties to Middleton Towers on 20th November, deputising for the usual class 60. After returning north with the loaded train to Ravenhead the following day, 56091 'Driver Wayne Gaskell' is seen at Willington on 22nd November 2021 with the 4Z19 empties returning to Derby Chaddesden Sidings from Ravenhead.

C&BL 111 shoves a single gondola towards the NS interchange at Woodvale near CP C on the east end of Johnstown, PA. The crew's task for the day was to shove this one hopper from Gautier Steel to the interchange. From start to finish, they worked for roughly one hour. Honestly, i'm slightly jealous of them.

Two miles below the Montana border, the tiny town of Frannie, WY hosts a small railyard. At the very northern edge of the Bighorn Basin, Frannie is where the Burlington Railroad's line to Cody breaks off from the mainline (built a few years after the line to Cody) to Greybull and Casper, WY.

 

In April 2020, the largest customer on the branch to Cody closed down, and the regular job based out of Cody was abolished. The remaining, much smaller, customers of the Cody branch were added to the workload of a Greybull based local. However, in late April of 2021 the Cody-based R-PWR8162 was reinstated as traffic on the branch is regular enough to warrant it (plus I'm sure having to recrew the train from Greybull every night got old real fast).

 

Here the Cody Local is shoving a cut of cars from Montana Limestone into a clear track for pickup by a road train.

 

Frannie, WY

May 27th, 2021

The diorama I'm introducing today is based on the Battle of Carentan, which took place during WW2 as part of the Normandy landings in France.

 

I wanted to try a different approach from my previous works and give every structure its own character, like the unique way of designing the windows. I took a lot of inspiration from the work of other creators to make that happen.

 

Originally, I planned to include custom figs such as TMC, but for this project, I wanted a different feel. So unlike my past works, this dorama was built using only official LEGO parts, like US ARMY fig with Indiana-jones torso.

 

*Hope eveyone's been having a great end of the year. I haven't been able to post on the flickr as often lately, though. Things got pretty bussy again - I was preparing for an exam, and on top of that, the workload in the ARMY has been fairly intense. Because of that, it was hard to find the mental space to focus on much else.

After several months of sporadic building, I’ve finally finished my Battlefront 2-inspired project set on Naboo.

 

When starting work on this I thought I’d be able to get it up on Flickr within several weeks if I committed to enough building time, however by late July I realised that it was going to be a while before it was done. With term starting up in September, I decided to go all-out and give myself until before term started to finish the build.

 

This will probably be my last post for the foreseeable future, with workload set to take up numerous hours, but I’m glad that I’ve ended with something I’m happy with.

Former Pittsburgh Power and Light Vulcan 65 Tonner now working at the Williams Grove RR. #52 was sitting the week out as PRR #643 handled the workload.

The keeper’s duplex stands seventy-three feet west of the Grosse Point Lighthouse tower, and had seven rooms in each of its two apartments. The head keeper resided in the south side of the duplex, while the first assistant was given four rooms in the other side, and the second assistant the remaining three rooms. The station originally had just one assistant, but a second was added in 1880 to help with the extra workload caused by the new fog signal.

I have been away on a business trip for a couple days to S:t Petersburg, Russia. Didn't have much time to shot and the weather was pretty bad but managed to get this shot from the Palace square and the Alexander column.

 

Mostly offline for the moment because of a heavy workload :(

A finished commission piece. Commissions can sometimes take me forever. The reason for this is that they are given to me with a "whenever" deadline. I guess I work better with deadlines to help me manage my workload! 8.5" diameter acrylic on panel.

The Cedar Rapids to Waterloo (Bryant Yard) train on the former Rock Island RR main that was once an integral part of a Chicago to Twin Cities route. Account workload and winter weather they were running late and needed a relief crew on this day. Here the crew is spotting empty hoppers for grain loading at Washburn.

This is the closest to the deadline that I've taken my Macro Monday pic. Late last week, I resolved myself that I wouldn't submit a photo this week due to hectic workload and travel over the weekend. However, the Macro Monday bug has official bit me and I couldn't let a Monday pass without uploading something. Though it was done hastily, still fairly pleased with result.

 

HMM all!

From what was once a world untouched had only now been truly discovered.

 

With a new year comes change which in some cases we see coming and other cases we don't - it's unexpected. Nonetheless, we have no choice but to adapt, move forward and cope with it as best we can.

 

Today we brought home our new puppy, Lucy. Losing both Max & Cinta in 2014 really hit home and our family hasn't felt the same since. I still wake up every day, expecting to see their beautiful faces when I go to open the back door. Whilst they can never, ever be replaced, I look forward to the next chapter with our new little family member.

 

This is also my last year of university. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Even though I do complain about the workload and the time it takes up, I have this mindset that I'm not ready. Knowing that I'll be a certified teacher by the end of the year scares me - being an adult scares me.

 

I'm sure, like with any year, they'll be more changes that will come along - some positive....some negative. Even though we're all on different paths, change is a common familiarity amongst everyone and it's something we can't avoid. Although, with all that said, right now the weather is warm, I'm relaxed and enjoying spending time with my family. I'm off until March and I intend to make the most of it. I must say, it really feels good to be shooting again.

 

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Digging op ancient usernames and passwords for sites I have been visiting daily for years.

 

Trying to remember what I did 7 years ago to set up a program like this or like that.

Still not finished, Olympus Viewer keeps hiding my images when I try to upload them into the computer, no idea how I managed to get that automated...).

 

Trying to remember the name of a program that did its work rather silently in the background whenever I loaded raw files (Adobe DNG converter, found it!).

 

Re-inventing macro's in Word I have been using for so long I do not even remember the original commands,

 

A new mail program, that seems to be determined to triple my workload when checking mail.

 

And of course a new version of Windows, what fun!

WHO MOVED THE CHEESE!

Built-in the Swindon works 1960

Owned by the West Somerset Railways. This class of shunter along with Planet Locomotives were were part of my workload as an engineer back in the late seventies.

Having to find a plan B after SFG took a last minute day off, thanks to shortline's unpredictable kind of operation, I made the almost two hours drive to New-Brunswick beautiful east coast in order to capture Campbellton-based job 564, hoping to catch it on it's return trip over the scenic Newcastle subdivision.

A quick check at his workload for the day tells me they only need to make it down to Irvco that day, in order to satisfy the never ending appetite of the Chaleur Bay sawmill for center-beam railroad cars.

A former DT&I engine team up with a former Seaboard Coast Line sister to power up the day's edition of L564. 16 loads are in the process of being pulled onto the mainline with 18 empties already sits just west of switch CB51, waiting their turn to be loaded with freshly cut lumber.

 

Sadly, the wall of clouds in background will hit me and my Nikon in an hour or so.

 

CN L56411-04

GTW 6226 CN 4912

Milepost 133.2 Newcastle subdivision

Belledune, NB

October 04th 2023

A remake of an earlier post:)

I am in sort of a dreamscape mood and experimenting mood at the moment:)) Lol

i will return to the more natural looks:)

But i try and try different things:))

This picture has been a personal favorite of mine since i took it:)

 

Hope you like it:)

 

Thanks alot for stopping by commenting and faving my work:) I have a big workload at work at the moment and i won't be much online until next week, sorry for not commenting:)

 

and hey, i might buy a new camera!! anything will be a big upgrade from my 6.1mp nikon d40:))) i might leave nikon and go for canon eos 5d markii? or nikon d700? or nikon d300? man i don't know what to do? and watching the perfomances on flickr of them all it can go either way? hmmmmmmmmmm

inputs are always welcome:)

 

Take care everyone:)

Fast food restaurant means being served quickly but also high workloads for workers...

* * *

Restaurant fast food veut dire être servi rapidement mais aussi cadences élevées pour les travailleurs…

I am really struggling to keep up this week with a very busy workload consuming my time, so apologies for being slow to get around to your streams. Couldn't resist a fence Friday though and the opportunity to wish you all a HFF and great weekend ahead!

... than for me to be able to thread that needle ;-)

 

I hadn't intended doing Macro Mondays this week due to a heavy workload but I was watching my husband taking in a new pair of shorts at the waist when the idea came to me. I confess that it was he who threaded the needle for me to take this shot but with camera on tripod I managed this - for the theme of 'Hand Tools ' Oh and silvery bokeh is a thimble.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle

I wanted to take a couple of days to distance myself from what happened before posting about it, so that I may speak from a place of reflection instead of emotion. Those who know me know that I am not a particularly political person. I see merits and flaws to both major parties. This post is not an attack on conservative/republican values, nor is it an attack on those who voted for the current administration. I understand and appreciate that everyone has deeply personal reasons for voting the way they do, and not everyone thinks alike. That said, I would like to speak from personal experience about some concerning things that are happening at the behest of two billionaires.

 

I lost my job on Friday. I was a high level biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 10 days from completing my probationary period. I left a very stable job that I absolutely loved last February because I thought that I could better serve my nation and the natural resources that I hold so dear through employment with the federal government. In my position I did not stand in the way of development and progress. I worked hard to ensure that our nation could continue to prosper, and so that some of our most imperiled species would have a place in its future. For a month before being terminated I was demonized, vilified, and subjected to psychological torture. I was referred to as a "blood sucking parasite" and a member of the "unelected bureaucracy" that "has more power than the other branches". I was sent a multitude of e-mails from upper administration with condescending, ominous tones. I watched the news as speculation abound, and those those in power spoke of "transparency", none was afforded to us. After a litany of memos and e-mails, many speaking to or of probationary employees, I endured many sleepless nights, and constant stress or worry that I would lose my job, and my benefits. As the sole breadwinner of a family with a small child, this terrified me.

 

Then, on Friday I was invited to a call with all probationary employees. I was informed that I would be terminated at the end of the day and would lose access to our systems shortly thereafter. I had a performance review of "exceeds expectations" and won a performance award last year. I had a huge workload including numerous in flight projects, and was simply cutoff without any opportunity to transition these. In doing so, both my colleagues at the Service, other federal agencies I was working with, and private industries I was working with will experience setbacks. Fortunately I did not have to move cross country or endure any other major life change for this position, and therefore have it much better than many others who left everything behind. Some were living in government housing which they had to vacate within a matter of days.

 

I would like to remind everyone that we are Americans, just the same as anyone else. I would also like to say that it's ok to support a political party and still demand answers and accountability when they do something wrong. The desire to make the government less expensive and more efficient is understandable, but in my opinion the lack of decency with which we were treated is not in line with the moral code that I know many conservatives follow. I implore everyone to consider that, if they can do this to thousands of probationary employees, many of which voted for the current administration, and continue to terrorize millions of other Americans in the federal work force, it's not a stretch to think that your own families can be impacted in some way. Please pay attention to what's happening and seek factual, unbiased accounts of it.

 

This image is of a Lousiana pine snake (Pituophis ruthveni), one of the species I was working with. It is largely considered to be one of, if not the rarest snake in the country. I was working with a number of partners to pave the way for reintroductions of this species into Texas, which I hoped would lead to the species' recovery and eventual removal from the list of federally threatened and endangered species. I will continue to support conservation in any way that I can. Thanks everyone for your time this morning, and I wish you all the best.

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