Keith’s note: Janet Petro is a master in the art of not reading the room. Massive budget cuts, draconian personal layoffs, well-liked Administrator nominee bounced for intra-White House political food fights – and yet its all ‘Don’t Worry – Be Happy’ from the 9th floor. Embrace The Challenge y’all.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
Janet, I’m ready to get it over with. How about “Embrace the VERA?”
She’d be much better off if she simply didn’t send anything out rather than THIS. Sheesh….
I don’t really see the problem (other than “Embrace the challenge”, which has always been ridiculously tone deaf) .
It’s not like there’s anything she could say in an email to change things, and people would give her more flak for not saying anything at all. So, we get this inert statement of what everyone already saw in the news.
A bare minimum of leadership in this situation is to be transparent and empathetic. This email is neither. It praises the workforce (“it’s your professionalism that keeps NASA moving forward”…) while simultaneously, behind the scenes, she implements a drastic 25% budget cut and 30% workforce cut.
The very least that a leader should do is to say “That these are difficult times for many people, and I understand (and share) the feelings that major change like this can evoke. Personally, I’m doing my best to try to see the positives in this situation, and hope that you can do the same. NASA has always come together to do the most difficult things imaginable; I’m asking you to join me in the challenging task of making NASA the best agency that it has ever been. This is my mission in life, and I know that you are all phenomenal, amazing people. Together, we can make the future stellar!” (and then because she can’t be bothered to read the room, as Keith notes, she would say “Embrace the challenge.” But at least if she gave a moment’s thought to being inspiring, her standard signoff doesn’t ring false.)
Janet is agency management (I’m no longer going to call her or the rest of the 9th floor “leaders”) and should be capable of writing something like this in ~5 minutes. Or she has a speechwriter that could do it for her. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people?
I mean, you said it yourself. An inert statement isn’t exactly thrilling leadership. It gives the impression that she knew she should say something but was sorta speechless on the subject.
After reading through the most recent NASA Budget Request, the closest NASA will get to planting a U.S. Flag on Mars is a Matt Damon movie.
We can’t afford Matt Damon on that budget. Maybe Stephen Baldwin
Not even Jesse Plemons?
Embrace the empty platitudes
Folks need to look back at what Reagan proposed for NASA when he 1st got into office. Most of the things they wanted to end (like Voyage 1 & 2) survived. Congress will fund what it wants. The fight is there.
I hope you are right, but looking at the FTE numbers from FY25 to FY26 for all agencies looks catastrophic. More than 1/3 of the agencies jobs cut. All that talent will be lost if they move forward with those numbers. Such a bad sacrifice for the tiny amount of money to keep smart engineers and scientists employed.
I guess employees should embrace knowing that they’re going to get fired because of these drastic cuts!
Her e-mails are embarrassing. Maybe she has an impossible job, but the slogan “embrace the challenge” is treating the workforce like teenagers.
I like Janet! At least she’s not taking an axe to the NASA workforce yet. I think she does care about NASA employees and their families. That’s the most important thing you can ask of any Administrator (Acting or Appointed).
“Yet”.
The center directors and engineering directors fought back hard to the proposed probationary cuts – Janet was ready and willing to let all that talent go. Not to say that she doesn’t care or that her position isn’t impossible, but she’s not going to save us.
I need Janet to blink twice if she needs help.