As noted in this USA Today article, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Warner sent a letter a few weeks ago to the GAO requesting an investigation into the impact of the SEC’s recent buyouts and the upcoming layoffs resulting from DOGE activities. Anecdotally, it sounds like about 700 staffers accepted buyouts – and that certain Divisions were impacted more than others (like the Division of Investment Management) and that a disproportionate number of women and minorities accepted buyouts. I am basing this on anecdotal evidence and we’ll see what GAO comes up with.
Many long-time Corp Fin Staffers have left, including Anne Krauskopf, Barb Jacobs and Betsy Murphy. I am sad that I wasn’t able to celebrate their long careers because the sudden huge wave of departures meant that the traditional “going-away” parties didn’t happen. The Staff’s parties tend to be affairs that are beautiful in their simplicity.
Now that I’m older and I’ve have had the pleasure of departing a number of jobs, I have something to compare the SEC’s “going-away” parties to. The SEC’s going away parties are fairly staid affairs – they start about 4:00 pm, but people don’t really show up until 4:30 pm and they’re pretty much done by 5:30 pm. There’s a half hour of social time followed by a half hour of speeches. There might be a gift or two – and then a signing board, which is sort of like a high school yearbook.
The parties are funded by those that attend. The government doesn’t pay for them. Invitations are emailed around and a couple of volunteers collect money and purchase the gifts, buy the simple refreshments and set up the room where the party is held. Nothing fancy.
The speeches are delivered by the departing person’s boss – and maybe the bosses’ boss too. It depends on the party. There’s no formula set in stone – but the rough framework is pretty much the same every time.
And that’s it. No one gets wasted. The thing is over in an hour. Some people might go out afterwards. Or not. The parties are memorable because of their innocence. Nothing over the top. We get so much “over the top” stuff these days, it’s nice to feel like nothing has changed since the 1950s.
Since I’ve worked at the SEC twice, I’ve experienced two parties held in my honor. The first one in 1990 and that was a small affair. I had been there less than two years – so it was juice and donuts in the morning in my pod area with about 15 people attending.
And then when I left again in 1998, I was working for a SEC Commissioner and I knew more people, so it was a larger affair hosted in the SEC’s Closed Commission room. That was very cool. Many of the Corp Fin staff who attended had never been in that room before.
The going-away parties really are special and its part of what makes working for the government different than working anywhere else. I used to always say that if I returned to the SEC for a third stint, I would work in its library. But the library doesn’t really exist anymore in corporeal form…
Authored by
Broc Romanek