The worst thing to be right now in the US - a probationary

Thousands and thousands of people in the US are currently being fired. The hardest hit are the so-called probationaries, young men and women who have qualified academically with pretty smart CVs and have started to learn their profession, whether in the Pentagon, the State Department, the education department or the CIA. If they have only completed a couple of years or so, they are getting summarily fired. It's the most devastating time for these young people who got their jobs with stars in their eyes and dreams of a wonderful career. All they have done wrong is to get their foot on the first rung and then they have been shoved off. Every profession, whether it be in the intelligence world or other government work, needs a new influx of the next generation of recruits to keep ideas fresh, to give new energy and vision and enthusiasm and to learn from their more experienced colleagues. It's a natural and vital process. But Elon Musk and Donald Trump - yes, that way round - are just carving the federal workforce into ittle bits to save a huge amount of money, never mind the disillusion they are creating among young Americans. It's both short-sighted and cruel.