"Between early June and early July, as many as five individuals who worked in or closely with US Cyber Command died by suicide, based on internal communications, public records and sources. The deaths have raised concern among lawmakers and military leaders within the highly secretive command, which is responsible for defending US networks and conducting offensive cyber operations."

According to https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-107121.pdf there are ~17,000 authorized positions

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paulmist 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Assuming a predominantly male population, the suicide rate should be around 20 per 100000 per year. 5 people in a month gives 18x higher rate. Too short period to draw any statistical conclusions but it’s a large blip.

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dcanelhas 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The suicide rate isn't uniformly distributed given gender. There are likely screenings (previous mental health history) and rejection of the most affected age group (70+) that should lead the baseline to be even lower. Meaning 18x is probably on the low end.

	▲	paulmist 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Definitely a rough estimate! I recon base rate is also higher amongst military personnel & it’s not uniformly distributed there either.

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acdha 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think you’d have some statistical complications around stress: beyond the inherent pressure of the job itself, it’s highly likely that they were understaffed even before losing a lot of support when the DOGE chainsaws were in “cut first, measure later” mode — I know multiple people in the military who are still running at like half productivity because telework was cancelled so everyone’s day is a couple hours longer commuting into an office where they’re sitting on the floor because there aren’t enough desks — and if they were married to another federal employee they might be dealing with loss of income or childcare (DOGE closed the GSA office which handled that, apparently to pressure parents into resigning) at the same time.

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harimau777 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think that it would be necessary to correct for things like income and education level since engineers in cyber command are likely not representative of the general public.

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raffael_de 32 minutes ago | parent [-]

i'm pretty sure that segment has lower than average suicide rate. well paid, well educated.

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y-curious 29 minutes ago | parent [-]

I agree with you generally but a lot of professions that are well-paid and educated still have high rates. Dentists, for example, are 2x the general population

	▲	raffael_de 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		most medical professions have higher rate. it's usually attributed to being constantly subjected to pain and suffering plus physicians can source pharmaceuticals to exit softly. never heard that it professionals are particularly prone to suicide.

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hylaride an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Stress, PTSD, and overwork can and do aggravate mental health issues. All of these are probably hitting these people - probably at the same time.

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jandrewrogers 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This particular population is highly selected because of the work they do and the types of clearances they hold. I would expect the suicide rate to differ significantly from the general population.

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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01100011 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> In some cases, they suffer from insomnia, memory loss, rumination and physical illness,

So, like most middle-aged desk jockeys then?

> “There’s always a crisis and everything’s always a priority,” said Schoka. “We would burn people out faster than we could produce them.”

Sounds a lot like my job...

	▲	bluefirebrand 31 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> > In some cases, they suffer from insomnia, memory loss, rumination and physical illness, > So, like most middle-aged desk jockeys then? Is this really so common? I'm 38 and had some medical issues this past year, but one of the big things I've been grappling with is severe brain fog and memory loss. I could not tell you any of the projects I worked on in my previous three years, honestly. Maybe longer. It's been pretty demoralizing