The Aging–and Retiring–Federal Workforce

If you were a big fan of the Beatles singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” you remember President Kennedy addressing the nation during the Cuban missile crisis; and you recall seeing Governor George Wallace standing in the door at the University of Alabama to block integration of the public school system on a black and white television set, you are older than most Americans. But many federal employees do recall these events because they were alive when they occurred.

Love in the Federal Workplace

Our patterns of courtship have changed with new technology. Ardent, would-be lovers are not the only people to use the Internet. One government employee found herself the victim of a scam–and the scammer got her personal information from her government computer.

The Politics (and Money) of Federal Union “Official Time”

In another dispute involving the union’s use of official time, FLRA backed off a stance taken in previous decision, reminding all of us again how important union institutional issues are to Federal unions and their friends among the “neutrals”. The author suggests that employee working conditions’ improvements take a back seat to union institutional issues again and that FLRA’s reversal is part of the politics of labor relations and clearly not part of the the law.

Charge Card Abuse? Who Cares?

The issue of credit card abuse in government surfaces on a regular basis. Little seems to change. A new GAO report highlights a problem with purchase cards. The reaction of many in the government community is likely to be “Thanks for the report. We don’t really care.”

Protecting Feds from Personal Information Release and Identity Theft: Are Current Policies Enough?

In the wake of recent privacy-violating probing of presidential candidates’ passport files and earlier losses by agencies of computers or hard drives containing sensitive employee data, it appears the risk of nosy feds, political paparazzi, curious contractors and others getting personal personnel info may be at an all time high. What’s going on?