The House of Representatives recently passed a bill making it much easier to fire employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The author says that while well intentioned, the bill is taking the wrong approach, and he outlines the main problems he sees with the legislation.
Federal employees consistently give low scores on feedback surveys in areas such as recruitment, training and recognition. What can agencies and managers do to improve federal employees’ overall work experience? A new report has some suggestions.
The recent data breaches have put the Office of Personnel Management into a deep hole. The author looks at some deliberate steps he says OPM must take to begin resolving its current predicament and eventually emerge as a better and more effective agency.
The author says politicians in Washington are using federal employees as political pawns which is likely to push talented people out of the federal workforce. He outlines some of the arguments coming from Washington against the federal workforce and dispels them with evidence of his own.
The author says that over the last few years it seems the pride of public service has come under strain from changes to internal processes. He analyzes why he thinks this is the case as well as points out some reasons federal workers have to be optimistic despite the apparently lower morale.
Can the government make an employee carry a GPS locator to keep track of his location?
New data from the Partnership for Public Service show that members of the Senior Executive Service are more satisfied with their jobs than the employees they oversee.
Employers will use dress and appearance standards to create an employment “brand” for who they are, their culture and their values. As society becomes more casual in its dress standards, employers can find that instituting a dress code will not only draw resistance from some employees, it can land the company in the middle of a religious discrimination lawsuit.
Four federal agencies have collaborated to reissue a guide for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) federal workers on their rights and processes available to them when alleging sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination.
A recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General says that a “culture of complacency” among agency management has led to ongoing employee problems such as employees watching pornography on government computers and engaging in private activities during official work time.
