The Federal Employee Survival Blog
Cut through the jargon and get the clarity you need to stay a step ahead of agency politics. Each article unpacks new policy shifts, court rulings, and workplace trends, then turns them into actionable tactics—so you can head off discipline, invoke EEO or whistleblower protections with confidence, and keep your documentation airtight. We also archive our most popular social-media explainer threads here, giving you the same insights followed by more than 150,000 people online even if you never scroll on those sites. Read, prepare, and keep your federal career firmly in your control.
On April 9, the Department of Defense directed the termination of most collective bargaining agreements for its civilian workforce—with just 24 hours’ notice. The stated justification relies on Execut...
A recent federal court ruling in Maryland has moved a high-stakes data privacy case into discovery—a phase that often determines what truly happened behind closed doors. For federal employees, this is...
Recent testimony to the Senate claimed the IRS delivered its “most successful filing season in history” despite a 27% reduction in staff. For federal employees, that statement deserves careful scrutin...
Recent accounts from a former senior USAID official describe a familiar pattern: leadership sets the outcome first, then asks career staff to explain how to implement it. For federal employees, this d...
Tax issues are not just a financial problem for federal employees—they can become a career issue. Under 5 C.F.R. Part 731, suitability determinations consider “willful failure to comply with generally...
Religious expression has long existed in federal workplaces, but recent reports suggest a shift in tone and source. When religious messaging originates from agency leadership—Secretaries, political ap...
Federal employees planning retirement often expect delays. What is harder to accept is a delay caused by the government reducing the very staff responsible for processing earned benefits. That is the ...
Recent sworn testimony from FEMA leadership raises a critical issue for federal employees: what happens when an agency sets workforce reduction targets before determining operational needs? According ...
A reduction in force (RIF) is supposed to be a defined process with a clear endpoint: notice, separation date, and either termination or rescission. What is unfolding at the State Department—hundreds ...
A recent budget proposal seeks $166 million to expand FBI counterterrorism efforts, including a multi-agency initiative to “proactively identify” domestic extremism. The language matters. Rather than ...
Federal employees are right to pause when they hear that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is requesting large-scale health data from FEHB carriers. On paper, OPM has clear authority to oversee...
Many federal employees assume that once a buyout is signed—whether through VERA, VSIP, or a DRP—that decision is final. In most cases, that assumption is correct. These agreements are designed to be b...
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