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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.
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Southworth PC Wants to Hear From You: Nominate a Guest for "Civil Rights for Civil Servants"
Federal employees have lived through an extraordinary eighteen months, and Southworth PC wants to help more of those stories be told firsthand rather than about the people who live...
OPM Wants to Stop Measuring Federal Employee Morale. A New Survey Shows Why That Matters.
A new survey of federal employees who lost their jobs shows lasting damage to their finances and mental health, and it comes right as the Office of Personnel Management proposes cu...
OPM Wants to Cut the Survey Questions That Measure Federal Employee Morale
OPM has proposed rewriting the one survey that measures how federal employees actually feel about their jobs and their leadership. The proposed rule would decentralize the Federal ...
DOGE Is Dead. The Damage to the Federal Workforce Isn't.
DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — officially shut down on July 4, but the damage to the federal workforce it leaves behind is only now coming into focus. When Congre...
The Required Federal Employee Survey Vanished the Year 317,000 Feds Left. Congress Wants Answers.
In 2025, roughly 317,000 employees left the federal government. The federal workforce shrank by more than ten percent. And the one survey the government is legally required to run ...
Screwworm Outbreak Shows Risk of USDA Staffing Cuts
The confirmed New World screwworm case in Zavala County, Texas, is more than an animal-health headline. For federal employees, it is a reminder that public service capacity is ofte...
Can a President Remove an Entire Science Board?
On April 24, every member of the National Science Board (NSB) was abruptly removed via a brief email from the Presidential Personnel Office. No transition plan. No explanation. Jus...
IRS Refund Delays and Enforcement Cuts Explained
Federal employees are often asked to reconcile two competing narratives: what agency leadership reports to Congress and what unfolds inside the workplace. The IRS’s recent “home ru...
FAIR Act 2027: 4.1% Federal Pay Raise Explained
Democrats have introduced the FAIR Act proposing a 4.1% federal pay raise for 2027—3.1% across-the-board plus an average 1% locality adjustment. Whether it ultimately passes remain...
Can the Department of Education Be Dismantled?
If you work in the federal government right now, the headlines can feel destabilizing. One day your agency is supposedly being “dismantled.” The next, your job is “moving.” And no ...
Black History Month in Federal Workplaces: Who Makes It Happen
If someone has ever been responsible for planning a Black History Month event at work, the pattern is familiar. The group emails. The speaker outreach. The scramble to make somethi...
GAO Telework Report: What SSA Employees Need to Know
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on federal telework is already circulating inside the Social Security Administration (SSA), and it deserves close attention from...
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