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Shaun Southworth leading a federal employment training session with members of the Southworth PC team
 

Four Unions Sue OPM Over the Rule That Reroutes Removals β€” and Their Appeals β€” to OPM

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OPM's new suitability rule could reroute roughly half of all federal misconduct removals through OPM itself β€” and that figure is OPM's own estimate, published in the Federal Regist...

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Merit or Loyalty? Measuring OPM's Merit Claim Against the Record

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Merit system principles are back in the public conversation. OPM Director Scott Kupor argued in the Washington Post that this administration is reviving merit in the federal workfo...

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OPM's Return-to-Office Director Filmed His Own Video From Home

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Federal telework policy produced an uncomfortable moment this week: the OPM Director leading the government-wide return-to-office push acknowledged, on audio reported by Fortune, t...

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Your Free OPM Breach Identity Protection Ends September 30

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Free identity protection from the 2015 OPM data breaches ends September 30, 2026, and roughly 22.1 million people are affected by that deadline. If you were a federal employee, app...

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Three Doors: The Only Ways Your Rating of Record Can Change After It Is Issued

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Your rating of record cannot be quietly changed after it is issued. Under the performance appraisal rule that took effect on August 6, 2026, there are exactly three ways a rating o...

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OPM Wants Your FEHB Medical Claims: What the New CRS Report Says

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OPM’s request for FEHB medical claims data would place health information for more than eight million federal employees, retirees, and family members in the hands of the agency tha...

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OPM Removed the Bias Check on Federal Hiring Assessments: What Changed for Applicants

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Federal hiring assessments no longer have to clear the government's 48-year-old bias check before an agency uses one on you. In an interim final rule that took effect immediately, ...

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OPM Cut a Third of Its Own Workforce β€” Here's What That Means for Your Benefits

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The agency that runs your retirement, your health insurance, and your federal HR records has cut its own staff by roughly a third since the end of 2024 β€” and a new government watch...

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Your Agency's NDA Cannot Erase Your Whistleblower Rights

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A nondisclosure agreement cannot be used to block a federal employee from reporting wrongdoing β€” that protection comes from statute, not from whatever a form says, and it holds reg...

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New OPM Rule Requires Family Eligibility Proof for FEHB Every Time

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A new Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rule now requires federal employees to prove a family member's eligibility every time that person is added to Federal Employees Health Be...

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OPM Wants to Stop Measuring Federal Employee Morale. A New Survey Shows Why That Matters.

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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...

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Federal Discipline Without the Douglas Factors: What a New OPM-MSPB Rule Would Change

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A new joint proposal from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) would retire the Douglas factors, the 45-year-old framework that ha...

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