Podcast
Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.
Listen to the podcastNews, rights, tools & learning
Federal Employee Resource Center
Search timely updates, plain-English explainers, practical guides, podcasts, and mindful-action resources. Start with the question you are trying to answer.
A Quick Check-In for Federal Employees
Gallupā€™s new analysis confirms what many federal employees already felt in their bodies before they saw it in a headline: 2025 was not an ordinary hard year. Federal workers experi...
OPM RIF Rules: What Federal Employees Should Do Now
Much of the current advice to federal employees about OPMā€™s proposed reduction-in-force changes begins and ends with one point: download your performance appraisals. That is import...
DOE Nuclear Waste Cleanup Staffing Crisis
Federal workforce cuts can sound abstract until they reach the people responsible for keeping radioactive waste contained. The Government Accountability Officeā€™s recent audit of th...
DOJ-IRS Settlement Raises Rule-of-Law Alarms
Federal employees know what it means to work inside rules. Procurement rules, ethics rules, chain-of-command rules, disclosure rules, and merit-system rules are not technicalities....
GAO, DOGE, and Federal Employee Data Rights
Federal employees have reason to pay close attention when the Government Accountability Office investigates access to agency databases. GAO is not a political commentator. It is Co...
VA Union Contract Restored: What Employees Should Know
For Department of Veterans Affairs employees represented by AFGEā€™s National VA Council, the First Circuitā€™s recent ruling is more than procedural news. A unanimous three-judge pane...
Federal Employee Surveillance and RTO Compliance
Federal employees are used to workplace rules changing. But the reported use of Palantir technology to track USDA employees entering and leaving the office signals something more s...
FEMA Readiness and Whistleblower Rights
Hurricane season begins June 1, and the anxiety inside FEMA is not abstract. According to a May 2026 letter from Representatives Bennie Thompson and Tim Kennedy, FEMA has lost more...
Russell Vought and Federal Employee Rights
ProPublicaā€™s recent video on Russell Vought is not ordinary political commentary. For federal employees, it is a warning about how ideas discussed in private strategy rooms can bec...
HHS Schedule Policy/Career Reclassification
Federal employees at HHS are reportedly facing the first major rollout of Schedule Policy/Career, the revived version of what was formerly known as Schedule F. According to Governm...
Federal FMLA Rights: What Feds Should Know
Most federal employees do not think about the Family and Medical Leave Act until a serious medical issue suddenly makes work impossible. By then, stress, fear, and paperwork can ma...
DoD Buyouts and Forced Reassignments
The Department of Defenseā€™s deferred resignation program was sold as a path toward government efficiency. But according to the facts described in the transcript, DoD lost 61,600 ci...
More ways to learn
Choose the format that helps you understand what is happening.
The Mindful Federal Employee is part of a broader public-education ecosystem from Shaun Southworth, Lydia Taylor, and Southworth PC. Use the resource that fits the question and the moment.
Mindfulness
Work Peacefully
Use practical mindfulness tools to create space between workplace pressure and the decision you make next.
Explore mindfulness resourcesAbout the people behind the work
Shaun Southworth & Lydia Taylor
Meet the federal employment attorneys behind this public-education work and the podcast Civil Rights for Civil Servants.
Meet Shaun & LydiaThe Federal Employee Briefing
The important developments, without the all-day scroll.
Join 3,900+ federal employees getting sourced workforce news and practical next steps on weekdays. It is a free public-service resource from Southworth PC.