Skip to content

News, 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.

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

FBI Reassignments Show the Cost of Politics in Federal Work

By

Recent reporting reveals that nearly 3,000 FBI agents are being pulled from their core work—investigating child exploitation and domestic extremism—and reassigned to immigration en...

Read Resource
 

Trump-Era Layoffs and the Future of the Federal Workforce

By

This week, Politico confirmed what many federal employees have been experiencing firsthand: sweeping staff cuts across the government. Nearly 200,000 federal workers are gone in 20...

Read Resource
 

Erasing Slavery From National Parks: Why History Matters

By

In 1863, a photograph known as The Scourged Back stunned the nation. It showed Peter Gordon, an enslaved man who had escaped in Louisiana, with his back deeply scarred from years o...

Read Resource
 

Don’t Depend on the Algorithm for Critical Federal Employment News

By

Yesterday, a federal judge issued one of the most important rulings of the year for civil servants: OPM’s mass probationary firings were unlawful. On Instagram and YouTube, the new...

Read Resource
 

The Real Cost of Mass Federal Layoffs

By

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently criticized the DOGE initiative’s approach under Elon Musk: focusing on firing people instead of fixing inefficiencies. The promise was ma...

Read Resource
 

Federal Employees, Social Media, and Free Speech

By

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, agencies have begun issuing warnings about employee social media use. Some federal workers have already been placed on leave pending review of ...

Read Resource
 

You Are More Than Your Federal Job

By

For many federal employees, service to the government isn’t just a career—it’s an identity. The badge, the clearance, the GS level—these markers can begin to feel like the full mea...

Read Resource
 

Federal Shutdown Looms: What Federal Employees Need to Know

By

As September 30 approaches, the possibility of a government shutdown is once again hanging over the federal workforce. Congress is locked in a standoff: Republican leaders are push...

Read Resource
 

From Defense to War: What the Pentagon’s Rebrand Means

By

On September 5, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to present itself publicly as the “Department of War.” The Pentagon’s new website, war.gov, is alre...

Read Resource
 

Guarding Against “Dream Job” Traps for Federal Pros

By

Federal friends, let’s talk about the pitch that seems made for you: remote, six-figure policy work that mirrors your résumé. Lately we’re seeing flashy openings—sometimes linked t...

Read Resource
 

Immigration Raid at Georgia EV Plant: Lessons for Federal Employees

By

On September 4, federal agents conducted the largest single-site immigration raid in Homeland Security Investigations’ history at the Hyundai–LG battery plant construction site in ...

Read Resource
 

Unsafe Federal Office Conditions: What You Can Do

By

As more agencies push employees back into the office full-time, many federal workers are finding that their buildings aren’t ready. Reports of mold, pests, broken elevators, and ev...

Read Resource

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.

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 podcast

Mindfulness

Work Peacefully

Use practical mindfulness tools to create space between workplace pressure and the decision you make next.

Explore mindfulness resources

About 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 & Lydia

The 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.

Get the Free Briefing