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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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Federal Employee Resource Center
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OPM’s New RIF Proposal: How Performance Ratings Could Cost You Your Job
Federal employees have long relied on a RIF system grounded in objective factors—tenure, veterans’ preference, and credible measures of service time. The new OPM proposal rewrites ...
Senate Shutdown Deal: What It Means for Federal Employees
After forty grueling days of uncertainty, the Senate has advanced a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government. The measure would fully fund VA, USDA, and the legislative branch...
Shutdown RIF Update: Interior’s Numbers, TRO Expansion, and What Comes Next
Federal employees, here’s where things stand in the AFGE/AFSCME case that’s temporarily blocking shutdown-related RIFs. As of this week, the Department of the Interior has disclose...
“F It” Framework for Federal Employees Facing RIFs
When a RIF notice lands, it hits more than your inbox—it hits your nervous system, your family rhythm, and your ability to think clearly. While legal challenges continue, you still...
Shutdown Roundup: Pay, RIFs, and What Feds Must Do
Federal employees, here’s your no-spin roundup from Friday through Monday—and the steps to protect your pay, benefits, and rights amid this shutdown.
What Changed Friday–Monday
F...
Are Shutdown RIFs Legal? What the TRO Hearing Means for Federal Employees
For the first time in modern memory, federal agencies have begun issuing reduction-in-force (RIF) notices while the government is shut down. More than 4,000 employees—across agenci...
Shutdown Update: What’s Really Happening — and When It Could End
As October 2025 unfolds, the federal shutdown shows no signs of quick resolution. Beneath the headlines, this is less a funding glitch and more a contest of leverage. Congress has ...
Unions Challenge Shutdown RIFs: What Federal Employees Must Know
Federal unions have filed a lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), challenging recent guidance that encouraged agen...
RIFs Continue During Shutdown: What Federal Employees Must Know
When a government shutdown looms, many federal employees assume all personnel actions grind to a halt. But as of September 29, 2025, OPM has clarified: Reduction in Force (RIF) act...
Interior Department RIFs: What Federal Employees Need to Know
Employees at the Department of the Interior (DOI) are facing a serious development: agency leadership has begun finalizing reduction-in-force (RIF) lists, with potential impacts ac...
You Are More Than Your Federal Job
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...
ICE Hiring Bonuses: A Tale of Two Federal Workforces
Recent DHS announcements confirm that the push to hire Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel is both real and aggressive—up to $50,000 in signing bonuses, student loa...
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Shaun Southworth & Lydia Taylor
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