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
 

TSA Shutdown Pay and ICE Deployment Risks

By

TSA officers have now spent weeks working without pay during the DHS shutdown—many for nearly half the fiscal year under some form of funding lapse. The law does guarantee back pay...

Read Resource
 

DOGE Ruling: What It Means for Federal Employees

By

A March 23 federal court ruling in New Mexico v. Musk signals a meaningful shift in how courts may evaluate actions taken under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). For ...

Read Resource

Federal Workplace Stress: A Mindful Reset for Burnout

By

A recent survey of more than 11,000 federal employees placed governmentwide engagement at just 32 out of 100. Even more concerning, only 22.5% of respondents reported feeling safe ...

Read Resource

DHS Shutdown: What TSA Officers Should Document

By

The latest DHS shutdown development is not really about airport optics. It is about what happens when the government keeps requiring frontline federal employees to work without pay...

Read Resource

Unlawful DOJ Leadership and Federal Employee Risk

By

A federal judge in New Jersey recently stopped a sentencing hearing, ordered a DOJ prosecutor removed from the courtroom after repeated interruptions, and demanded sworn testimony ...

Read Resource

USPS RIF Risks and Career Employee Rights

By

For USPS employees, the immediate risk is not just financial instability. It is how that instability may reshape who keeps legal protections when the hardest employment decisions a...

Read Resource

DHS Shutdown Rights for TSA and Excepted Employees

By

As of March 23, 2026, the partial DHS shutdown has stretched past five weeks, and the pressure is no longer abstract. Senate negotiators met on March 19 and left without a deal, wi...

Read Resource

State Department’s New Performance Playbook

By

The State Department appears to be testing a model other agencies may soon copy. In July 2025, it carried out roughly 1,350 layoffs, including about 246 Foreign Service officers on...

Read Resource

DOGE RIF Tactics: Legal Risks for Federal Employees

By

Recent deposition testimony from DOGE staff provides one of the clearest factual records yet of how RIF decisions and grant cancellations were executed inside federal agencies. Und...

Read Resource
 

Why Federal Employees Need Rest During Uncertainty

By

Federal employees are navigating one of the most uncertain periods in recent memory—agency changes, litigation, shifting policies, and real concerns about job security. In that env...

Read Resource
 

When Union Retaliation Crosses the Legal Line

By

A recent federal court order requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to restore its union contract did not happen in a vacuum. The decision turned on unusually clear evidence ...

Read Resource
 

VOA Reinstatement Signals Limits on Agency Shutdowns

By

A federal judge’s decision to reinstate more than 1,000 Voice of America employees is more than a headline. It is a sharp reminder that federal agencies cannot dismantle core opera...

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