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
 

Schedule Policy/Career: Loss of Loan Repayment & Incentives

By

Federal employees facing possible reclassification into Schedule Policy/Career now have a new and very practical concern: compensation.

Recent supplemental guidance from OPM confi...

Read Resource
 

Black Federal Employees: History, Policy & Power

By

Black History Month inside the federal government is more than celebration. It is context. For GS-9 and above employees navigating promotions, discipline, reorganizations, or EEO c...

Read Resource
 

OPM RIF Appeal Rule: MSPB Rights at Risk

By

Federal employees facing a Reduction-in-Force (RIF) already carry enough uncertainty. A new proposed rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would fundamentally change h...

Read Resource

OPM’s Proposed “RIF Appeals” Rule Would Strip MSPB Review and Concentrate Power Inside OPM — Comment Now

By

OPM just published a proposed rule titled “Reduction in Force Appeals” (RIN 3206–AO99) that would take most Reduction-in-Force (RIF) appeal rights away from the Merit Systems Prote...

Read Resource
 

Shutdown Timecard Risks for Federal Employees

By

Every federal employee knows the tension of a shutdown week: unclear guidance, shifting emails, and pressure to “keep things running.” But when that confusion spills into time-and-...

Read Resource
 

Judge Orders Musk Deposition Over USAID Shutdown

By

A federal judge has ordered Elon Musk to sit for a sworn deposition about DOGE’s role in the USAID shutdown—and used language rarely seen in this context. The court found “extraord...

Read Resource
 

From History to Policy: Black Employees in Federal Service

By

Black History Month is often framed as a moment to reflect on the past. For Black federal employees, it is also a moment to understand the present—and to ask harder questions about...

Read Resource
 

Schedule Policy/Career: Which Federal Jobs Are at Risk

By

The Office of Personnel Management has finalized a new rule creating Schedule Policy/Career, a classification aimed at “policy-influencing” positions. The government’s own estimate...

Read Resource
 

DHS Shutdown Deadline: What Federal Employees Should Expect

By

As of Monday, February 9, 2026, the federal government is technically open—but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is once again on the edge. Congress ended a four-day partia...

Read Resource
 

Is Title VII Really “Colorblind”? What the Law Requires

By

Federal employees are hearing a new phrase surface in official discourse: that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is “colorblind.” At first glance, that idea may sound reassuring—fa...

Read Resource
 

Black History Month in Federal Workplaces: Who Makes It Happen

By

If someone has ever been responsible for planning a Black History Month event at work, the pattern is familiar. The group emails. The speaker outreach. The scramble to make somethi...

Read Resource
 

OPM’s Schedule Policy/Career Explained

By

Yesterday, the Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule creating a new category called Schedule Policy/Career. While the name may sound technical—or even benign—the substanc...

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