The Federal Employee Survival Blog
Cut through the jargon and get the clarity you need to stay a step ahead of agency politics. Each article unpacks new policy shifts, court rulings, and workplace trends, then turns them into actionable tactics—so you can head off discipline, invoke EEO or whistleblower protections with confidence, and keep your documentation airtight. We also archive our most popular social-media explainer threads here, giving you the same insights followed by more than 150,000 people online even if you never scroll on those sites. Read, prepare, and keep your federal career firmly in your control.
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
Friday: Agencies conf...
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 agencies like HHS, Educati...
On October 10, 2025, the administration began issuing Reduction-in-Force (RIF) notices to roughly 4,200 federal employees—even as the government remained shut down. That move, unprecedented in prior s...
Hundreds of DHS employees were just told to accept rapid reassignments to border and immigration posts—or risk removal. That includes CISA cyber defenders, FEMA staff in storm season, and TSA and Coas...
A New York Times story this week described how Black community leaders are holding their ground in a political climate that often treats their leadership as a threat. Reading it, I couldn’t help but t...
This week has been a rollercoaster for federal employees. On Wednesday, the IRS assured furloughed staff they were guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ends. By Thursday, that message vanished—litera...
The federal shutdown entered its 13th day with no end in sight. The Senate again failed to advance either party’s funding proposal and adjourned until Tuesday, leaving agencies frozen and federal empl...
Senate leaders are floating a plan to pass full-year funding one agency at a time, with Defense likely first. In plain terms: some components could return to work and receive back pay sooner, while ot...
Good news for federal employees: the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has its quorum back. On October 7, the Senate confirmed James Woodruff, restoring at least two sitting members—the minimum ne...
For many federal employees, this shutdown feels different. Early this week, the administration floated a new legal argument claiming that furloughed workers might not be automatically entitled to back...
Federal employees, take a breath. As of today, the White House appears to be stepping back from immediate plans for large-scale Reductions in Force (RIFs). That’s not a promise the idea is gone—it’s s...
A draft legal opinion from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly testing the foundation federal employees have relied on for years: that you’ll receive back pay after a government shutd...
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