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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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A Notice of Proposed Removal Is Not a Firing: It Starts a 30-Day Clock
A notice of proposed removal is not a firing. It is a clock starting β and the distance between those two things is where most of your leverage lives.
Proposed means proposed. You...
State Department Screens GS-13s for Schedule Policy/Career: What the Questionnaire Means
If a Schedule Policy/Career questionnaire has landed in your State Department inbox, it is not a survey β it is the front end of a legal determination about your job. Government Ex...
A Year After the CDC Shooting, Here Is What the Law Still Gives Federal Employees
Federal employees processing a traumatic event at work often assume the legal protections available to them ran out when the news coverage stopped. They did not. A year after a gun...
The IRS Restored Union Email for Managers and Left It Blocked for Bargaining Unit Employees
Your right to a union representative in a federal adverse action case is only as good as your ability to reach that representative β and at the IRS, Government Executive reports, t...
A FEMA Contractor Was Paid Through a DOGE Staffer's Company. Her Deposition Is Now Public.
The rule against using contracts for inherently governmental functions is one of the least discussed protections in the federal workplace, and a newly public deposition in the FEMA...
A Federal Court Vacated the Army Dining Waiver. Here's Why It Matters to Your Case.
Federal employees have a real stake in a court ruling about blind vendors and Army dining halls, even though almost none of them will ever run a cafeteria. The reason has nothing t...
GAO Audited DOGE's Ethics Paperwork. Most of It Could Not Be Verified.
Every federal employee knows the annual routine: ethics training, records management training, and β for many positions β a financial disclosure form with a certification block som...
Ninety Seconds Before Your First Meeting: A Monday Reset for Federal Employees
Federal employees are heading into another Monday where the news found them before they were fully awake. This is a 90-second reset you can do at your desk, in your car, or in the ...
The Senate Passed a Funding Patch 90-6. Why October 1 Is Not Safe Yet.
The Senate passed a continuing resolution 90-6 early Saturday morning, funding the government through December 11 β but a shutdown on October 1 is not off the table yet. The bill s...
A Federal Judge Blocked the VA From Ending Its AFGE Contract β Again
A federal judge has blocked the VA from ending its union contract with the American Federation of Government Employees β the third time this year the same court has stopped the sam...
Under Investigation as a Federal Employee? What to Do First
If you are a federal employee under investigation, the most damaging mistake is usually not the wrong decision. It is the decision you never made because you waited too long. That ...
GAO Audited DOGE's Wall of Receipts. The Numbers Did Not Hold Up.
A new GAO audit of DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" found that the savings claims used to justify two years of federal workforce cuts do not hold up when checked against the government's ...
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