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Shaun Southworth leading a federal employment training session with members of the Southworth PC team
 

DOGE Ruling: What It Means for Federal Employees

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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 ...

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USPS RIF Risks and Career Employee Rights

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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...

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State Department’s New Performance Playbook

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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...

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DOGE RIF Tactics: Legal Risks for Federal Employees

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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...

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4 Signs a Federal PIP May Be Pretextual

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For many federal employees, being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) can feel like the beginning of the end of a career. Agencies often describe PIPs as supportive tool...

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Why Federal Employees Should Review Their Performance Plan

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Federal employees often focus on the latest policy changes or agency announcements. Yet one of the most consequential documents affecting a federal career may already be sitting qu...

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The Schedule Policy/Career Rule Just Cleared the Runway

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As of March 9, the 30-day waiting period following the Office of Personnel Management’s final rule creating Schedule Policy/Career has expired. That technical milestone carries sig...

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Court Voids USAGM RIF Over Vacancies Act Violation

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A recent federal court ruling offers an important reminder that even major personnel actions must comply with the rule of law. In a decision involving the U.S. Agency for Global Me...

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MSPB Will Not Hear Schedule Policy/Career Appeals

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Federal employees watching the rollout of Schedule Policy/Career should understand a critical procedural change: the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has announced it will not...

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Federal Union Loss and Changing Appeal Rights

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Federal employees often think of unions primarily in terms of workplace culture, negotiations, or disputes with management. But in the federal sector, union representation does som...

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Schedule Policy/Career: A Major Change to Federal Job Protections

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Some federal employees may soon be presented with paperwork acknowledging a change in their employment status to something called Schedule Policy/Career. If that happens, it is imp...

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IRS Ends NTEU Agreement: What Federal Employees Should Know

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On February 27, 2026, the Internal Revenue Service announced it was terminating its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The age...

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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.

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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.

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