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.
There’s a major update out of federal court—and it affects thousands of you navigating the shutdown’s uncertainty. On Friday, Judge Susan Illston expanded and clarified the Temporary Restraining Order...
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...
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...
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...
If you haven’t gotten a furlough notice yet, you might soon. Agencies that relied on leftover funding are exhausting it, and new rounds of furloughs are unfolding daily. More than 620,000 federal empl...
Federal unions have filed a lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), challenging recent guidance that encouraged agencies to use the gove...
On September 30, 2025, federal employees won an important reprieve. Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for D.C. issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s effort t...
When a government shutdown looms, many federal employees assume all personnel actions grind to a halt. But as of September 29, 2025, OPM has clarified: Reduction in Force (RIF) activity is now conside...
When sweeping policies land in Washington, headlines often focus on politics, numbers, and high-level strategy. What’s harder to capture is what those shifts feel like in the cubicles, field offices, ...
If you are a federal employee right now, you don’t need a reminder that the landscape feels unstable. Shutdown deadlines, RIF whispers, and questions about pending cases can make even seasoned profess...
THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BRIEFING
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Stay informed, stay protected. The Federal Employee Briefing delivers expert insights on workforce policies, legal battles, RTO mandates, and union updates—so you’re never caught off guard. With job security, telework, and agency shifts constantly evolving, we provide clear, concise analysis on what’s happening, why it matters, and what you can do next.
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