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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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OPM's Forced Distribution Rule: What It Means for Your Federal Performance Rating
Federal performance ratings are about to look very different. This week, the Office of Personnel Management finalized the biggest overhaul of federal employee performance ratings i...
Bureau of Prisons Closures and RIF Notices: What Affected Employees Need to Know
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced this week that it is closing six federal correctional facilities across five states. The agency says many affected employees can transfer to a...
The Declassification Double Standard: What Security Clearance Holders Need to Know
Every year, federal employees who hold a security clearance sit through mandatory training on handling classified information β and sign paperwork acknowledging they understand the...
Federal Employees: Communicate Before Crisis
For federal employees, communication is no longer a soft skill. It can be the difference between preserving your record and creating an avoidable problem. A rushed email to a super...
OPM Finalizes Rule Letting Agencies Fire Current Employees as 'Unsuitable'
OPM has finalized a new suitability rule that lets agencies remove current federal employees for serious misconduct that happens after they're hired β closing a gap that, until now...
Supreme Court Ends Independent Agency Protection, Spares the Fed by One Vote
The Supreme Court has effectively ended ninety years of independent agency protection for federal officials. In a pair of decisions issued the same day, June 29, 2026, the Court ru...
Can the MSPB Stay Independent? A Private White House Meeting and a Broken Precedent Raise the Question
The Merit Systems Protection Board β the independent body federal employees count on when they're fired β may have made its most consequential ruling in decades after a private mee...
What Trump v. Slaughter Means for Federal Employees: The Supreme Court Expands Presidential Removal Power
If it feels like the ground keeps shifting under your feet as a federal employee, the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Slaughter is one more reason why. This case involved the ...
Who Controls Federal Grant Money? A New OMB Rule Would Give Political Appointees the Final Say
A proposed federal rule would shift control over nearly every federal grant away from subject-matter experts and into the hands of senior political appointees β and the public comm...
Detailed Into a Job You Were Never Trained For β Then Disciplined for It
Some CDC employees are being detailed into senior roles they were never trained for β and when their performance suffers, they're facing disciplinary action. If that's your situati...
Federal Student Loan Deadlines Are Here: What Feds Need to Know Before July 1
The biggest federal student loan overhaul in a generation takes effect July 1, 2026 β and for federal employees, a few critical deadlines are already days away. Whether you're purs...
Education Department IG Report: RIF Cuts May Have Left Legally Required Work Unstaffed
A new Inspector General report on the Department of Education's rapid workforce reduction reveals something more troubling than headline job-loss numbers: staffing cuts may have el...
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