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.

 
OMB Memo Challenges Federal Back Pay Guarantees back pay rights federal employment mindfulness at work omb legal opinion shutdown law Oct 08, 2025

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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Federal Shutdown: Furloughs Set to Expand as Carryover Funds Run Out federal employment law federal shutdown furlough rights mindfulness at work mspb appeals Oct 07, 2025

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...

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Understanding Telework as Reasonable Accommodation federal employment mindfulness at work reasonable accommodation rehabilitation act telework rights Oct 07, 2025

For federal employees with medical conditions, few questions come up more often than this: Can telework be a reasonable accommodation? The answer is sometimes yes—but only when it allows you to perfor...

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Hatch Act Complaints Surge After Shutdown: Why Reporting Still Matters federal employment law federal shutdown mindfulness at work Oct 07, 2025

Within three days of the shutdown, nine separate Hatch Act complaints landed at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The allegations are stunning: agency websites and official messages carrying p...

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AFGE Lawsuit Over Partisan Out-of-Office Messages: A First Amendment Test afge federal employment first amendment hatch act mindfulness at work Oct 07, 2025

Federal employees at the Department of Education recently discovered something shocking: their out-of-office messages—intended to explain the shutdown—had been rewritten to blame “Senate Democrats.” T...

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Shutdown Update: What’s Really Happening — and When It Could End federal employee rights federal employment government shutdown mindfulness at work rif Oct 06, 2025

As October 2025 unfolds, the federal shutdown shows no signs of quick resolution. Beneath the headlines, this is less a funding glitch and more a contest of leverage. Congress has failed four times to...

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Partisan Out-of-Office Messages: Coerced Speech or Government Control? federal employment hatch act mindfulness at work political coercion whistleblower rights Oct 06, 2025

Imagine discovering that your out-of-office email—sent from your official government account—was changed without your consent to blame one political party for the government shutdown. Your name, your ...

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Judge Blocks Trump Order Stripping Federal Union Rights collective bargaining federal employment mindfulness at work mspb appeals union rights Oct 01, 2025

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...

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When DOGE Policies Hit Home: Federal Workers Speak Out doge policy employee rights federal employment mindfulness at work mspb appeals Sep 26, 2025

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, ...

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Pentagon’s Rare Generals’ Summit: What It Means for DoD Civilians dod civilians federal employment federal workforce mindfulness at work pentagon directive Sep 26, 2025

Next week, hundreds of generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisors have been ordered to gather at Quantico for an unusual in-person session with the Secretary of Defense. While details remain sca...

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Gratitude as a Legal Anchor in Uncertain Federal Times eeo complaints federal employment government shutdown mindfulness at work mspb appeals Sep 26, 2025

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...

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Interior Department RIFs: What Federal Employees Need to Know doi employees federal employment mindfulness at work mspb appeals rif Sep 25, 2025

Employees at the Department of the Interior (DOI) are facing a serious development: agency leadership has begun finalizing reduction-in-force (RIF) lists, with potential impacts across multiple bureau...

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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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