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

What Federal Employees Still Legally Keep: Chapter 75, Whistleblower, and EEO Rights

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After a year of reclassifications, proposed rule changes, and reduction-in-force notices, it can feel like federal employees have lost every protection Congress ever gave them. Tha...

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Steady: A 90-Second Breathing Practice to Start Your Federal Work Week

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Workplace stress is not just an inconvenience for federal employees living through a year of hiring freezes, reorganizations, and reduction-in-force notices β€” it is a documented he...

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Government Shutdown Looming October 1: Three Moves for Federal Employees to Make Now

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A government shutdown could begin as soon as October 1, 2026, and federal employees who wait until the fiscal year ends to prepare may find themselves scrambling. Congress has pass...

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OPM's New Suitability Rule, and Why One Outlet Called It "Nixonian"

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OPM's new suitability rule lets the agency order the removal of a sitting federal employee for conduct that happened after they were hired β€” and Government Executive's headline for...

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RIF'd From a Federal Job? Two Reemployment Rights You Already Have

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A federal reduction in force doesn't just end with your last day β€” for many employees, it opens rights that already exist under current law, whether or not Congress ever acts on th...

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Schedule Policy/Career: What You Lose, What Survives

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OPM's Schedule Policy/Career reclassification converted roughly 8,000 career federal positions last month into an at-will job category β€” and more than 50 members of Congress now sa...

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Your Agency's NDA Cannot Erase Your Whistleblower Rights

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A nondisclosure agreement cannot be used to block a federal employee from reporting wrongdoing β€” that protection comes from statute, not from whatever a form says, and it holds reg...

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Judge Orders DOJ to Restore Telework for Two Disabled EOIR Attorneys

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A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice to restore full-time telework accommodations for two attorney-advisors in DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review, findi...

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GAO Clears DOGE at NLRB β€” But the Agency Deleted the Access Logs First

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A new Government Accountability Office report on DOGE's activity at the National Labor Relations Board reads, at first glance, like an all-clear. But a footnote buried in that same...

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State Department Is Hiring for Jobs It Just Cut β€” Know Your RIF Rights

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A year after the State Department separated roughly 1,350 employees in a reduction in force (RIF), the department is recruiting again for many of the same roles β€” and laid-off empl...

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Arbitrator Orders Forest Service to Restore Telework for 20,000 Employees

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An arbitrator has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to restore telework and remote work agreements for close to 20,000 employees represented by the National Federation of Federal Emp...

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New OPM Rule Requires Family Eligibility Proof for FEHB Every Time

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A new Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rule now requires federal employees to prove a family member's eligibility every time that person is added to Federal Employees Health Be...

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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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