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

Forced Agency Relocations: What the Law Requires When You Cannot Move

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Forced agency relocations are reaching federal employees at six or more agencies this summer, and NPR’s review of public records and internal communications this week describes a r...

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Is One Business Day a “Reasonable Time to Answer”? Inside the Proposed OPM–MSPB Rule

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A proposed federal rule could give you as little as one business day to answer a proposed suspension—and if you are a federal employee, that is worth understanding now, while it is...

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The Federal Circuit Will Decide How Far “Article II Firings” Can Go

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has agreed to hear, en banc, a case that could decide how far federal agencies can go in removing career employees without the pro...

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Detailed Into a Job You Were Never Trained For — Then Disciplined for It

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Some CDC employees are being detailed into senior roles they were never trained for — and when their performance suffers, they're facing disciplinary action. If that's your situati...

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Jackler v. DOJ and MSPB Appeal Rights

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Federal employees should be watching Jackler v. Department of Justice closely. The case involves two career immigration judges, Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, who were removed f...

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Federal Tax Debt and Your Federal Job

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A new Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report has understandably raised anxiety among federal employees. According to the report, the federal-workforce tax-delinqu...

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Tax Debt Risks for Federal Employees Explained

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Tax issues are not just a financial problem for federal employees—they can become a career issue. Under 5 C.F.R. Part 731, suitability determinations consider “willful failure to c...

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IRS W-2 Errors Force Employees to Amend Tax Returns

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Few stories capture the strain on today’s federal workforce more clearly than this one: the IRS reportedly told employees that their W-2 forms were incorrect just weeks before Tax ...

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Federal Hiring Crisis: Recruitment vs. Retention Reality

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The federal government’s renewed push to attract early-career talent comes at a moment of deep internal contradiction. After significant losses across critical job series—HR, contr...

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DHS Shutdown Rights for TSA and Excepted Employees

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As of March 23, 2026, the partial DHS shutdown has stretched past five weeks, and the pressure is no longer abstract. Senate negotiators met on March 19 and left without a deal, wi...

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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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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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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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