Skip to content

News, rights, tools & learning

Federal Employee Resource Center

Search timely updates, plain-English explainers, practical guides, podcasts, and mindful-action resources. Start with the question you are trying to answer.

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

"You Won't Be Personally Liable": What the DHS Whistleblower Disclosure Means for Federal Employees Given a Questionable Order

By

When agency leadership tells federal employees "you won't be personally liable," it is worth asking what that sentence actually promises. A whistleblower disclosure made public Mon...

Read Resource
 

Judge Rules DHS Plan to Cut FEMA in Half Was Unlawful: What FEMA CORE Employees Need to Know

By

A federal judge has ruled that the DHS plan to cut FEMA in half was unlawful, delivering a major win for FEMA employees. On Friday, September 11, 2026, Judge Susan Illston of the U...

Read Resource
 

GAO Audit: DHS Claimed $10.5 Billion in DOGE Contract Savings. Auditors Found $92 Million.

By

A new GAO audit of DHS contract terminations has put a hard number on the DOGE savings claims that federal employees heard all year. The Department of Homeland Security publicly re...

Read Resource
 

FEMA Funding Bottleneck: What Federal Employees Need to Know

By

Federal employees woke up this week to reporting that should command attention across government: roughly $17 billion in FEMA disaster aid is stalled, not because disasters were in...

Read Resource
 

DHS’s $220M Border Ads: What Federal Employees Need to Know

By

When a 43-day shutdown left federal employees scrambling to cover rent and groceries, another story unfolded almost unnoticed: DHS quietly pushed out a $220 million “emergency” med...

Read Resource
 

Mindful Response to Sudden Return-to-Office Orders

By

Imagine relaxing on a Sunday evening, only to receive a text at 9:00 PM demanding you report to your duty station Monday morning—or risk losing your leave. This is not hypothetical...

Read Resource

More ways to learn

Choose the format that helps you understand what is happening.

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.

Podcast

Civil Rights for Civil Servants

Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.

Listen to the podcast

Mindfulness

Work Peacefully

Use practical mindfulness tools to create space between workplace pressure and the decision you make next.

Explore mindfulness resources

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.

Meet Shaun & Lydia

The Federal Employee Briefing

The important developments, without the all-day scroll.

Join 3,900+ federal employees getting sourced workforce news and practical next steps on weekdays. It is a free public-service resource from Southworth PC.

Get the Free Briefing