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

The Fork in the Road, 18 Months Later: 20,557 Replacements Were Hired

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You remember the Fork in the Road email β€” the subject line, and the one-word reply: Resign. Eighteen months later, the numbers are in: the government hired your replacements. Somet...

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The Man Who Ran the IRS Says the Bill for DOGE's Cuts Hasn't Come Due Yet

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The IRS workforce has fallen from about 100,000 employees to an expected 74,000 by year's end after DOGE's cuts β€” and the man who ran the agency says the bill has not come due yet....

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GAO Spent 14 Months Asking DOGE to Show the Math. DOGE Never Answered.

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The GAO audit of DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" is finished, and the shortest way to describe it is this: DOGE said it saved you $110 billion, the Government Accountability Office asked...

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GAO Audited DOGE's Ethics Paperwork. Most of It Could Not Be Verified.

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Every federal employee knows the annual routine: ethics training, records management training, and β€” for many positions β€” a financial disclosure form with a certification block som...

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GAO Audited DOGE's Wall of Receipts. The Numbers Did Not Hold Up.

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A new GAO audit of DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" found that the savings claims used to justify two years of federal workforce cuts do not hold up when checked against the government's ...

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GAO: FEMA Cut 4,500 Employees With No Workforce Plan β€” What That Means If Your Agency Is Downsizing

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FEMA lost roughly 4,500 employees in eighteen months without ever assessing what the agency actually needed, according to a new Government Accountability Office audit β€” and the age...

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Southworth PC Wants to Hear From You: Nominate a Guest for "Civil Rights for Civil Servants"

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Federal employees have lived through an extraordinary eighteen months, and Southworth PC wants to help more of those stories be told firsthand rather than about the people who live...

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OPM Wants to Stop Measuring Federal Employee Morale. A New Survey Shows Why That Matters.

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A new survey of federal employees who lost their jobs shows lasting damage to their finances and mental health, and it comes right as the Office of Personnel Management proposes cu...

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OPM Wants to Cut the Survey Questions That Measure Federal Employee Morale

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OPM has proposed rewriting the one survey that measures how federal employees actually feel about their jobs and their leadership. The proposed rule would decentralize the Federal ...

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DOGE Is Dead. The Damage to the Federal Workforce Isn't.

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DOGE β€” the Department of Government Efficiency β€” officially shut down on July 4, but the damage to the federal workforce it leaves behind is only now coming into focus. When Congre...

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The Required Federal Employee Survey Vanished the Year 317,000 Feds Left. Congress Wants Answers.

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In 2025, roughly 317,000 employees left the federal government. The federal workforce shrank by more than ten percent. And the one survey the government is legally required to run ...

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Screwworm Outbreak Shows Risk of USDA Staffing Cuts

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The confirmed New World screwworm case in Zavala County, Texas, is more than an animal-health headline. For federal employees, it is a reminder that public service capacity is ofte...

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