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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
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OPM's Replacement for the Loyalty Question, Word for Word: What Federal Job Applicants Should Know
The federal hiring "loyalty question," the essay that asked applicants to name a favorite executive order and explain how they would advance it, has been replaced. A federal judge ...
OPM Capped Top Performance Ratings at 40%. Here's Why It Now Matters in a RIF.
OPM's new cap on performance ratings means no more than 40 percent of General Schedule employees at an agency can receive the top two ratings, combined. That would matter on its ow...
OPM's Evidence for Faster Federal Firings: A Spreadsheet and Ten Managers
OPM's proposed rule to make it faster to fire federal employees is back open for public comment, and the new evidence OPM has put on the record is thin: a spreadsheet counting sepa...
OPM Wants Your Medical Records: What the Health Claims Data Warehouse Means for Federal Employees
OPM wants claims-level health data on up to 8 million federal employees, retirees, and family members, and six senators want it to stop and explain itself first. The Office of Pers...
OPM Calls $9.5 Billion in Paid Leave a "400% Return." Its Own Numbers Say Otherwise.
OPM Director Scott Kupor says the $9.5 billion the federal government paid its own employees not to work last year was "a massive benefit to the taxpayer," describing it as a 400 p...
Twenty-Two Cases, Two Million Feds: OPM Reopens Comments on Its Federal Removal Rule Through September 29
Would you rewrite the federal removal rules for two million people based on twenty-two cases? That is what is on the table. The Office of Personnel Management has reopened the publ...
Federal Judge Stays OPM's "Favorite Executive Order" Question on Federal Job Applications
A federal judge has stayed OPM's "favorite executive order" question on federal job applications, handing federal employees and applicants a significant win. On Friday, September 1...
Your FY2026 Performance Rating Now Carries RIF Points: Four Moves to Make Before It Closes
Your FY2026 performance rating is worth RIF retention points now, and for many federal employees the appraisal period closes on September 30. Seven points: that is what a Level 5 r...
OPM Cut the Workload Question: What Changes When Your Agency Runs Its Own Employee Survey
OPM's proposed rule on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey would cut the required questions from sixteen to ten, and one of the questions on the chopping block is "My workload is...
Inside the Unions' Lawsuit Against OPM: Can One Agency Fire You and Hear Your Appeal?
The unionsā€™ lawsuit against OPM over the new suitability and performance rules is being covered as a fight about making it easier to fire federal employees. After reading the entir...
Four Unions Sue OPM Over the Rule That Reroutes Removals ā€” and Their Appeals ā€” to OPM
OPM's new suitability rule could reroute roughly half of all federal misconduct removals through OPM itself ā€” and that figure is OPM's own estimate, published in the Federal Regist...
Merit or Loyalty? Measuring OPM's Merit Claim Against the Record
Merit system principles are back in the public conversation. OPM Director Scott Kupor argued in the Washington Post that this administration is reviving merit in the federal workfo...
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