The Federal Employee Survival Blog

Cut through the jargon and get the clarity you need to stay a step ahead of agency politics. Each article unpacks new policy shifts, court rulings, and workplace trends, then turns them into actionable tactics—so you can head off discipline, invoke EEO or whistleblower protections with confidence, and keep your documentation airtight. We also archive our most popular social-media explainer threads here, giving you the same insights followed by more than 150,000 people online even if you never scroll on those sites. Read, prepare, and keep your federal career firmly in your control.

 
Are Forced Performance Rating Quotas Legal for Federal Employees? federal employment mindfulness at work opm regulations performance ratings prohibited personnel practices Dec 17, 2025

Federal employees across agencies are hearing a troubling message at the end of the appraisal year: even strong performance won’t matter because only a small percentage of people can receive top ratin...

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When Agencies Cap “5s”: The Hidden Risks of Forced Performance Ratings federal employment mindfulness at work mspb appeals performance ratings workplace fairness Dec 16, 2025

For many federal employees, a performance year ends with a quiet shock: strong feedback all year, solid results, and then a rating capped at a “3” because the office “can’t give too many 5s.” That fee...

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How OPM’s Push for Forced Distribution Could Impact Your Federal Career federal employment mindfulness at work mspb appeals opm policy performance ratings Dec 10, 2025

OPM’s recent announcement that it wants to “normalize” agency performance ratings should get every GS-9 and above employee’s attention. Behind the technical language is a major shift: capping how many...

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OPM’s New RIF Proposal: How Performance Ratings Could Cost You Your Job federal employment mspb appeals opm regulations performance ratings rif Nov 24, 2025

Federal employees have long relied on a RIF system grounded in objective factors—tenure, veterans’ preference, and credible measures of service time. The new OPM proposal rewrites that foundation. Und...

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THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BRIEFING

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