Briefing Feedback Please + We are Delaying the Podcast for Two Major Public Comments  + Link to Last Week’s Panel

Hey Feds,

A different kind of note from me today. It's part update and part favor.

The favor first. Yesterday our leadership team sat down for what we call Vision Day. We planned the whole next year, quarter by quarter, and every goal we set for the rest of this year and most of next. At our firm, part of advocating for federal employees is actually asking federal employees what they need, updating our systems, and there were questions about our social media that we couldn't answer without you.

Start with this newsletter, since you're the ones who read it. What should we keep? What should we change? Shorter, or more depth on fewer stories? A different send time, a weekly digest, more "what this means for me"? What do you actually want from the Briefing every morning? Then the rest of what we do: do you want to hear from more of our attorneys, not just me and Lydia? More Lydia? Longer videos or shorter ones? What are we missing, and we must we never stop? And yes, whether Petty Friday lives.

We built a short form for all of it, with a section just for Briefing readers. It's completely anonymous, we don't collect your name or your email, and it should take less than 5 minutes. TypeForm is currently projecting 3 minutes.

Tell us what to keep, change, and build: fedlegalhelp.com/feedback

You're the ones who will generate our best ideas, and everyone who fills it out helps decide where we go from here.

Two things we're building behind the scenes. Right now our team is heads-down on two major public comments. The first is a substantial response to the EEOC's proposed changes to the federal-sector EEO complaint process. The second is OPM's proposed "Promoting Employee Accountability" rule, the one that would change how federal employees are removed for performance and misconduct and how the MSPB reviews those removals. OPM just reopened the comment period on that rule, this time to take comments on a report from an outside group called We the Doers. And we need a thorough response to that. That window closes September 29.

These comments are how the people who live under these rules get on the record before the rules are final, and both windows are short. Over the coming days we'll publish plain-English breakdowns and videos so you can read about the changes, hear about them, and, if you haven't already, submit a comment of your own. When we file, you'll be the first to see what we said.

We're putting most of our effort into those two comments this week, so you may see only a few posts a day from us, and the blog is on hold until they're filed. If things feel a little lighter between now and Friday, that's why. Don't worry. Petty Friday is coming.

A few schedule notes. I'm out next week. The Briefing continues every weekday as normal, we have content scheduled to run while I'm gone, and if anything major develops, Lydia will post on it. The next episode of Civil Rights for Civil Servants will land two weeks later than usual because we need time to comment on these two major developments.

Last if you missed the panel. Last week I sat on "Who Protects the Worker?", a virtual panel hosted by the USAID Employee Support Fund and Alliance 4 American Leadership. Representative Jamie Raskin opened, former USAID Administrator Samantha Power closed, former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios moderated, and I shared the panel with AFGE's Andrew Huddleston, Kevin Byrnes, and Jameson Wells of Jobs with Justice. The recording is now online. It's worth your time, both for the discussion of due process in the federal workplace and to learn about the Fund and the USAID employees it supports.

Watch the panel: https://www.usaidemployeefund.org/event

Thank you for reading this every morning, for sending these videos to the coworker who needed them, and for trusting us with the hard stuff. We don't take it lightly. As always, this is information, not legal advice, and if you have a situation of your own, our intake team is a click away.

Now go tell me what to do about Petty Friday.

With gratitude,

Shaun