The Office of Personnel Management tends to look askance at agencies’ requests for direct hire authority to fill critical needs. OPM asks for reams of information and has some quite specific guidelines for agencies that want to sidestep the normal federal hiring process. The Homeland Security Department, looking to hire federal employees to fill jobs currently done by contractors as part of the government “insourcing” initiative, is trying to tweak the system a bit in order to fill critical needs, DHS chief human capital officer Jeffrey Neal said yesterday at a congressional hearing. DHS is asking OPM for something it…
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The five healthiest federal chefs in the Washington area will square off Wednesday afternoon at the Office of Personnel Management’s headquarters. The finalists in OPM’s Feds Get Fit Healthy Recipe Challenge will cook their original, tasty meals for judges, and the winner will be published in a special Feds Get Fit cookbook. Recipes will be judged by OPM Director John Berry, nutritionist and chef Robyn Webb, Top Chef finalist Carla Hall, and former New England Patriot Darryl Haley. Berry has made encouraging federal employee wellness a top priority at OPM. The finalists come from the Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and…
A noteworthy commentary in this morning’s Washington Examiner highlights an issue that we’ve previously reported: How few federal employees are fired in a given year. The column, which cites our coverage on the issue, criticizes the Office of Personnel Management for failing to analyze why so few employees are fired — just one half of 1 percent of the government’s 2 million employees last year. (It’s also worth noting that the writer of the column, Mark Hemingway, is the husband of one of our former staff writers.) What I found most interesting, however, was the headline above the column: “More…
The Blizzard of 2010 is over, but piles of snow are still clogging some lanes in Washington and worsening the region’s already-abysmal traffic congestion. And agencies need to use workplace flexibilities to help ease that gridlock, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said yesterday. In a memo to chief human capital officers and other human resource officials, Berry said agencies should continue to use telework as much as possible to take people off the roads. Berry also suggested agencies use alternative work schedules, or if possible, adjust employees’ work hours to stagger their arrivals and departures throughout the day. “Be…
All federal employees in Washington will have their first full workday in nearly two weeks tomorrow. The Office of Personnel Management announced this afternoon that government offices will open on time Wednesday, and without an unscheduled leave option. So if you haven’t dug your car out yet, now may be the time.
The Office of Personnel Management just announced the federal government will open under a two-hour delay on Friday. Anyone who can’t make it into work can take unscheduled leave. If you get to work any more than two hours late, you’ll be charged annual leave or leave without pay for the additional period of absence. But if you take unscheduled leave, you’ll be charged leave for the entire day — you won’t get the same two hours’ grace period other feds will get. If you telework or are an emergency employee, you’ve got to start working on time. OPM Director…
Federal agencies in the DC area are closed again tomorrow, according to OPM. Emergency employees are still expected to show up for work, and teleworkers may have to work, too.
Rep. Gerry Connolly wants to know if the federal government would have been able to stay open during this winter’s snows if the area’s public transportation system was adequately funded. The Metro, Washington D.C.’s subway system, has suspended or limited above-ground rail service since Friday, contributing to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry’s decision to close the federal government Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands commute on Metro daily, and suspension of rail and bus service makes it nearly impossible for many to make it to work. Connolly, a Democrat who represents suburban cities in Northern Virginia, sent…
D.C. federal offices are closed again tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb 10) with the same exceptions and caveats that applied for the last two days. In case you are excitedly celebrating this rare hat-trick closure and can’t remember the exceptions and caveats, here is the rundown, verbatim from OPM’s site: Nonemergency employees (including employees on pre-approved leave) will be granted excused absence for the number of hours they were scheduled to work. This does not apply to employees on leave without pay, leave without pay for military duty, workers’ compensation, suspension, or in another nonpay status. Telework employees may be expected to…
OPM director John Berry has talked a lot about expanding federal telework programs — and it occurs to me that this week gives him a perfect opportunity to evangelize. Today is the second consecutive snow day for the federal government, and if tonight’s forecast is accurate, tomorrow might well be the third. Each snow day costs the federal government $100 million — possibly more during this blizzard, because I’m sure some feds will just take the rest of the week off and give themselves a “snowcation.” But many telecommuters are expected to work today, according to OPM — even though…