So lets have a little bit of fun today. It seems that every group, school and town is getting a list, so lets add federal employees to those groups! Feel free to add your own at the bottom of the blog. 1. When people shout “high five!” and your first thought is “over my dead body. 2. Jan. 1 doesn’t even hold a candle to Oct. 1. Its the cleanest slate you can imagine. 3. You give your children 180 days to respond to a new rule you are proposing. Corollary: You refer to your family as “stakeholders.” 4. You…
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Agencies would move to a two-year budget cycle, consolidate duplicative programs and slash travel spending under a series of bills introduced Thursday by a bi-partisan group of lawmakers. The nine separate pieces of legislation introduced by the No Labels Caucus include a number of changes to agency budgeting, procurement and spending rules. “Forget, for a moment, whether you think government should be doing more or less, which is really the fundamental debate in this town,” said Rep. Reid Ribble, a member of the caucus. “We should all be able to agree that whatever government is doing now should be done…
A multi-million dollar U.S.-funded construction project to build a teacher training facility in Afghanistan remains years behind schedule and marred by shoddy construction work and dangerous conditions, a government watchdog has found. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction detailed the findings in a report released Wednesday after inspecting a teacher training facility built in the northern Afghan city of Sheberghan. Calling the U.S.-funded project an example of broken promises and unfulfilled results, the IG found contract close out files reflect the fact work was finished, even though a host of electrical problems and other issues remained unresolved. What’s more,…
People who need to make a call to the Social Security Administration’s 800 number system (there are several 800 numbers offered to members of the public for SSA services) might have noticed that its been easier to get through to a live person. The average busy signal rate has fallen from 8.1 percent of calls in fiscal 2009 to 2.6 percent of calls in 2011, according to data recently posted to Data.gov by the agency. In all three years the time of the year when you are most likely to get a busy signal includes the months of December and…
Nearing the end of a half hour talk on cybersecurity at a conference of contracting professionals in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Booz Allen Hamilton vice president Mike McConnell had not uttered the name Edward Snowden. And Snowden, after all, is someone who has people talking a lot about cybersecurity these days. The now famous former Booz Allen employee stands charged with espionage and is still on the run from U.S. authorities after leaking details to the media on once secret government surveillance programs. As McConnell, a former director of national intelligence, was wrapping up his presentation, he said he’d take a…
The new head of the Internal Revenue Service told employees Tuesday he wants to eliminate employee bonuses in a cost-cutting move that will include managers and executives. He called the situation “unprecedented” and that eliminating the bonuses would allow the agency to avoid two furlough days over the summer. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/09/irs-employee-bonuses/2503535/ A bill that would reduce the space footprint and space utilization of agencies across government passed out of committee in a unanimous vote. The legislation would also require reporting of conferences prior to the events. http://barletta.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=25§iontree=6,25&itemid=613 New research shows that increased collaboration at work might just mean the cost of…
The Labor Department wants to make it easier for consumers to track which businesses are treating their workers fairly. Labor announced an app development contest Tuesday that it hopes will “help empower consumers to make informed choices about where to bring their business,” according to an agency news release. The smartphone app will include Labor’s publicly available enforcement data, data from consumer ratings and geopositioning websites and other data available through state health boards. “The app could also prove a useful tool for job seekers and for companies that are deciding which firms they may want to do business with,”…
Congressional budget cuts have taken a chunk out of salaries, travel, office supplies and even the size of employee cubicles. But as agencies keep looking for ways to cut, they are turning increasingly to sharing workstations and implementing ‘hoteling’ solutions. So for all you feds out there: Do you still decorate your cubicle? If you share your workstation do you still put up photos or do you leave them at home or keep it to Facebook? Please feel free to chime in in the comments section, or email amedici@federaltimes.com.
Federal Times is proud to announce the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist honored us with two first-place Dateline Awards last night: My June 4, 2012 story “At GSA, almost everyone rates a bonus” received first prize for weekly investigative reporting. This story dove into bonus data across the government and uncovered how nearly 9 in 10 employees at the troubled General Services Administration — which had just been rocked by its Las Vegas conference scandal and revelations of lax bonus policies — received bonuses in 2011. The SPJ judges said the story’s “Interesting analysis of public records…
Agencies across the government are cutting space. They are shrinking cubicle sizes and they are promoting workstation-sharing along with more telework. More and more federal employees are giving up sole occupation of the traditional cubicle. Have you given up yours? Have you been given then choice? Feel free to comment about what you have seen or experienced in the comment section below or email amedici@federaltimes.com.