Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen was hard at work judging the first annual Commandant’s Chili Cookoff on Dec. 10. It was all for a deliciously good cause: raising funds for the National Capital Area Combined Federal Campaign, according to Allen’s blog. And from his comments there, it sounds like it was tough: However, as much as I tried, I couldn’t match the intensity of Command Master Chief [Petty Officer Steven] Cantrell who obviously has grasp of the intricacies of fine chili. Ultimately, Allen chose U.S. Army Col. Kevin Hawkins’ steaming batch of Airborne Ranger Chili as the “Commandant’s Choice.” Hawkins’…
Browsing: Workplace
As a runner and general fitness nut, I was pleasantly surprised to find a press release in my inbox from the Office of Management and Budget this morning announcing a new mandate for OMB staff: wear a pedometer. OMB Director Peter Orszag launched the “OMB Pedometer Challenge” today to improve employee health by having everyone wear a pedometer to track their physical activity throughout the day. Employees will enter their daily steps on an internal Web site and compare their activity levels to Orszag’s activity levels and their division’s levels. They’ll also be able to enter health statistics like body…
National Preparedness Month starts next week. This year, in addition to stressing the necessary preparations for natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires, the focus will be on a new challenge: pandemic flu. The H1N1 virus (the illness formerly known as swine flu) is expected to come back strong in the fall and agencies have to be prepared to continue operating in the event federal employees become infected, said Josh Sawislak, acting chief of the General Services Administration’s Office of Emergency Response and Recovery. For GSA, pandemic preparation is more than making sure federal agencies have enough hand sanitizer to…
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt is looking for a contractor to run a couple of three-hour discussions on “Humor in the Workplace.” According to this FedBizOpps notice, which topped the Drudge Report today, the programs will “discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life.” The requirements: Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The…
In April, several senate Democrats, led by Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski, introduced a bill to convert some contracted work to federal performance and otherwise prevent the government from competing federal jobs with the private sector. Mikulski’s “CLEAN UP Act” – short for “Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements Act” – drew applause from unions and criticism from industry groups. But now Senate Republicans are getting in on the act with their own bill designed to do the opposite. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced the “Freedom From Government Competition Act” yesterday. The bill mandates federal agencies rely on the private sector for…
The U.S. Postal Service is slashing its administrative ranks by 15 percent and cutting 1,400 mail processing supervisors and management positions at 400 facilities across the country, the economically imperiled organization announced today. In addition, the Postal Service is closing six of its 80 district offices, a move that will eliminate another 500 positions. USPS is also offering early retirement opportunity to 150,000 postal employees nationwide. The actions are expected to save the Postal Service more than $100 million a year. Affected employees will have four months to find work elsewhere in the Postal Service, at an equal or lower pay…
It’s happened at countless workplaces across the country. Someone, on purpose or by accident, sends an email to the entire office and people start replying…to every person on the list. Inevitably, angry co-workers also start replying to everyone, chiding those who hit “reply-all.†Inboxes overflow with message after message. Annoying yes, but cause for disciplinary action? It could be if you work at the State Department, which was recently hit by a similar scenario that got so bad it nearly crippled the department’s unclassified email system. Now, according to a cable obtained by the Associated Press, senior department officials are…
The General Services Administration issued a rule last week that effectively ended the relevance of that old cliché about government decisions being made in smoke-filled rooms. The rule, published in the Federal Register on Dec. 22, closed smoking rooms in all federal buildings owned or leased by GSA. It also prohibited smoking in building courtyards and within 25 feet of doorways or air intake ducts. Agencies will implement the rule over the next six months. While this will undoubtedly change federal culture for many, FedLine wonders if it will change the lexicon of political expression. Somehow saying decisions were made…
Does the federal government have too many middle managers? President-elect Barack Obama has promised to thin the ranks of management, especially in the Washington area, and shift more employees to “front-line” positions in field offices. But the plan isn’t sitting well with groups like the Senior Executives Association and Federal Managers Association. A coalition of managers groups sent a letter (pdf) to John Podesta, the co-chair of Obama’s transition team, urging the president-elect to reconsider: An arbitrary cut of managers based upon an across the board ratio for all of federal service is not the answer. Instead, we encourage you…
The widely anticipated pay raises for 2009 were just released this morning. In an executive order, President George W. Bush outlined how various pay schedules will be impacted by the 3.9 percent overall pay raise that Congress enacted. Also, the Office of Personnel Management released the new 2009 pay tables for the various localities. Among the highlights: Basic pay under the General Schedule will go up 2.9 percent. The remainder of the 3.9 percent overall pay raise enacted by Congress will go toward locality raises. Among the 30-plus locality pay zones, employees in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore-Northern Virginia region will see…