Browsing: John Berry

Office of Personnel Management employees in Washington will get a treat later this week: an hour off to view the cherry blossoms and squeeze in a little exercise. OPM Director John Berry issued a memo March 26 to the nearly 1,500 employees at the agency’s Washington headquarters granting them an hour off from April 1 to 4 to walk down to the Tidal Basin and see the blossoms. Those four days will be the blossoms’ peak blooming days. Berry has made promoting wellness initiatives and encouraging federal employees to be healthier a major part of his agenda. This excused absence…

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry yesterday officially downgraded the government’s estimates of its per-day losses during last month’s snowstorms. Instead of  losing $102 million per day, Berry now says the government only lost $71 million per day. But there is reason to take those calculations with a grain of salt. Berry first threw out the $102 million daily loss estimate during a December press conference on snow closure procedures. That was a rough, back-of-the-envelope calculation of the total daily payroll for all 270,000 federal employees in the Washington area, and assumed total losses in productivity. That estimate was clearly…

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…

The federal government isn’t going to make Washington-area employees come in to work on Presidents Day, Feb. 15, to make up for the snow days this week. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry refuted that rumor in an online chat this morning hosted by the Washington Post. Berry also said there will be no furloughs to cover the cost of the government shutdown. The government has closed all four days so far this week, as well as a half day on Feb. 5. Berry said he is going to consult with the National Weather Service and local government officials at 6…

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…

A quick heads-up, in case you haven’t heard: The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo late last week announcing a new policy on political appointees “burrowing in” at the end of an administration. The memo, from OPM director John Berry, requires all agencies to get OPM’s permission before moving political appointees into career positions (at all levels). OPM previously required permission for such moves only during election years. The policy, which takes effect in 2010, applies to anyone who has held a politically-appointed job in the previous five years. OPM’s reviews will be conducted by career employees. “Burrowing in”…

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., tomorrow morning will announce a new program to forgive the student loans of people who work in the public and nonprofit sectors for 10 years. Sarbanes’ Public Service Loan Forgiveness Option will cover civil servants, as well as teachers, some health professionals and public interest attorneys. And beginning July 1, people enrolled in the program might also be able to lower their monthly student loan payments based on a debt to income ratio. Take a look at this online calculator from the Education Department to find out if you might qualify for…

Federal agencies will start collecting food nationwide under the Feds Feed Families program this week, the Office of Personnel Management said. Canned and other unperishable food items will be picked up the last Friday in June, July and August, but agencies will put out cardboard collection bins a few days earlier, OPM Director John Berry and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said at a press conference at a Northern Virginia food pantry. OPM itself already has filled the 10 cardboard bins it has at the entrance to its Washington headquarters three times over, Berry said. The government hopes to collect 1 million pounds of food…

The White House has released a fact sheet outlining the benefits it will grant to same-sex domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees today: Domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program. Federal employees will be allowed to use sick leave to care for domestic partners and their non-biological, non-adopted children. The memo will also outline benefits for partners of State Department Foreign Service officers, who for the first time will: Be able to use medical facilities at posts abroad. Be medically evacuated from posts abroad. Be counted when State measures a Foreign…

New Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry’s announcement last week that the Obama administration wants all federal employees to be paid based on how well they perform doesn’t exactly have federal unions doing cartwheels. The American Federation of Government Employees said pay for performance can’t work in the government, and said that the General Schedule is enough to reward hard workers. The National Treasury Employees Union, on the other hand, said it would wait and see what Berry comes up with. And the National Federation of Federal Employees just weighed in on the issue this morning. Though President Rick Brown said he felt…