Are you a recent federal retiree who is still getting a partial annuity check each month? Federal Times would like to hear from you. We’d like to find out how long you’ve been waiting for your full check, how much less you’re getting paid than what you’ve earned, and what you’ve heard from OPM when you inquired about the problem. E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com. If you’d like to speak off the record or not have your name used in my story, that’s certainly fine.
Browsing: what do you think?
Federal travelers’ lodging per diems will decline in 310 areas — some quite sharply — beginning in October, as we reported yesterday. Headed to Manhattan next May? You’ll have $106 less to spend on a hotel each day than you would have a year earlier. Chicago in June? Per diems are scheduled to drop from $211 to $166. It’s not entirely unexpected. The recession has hit the travel industry hard, and hotels across the nation have dropped their rates in recent years to encourage travelers. They’ve also become more willing to work with the federal government. We’d like to hear…
Our story Friday breaking the news that the Pentagon has abandoned the pay-for-performance elements of the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System has generated a lot of interest, both on our main website and our blog. Responses ranged from exuberant and exclamation point-y (“THERE IS A GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11”) to regretful (“Unbelievable… back to the old way where you get paid for doing only as much as needed to not be fired?”). Federal Times is working on a follow up story this week, and we’d like to hear from people who have worked under DCIPS. Where do you think it went wrong? What…
OPM’s centralized hiring registers, which were unveiled earlier this year as one aspect of the overall push to reform the government’s hiring process, are falling flat so far. Their performance is so underwhelming — only 71 hires made so far out of 106,000 candidates — that there apparently has been some discussion in the administration about possibly canceling the program. OPM Director John Berry called me earlier today to say that he’s not giving up on the registers, but acknowledged that they’re not living up to his expectations and need to be improved. But aside from a growing consensus within…
The results of this year’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey were largely positive, but one thing jumped out at me: Collaboration and cooperation seems to have taken a significant hit. Positive responses to question 20 in the survey — “The people I work with cooperate to get the job done” — dropped sharply from 2008. That year, 83.9 percent agreed or strongly agreed, but this year, only 74.7 agreed. Question 26 — “employees in my work unit share job knowledge with each other” — also showed a decline, though not nearly as steep. Positive responses to that question dropped from 75.4…
The Office of Personnel Management earlier this week finalized regulations allowing federal employees — both gay and straight — to take leave to attend to their sick or deceased domestic partners. What do you think about this? Have you needed this benefit to help care for your partner? Or has your manager been willing to look the other way and give you the time you needed for your partner or your partner’s relatives? Federal Times would like to hear from you. E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’re more comfortable with speaking anonymously, that’s fine too.
Are you a hiring manager or HR official who has used the controversial Federal Career Intern Program to bring on new employees? Do you find it to be an efficient, useful hiring tool? Is it better than the standard hiring process, and if so, why? Or have you seen your office abuse its authorities to sidestep veterans preference, merit principles and hire managers’ favorites, as unions allege is frequently the case? Federal Times is interested in hearing your impressions of FCIP — how it works, its upsides, and its downsides. Feel free to e-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk.…