Federal Times this week examines the growing concern in the ranks of federal employees over the rising anti-government rancor among many Americans. Some people say agencies need to better educate Americans on the many seen and unseen services the government performs to generate a better appreciation for all it does. Others say the animosity is the result of an increasingly bitter and polarizing national debate fanned by politicians and extreme partisans in the media. Still others say federal employees deserve criticism for being incapable of managing many programs that make effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars. What do you…
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How many times have you visited the government’s online information portal, www.usa.gov, and thought: If only I could express my love for this site through video? Well now’s your chance. The General Services Administration, which manages the site, has launched a contest for the most entertaining and creative 30- to 90-second video demonstrating how your life has improved by using the information available on the site. The winner will receive $2,500 and the chance to become a YouTube sensation. There’s a lot on the site to choose from: everything from applying for student loans and finding a good childcare provider…
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…
Last week, I wrote how the General Services Administration was seeking applicants for a newly created position of chief greening officer. At the time, the vacancy announcement had been posted to private-sector job boards but not on the government’s official jobs site, USAJobs. The job listing has now been posted to USAJobs, and it offers some key details that were left out of the earlier post. For instance, the job will be a career position at the GS-15 level, which has a starting salary of nearly $124,000 in Washington. As a senior adviser to the head of GSA’s Public Buildings Service,…
The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations will hold its inaugural meeting next Friday, Feb. 26. The council will hear comments from federal agencies and members of the public on how agencies will create labor-management forums across the federal government, the Office of Personnel Management said in a Federal Register notice released this morning. OPM said agencies need to submit draft plans for implementing the forums by March 9. President Barack Obama created the council in a Dec. 9 executive order and ordered it to recreate the labor-management partnerships that operated under President Bill Clinton.
Did you telework during the snowstorm last week? Federal Times would like to talk to you and hear how well it went. Were you able to do some or all of your work without any major bumps? Were there tech problems that kept you from getting anything done? Or did your agency’s or manager’s restrictions on telework completely take that option off the table? And managers, what was your experience managing your staff remotely last week? Was teleworking worthwhile, or just window dressing? E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’d prefer we not use your name, that’s fine.
The Merit Systems Protection Board said today it will grant deadline extensions to people who couldn’t file documents on time because of recent blizzards and government closures in Washington and other areas. MSPB Chairwoman Susan Grundmann said anyone filing a late petition for appeal, petition for review, case-related documents, pleading or other submissions will have to include a statement explaining that the delay was due to poor weather, closure of a federal office, or lack of access to MSPB’s e-Appeal Online Web page. That last part is important, because there were tens of thousands of people in the Washington area who…
President Obama’s appointment of the first openly transgender person to a political post became a punch line on David Letterman’s late night talk show, and a leading gay rights group has come out swinging. Amanda Simpson began her new job Tuesday as senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, where she will monitor the exports of U.S. weapons technology. Simpson, who has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, is the first openly transgender person to receive a presidential appointment, the Human Rights Campaign said. She was born a male and began her transition to…
The Office of Personnel Management announced an unscheduled leave policy is in effect today for non-emergency federal employees in the Washington, DC, area. Federal offices are open, but employees can take the day off by notifying their supervisors, OPM said. Emergency employees must report to work on time. With the potential for icy rain and snow showers today in the Washington region, and a slow day expected before the New Year’s holiday, OPM officials decided to play it safe and keep some employees off the roads. Federal offices nationwide will be closed tomorrow in observance of New Year’s Day.
While Nancy Fitchner’s SAVE Award winning idea to let veterans take home their unused prescriptions from Veterans Affairs Department hospitals will be the one included in the 2011 budget, that doesn’t mean the Office of Management and Budget is ignoring the 38,000 other ideas that were submitted to its first SAVE Award contest. On the same day Fitchner was honored at the White House, OMB Director Peter Orszag told agencies to adopt some “common sense ideas” that were submitted and can be implemented without congressional action. In a Dec. 21 memo, Orszag said in the short run agencies should: Make…