The Eye has heard from some of the federal workers that have donated money to the Obama-Biden Transition Project, following a report earlier this week about their contributions. The donations of roughly three dozen federal employees, mostly rank-and-file types, account for 2 percent of the project's total take so far. "The Obama-Biden campaign had been such a brilliant mobilization of the grassroots, of community organization, that it seemed a terrible tragedy to now allow lobbyists to exert th… Continue

As Bush administration appointees at Housing and Urban Development get ready to pack up and leave, some career staffers also will be moving today, albeit temporarily, as their walled offices are gutted and replaced by cubicles. The "cubicle issue" irks employees in HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), a collection of economists and social scientists that work on issues related to HUD's regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among other things. After more than a year of… Continue

Congratulations. Here are ten suggestions from a former Deputy: 1. Be your agency’s Chief Operating Officer. No one else has the scope of authority to do this job. 2. Listen. Within the first 15 days interview 10 to 20 people who know the agency well. Ask them: What are the best things about the agency? What are the top few things that should be changed? Who are the most respected people in the agency? (Make sure you interview these people.) If you were in my shoes, what would you work on? … Continue

By necessity most business activities at the process level have been remote and opaque from both the customers, and all too often, from those involved too. I use the phrase necessity to cover two very different aspects; commercial advantage, the benefit obtained from having and applying unique knowledge; as distinct from the operational limitations imposed by the tools, structure of the work and/or organisational structure. Currently I think we can all conclude that there is a shortage of Trust… Continue

When the American auto industry became the next in line for a big government bailout, there were those who immediately tried to blame the unions. The topic of unions seems to come up in my world rather often, so I thought I’d make it this week’s subject. Are unions bad or good? Being a socialist at heart, I always thought an organization to protect workers’ rights was a good thing. But when I grew up and belonged to one for the first time, I started hearing tales of how corrupt they were. But n… Continue