Career

MANAGING ATTENDANCE: What Every Supervisor Should Know

Contrary to popular belief, Federal employees having Career Tenure are not made of Teflon®; they are subject to the same disciplinary measures as their private sector counterparts. Career Tenure was originally adopted solely for the purpose of restricting the power of the President of the United States to remove certain office-holders without the approval ofRead… Read more »

Four Lessons Learned From Implementing Forest Service’s Lauded eMNEPA Program

USFS Program Selected by Presidents Council on Environmental Quality as a Pilot Program to Help Modernize and Reinvigorate NEPA The President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced August 31st that the Electronic Management of NEPA (eMNEPA) program at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has been selected for the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Pilot Program,Read… Read more »

DOE invests in electric cars

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is making a big investment in electric cars nationwide. The investment is part of DOE’s Clean Cities initiative which is supporting the growth of energy efficient and renewable energy measures in America’s cities. Awards were given to 16 electric vehicle projects in 24 states and Washington DC. The projectsRead… Read more »

The Federal Coach: Susan Grundmann on Protecting Merit Systems in the Federal Government

Susan Tsui Grundmann is the chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent, quasi-judicial agency that protects the federal merit systems and promotes government-wide merit system principles. Grundmann previously served as general counsel to the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 100,000 federal workers nationwide. How difficult was it toRead… Read more »

The Ratchet Effect

…occurs when two or more competitors are frequently matched against one another. When one develops an advantage, the others develop counter moves. The overall result is that the whole group becomes continuously better. Continue this through several generations of improvement and the whole group has a marked advantage over others who started at the sameRead… Read more »

A Perspective on the Effects of Sociological-Economic Place on Training and Education Success

While one boy is offered the benefits of a good education and a sheltered home life…he learns little of real life except through others, while his brother learns life the hard way–through experience. Life, choices, opportunity, and success. It all affects our work life to be. The choices we are able to make in termsRead… Read more »

Are we more or less Safe? By Joshua Jacobs

In the days leading up to 10 years since 9/11 an interesting study published by the Federal Signal indicates that many Americans feel insecure and less safe than they did in 2001. The 2011 edition of its annual survey lists a staggering 64-percent of Americans ages 18-24 responding negatively to the question of, “Ten yearsRead… Read more »

9/11 and The Global War on Terror: A Junior Officer’s Perspective

The strangest thing about coming for home for Thanksgiving break after 9/11 was seeing an American flag flying outside every house. People were walking up to me and thanking me for my service, which I found unsettling. The tiny suburb, just north of New York City, lost dozens of people in the attack on theRead… Read more »