The end of the year means two things: setting unrealistic New Year’s resolutions and endless retrospectives. While we can’t force you to put down the cake and pick up a carrot, we can help you do your job better by highlighting some of the biggest and best innovations to come out of government in the last 365 days. Throughout December the DorobekINSIDER will sit down with government experts to talk about the hurdles, wins and challenges in 2013. (You can find all the interviews here.)
End Of Year Innovator: Michelle Crockett, FEW National President
“The two biggest challenges for us this year was the government shutdown and the furloughs/sequestration which we all know is a 10 year cycle. We know that the challenges that we faced this year will continue. So, what that means for us as an organization is we need to start talking about not only the challenges but the options that we have and what we expect from our members,” said Crockett.
Political Washington: Gridlock
“From a personal standpoint, being a 25 year civil servant in the federal government, I felt very demoralized by the attack on us as federal employees, because I know we all work very hard in support of the mission goals of our agencies. It felt very demoralizing and like no one was really listening. But for us as an organization, of Federally Employed Women, we are a private organization but our employees are composed of federal employees. So we have felt the direct attack on our organization as well,” said Crockett.
More budget deadlines coming?
“I would like to highlight that we were founded on the premise of not only advocacy but providing training to our members. It was training where we felt the biggest angst around all the changes and the challenges. With our National training program that occurs annually, I would say that was one of the biggest success this year. We were able to host that annual training program in Orlando. We had a lot of members that attended and went into their own pocket to fund their attendance. We need to not be quiet. What you can expect from us in the month of May is we are going to have an advocacy day. We will be on the Hill lobbying for the rights of federally employed women,” said Crockett.
Chasm between public servants and the public?
“I think we need to educate the public about what we do as public servants. We did develop a document that gives you a really good snapshot of 24 hours in the life of the public and what we do as public servants to support you. We also need to be very vocal. We need to say, ‘enough is enough.’ We have been suffering and we have been challenged and in reality we have all just been trying to do our jobs. I think that is paramount to most government employees. Come to work. Do you job. Have the security to know you will be paid for the job that you do,” said Crockett.
End of Year Reviews:
- Checking in on the States: A Look at Technology in 2013
- Avoiding Legislative Roadblocks – A Year in Review
- Making Mars Matter, A year in social media
- Uncool to work for gov? – A Year in Review
Weekend Reads:
- This Is What It Looks Like When a Google Manager Gets Feedback
- The Evolving Language Around “Social Business”: When Andy McAfee coined “Enterprise 2.0” in 2006, he deliberately avoided using the term “social” to describe the new ways digital technologies were helping organizations collaborate and communicate. Why? In part, executives tended to associate the term “social” with water coolers, parties — and more generally, employee idleness.
- The book: Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.