Rep. Moran: Too many feds protecting their comfort zones
February 29th, 2012 | Staffing | Posted by Sean Reilly
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., is usually numbered among the federal workforce’s best friends on Capitol Hill. But this morning, he evidently decided it was time for a little tough love.
When feds get a new assignment, they “hire a consultant,” Moran told participants at a Partnership for Public Service event. “They don’t take it on themselves.”
“We’ve got too many people, even in managerial positions, who are protecting their comfort zone,” he continued. “I’m really discouraged because these are good people that can do far more than they are attempting to accomplish. They’re worth more than they really give themselves credit for.”
“But when something new is introduced, they look somewhere else.”
The occasion was the Partnership’s official release of a report on the Senior Executive Service. In attendance at the non-partisan organization’s downtown D.C. offices were federal employees, reporters and—yes—consultants. The report’s main finding–that the SES has not lived to Congress’s original vision of a mobile cadre of top civil servants–was one that Moran robustly endorsed.
“We need people who are looking for new challenges, who know what needs to be done, who are not satisfied with what a federal agency is achieving today,” he said. Not long after, Moran was off, with plans to address a noontime National Treasury Employees Union rally on his schedule.
Tags: Jim Moran, Partnership for Public Service, Senior Executive Service
Reduction-in-force looming at inspector general’s office
January 16th, 2012 | 2012 Budget Staffing | Posted by Sean Reilly
The RIF clock is officially ticking for most of the staff at the inspector general’s office for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Reduction-in-force packages went out Friday to 26 of the office’s 33 employees, said spokesman Bill Hillburg, who was among those receiving notification that he could be out of a job by March 17. “It can change for some if some folks find work elsewhere, but unless funding is found and restored, [it's] irrevocable,” Hillburg said in an email.
The move comes after Congress whacked the IG’s funding by almost half to $4 million in a fiscal 2012 spending bill approved last month. The rationale for the cut remains mysterious. Democrats have blamed Republicans; a spokesman for Rep. Denny Rehberg, the Montana Republican whose House appropriations subcommittee helps draft the budget for the IG’s office, has not replied to several requests for comment.
Last week, three GOP senators wrote to Rehberg’s Senate counterpart, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, asking him to restore the lost funding by taking the money from the corporation’s budget; Harkin has made no decision, a spokeswoman indicated Friday.
In his own letter to Congress last week, Kenneth Bach, acting chief of the IG’s office, said he was confident that some employees would get work with other inspectors general. But for those who are actually RIF’d, Bach said, he will have to pay a severance package that in a few cases could come close to the employee’s annual salary.
Tags: Bill Hillburg, Corporation for National and Community Service, Denny Rehberg, Kenneth Bach, Tom Harkin
Three awesome government jobs you have probably never heard of
January 4th, 2012 | HR Management Interior Staffing Uncategorized | Posted by Andy Medici
#3 Job Title: Criminal Investigator
Agency: National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives contains billions of documents and items that make up our nations cultural and political heritage. Presidential letters, military documents and even secret stuff regular folk like us cannot see (except perhaps Nicholas Cage). And sometimes people take documents from those archives and try to sell them.
The investigators comb the Internet, follow up on tips and travel to places such as Gettysburg, Pa., to look for documents, gather tips and educate traders at antique shows. Civil War documents are a ripe area for people trying to profit from government records, as there is high interest in items from that war.
Every so often, a news story about the team’s efforts bubbles to the surface, most recently when IG officers teamed with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Montgomery County, Md., police department in a raid on a former Archives employee’s home, seizing boxes of documents.
That’s right. Taking back those documents. So if you have ever watched “National Treasure” and thought to yourself, “I could definitely do a better job tracking down our nation’s documents, then this might be the career for you.
#2 Job Title:Bartender
Department:Department of the Army
So you have probably already heard of this job. But not for the Army, perhaps. According to the job title, the bartender “Operates a small full-service bar, mixing and serving the full range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.”
Sounds about right.
#1. Job Title:Biological Science Tech (Bison)
Agency:National Park Service
So there is nothing about this job I do not like. You travel across Yellowstone National Park (by ski, snowshoe or snowmobile) and use radio telemetry to locate buffalo/bison in rough terrain. You take notes about their locations and take biological samples for later study. You work in field laboratories and will assist in studying the vital statistics of individual bison.
And you will also have to watch out for grizzly bears. Seriously. Bears. (Here’s a full quote)
WORK ENVIRONMENT: This work is performed primarily outdoors, in cold conditions with ice and snow, with bison, elk, wolves, and coyotes very likely to be encountered, with a possibility of grizzly or black bears.
I can only imagine the job looks something like this…
FTC busts federal job scam
October 20th, 2011 | Staffing | Posted by Stephen Losey
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said it has stopped a nationwide scam that charged federal job seekers for information that could be found for free on USAJobs.gov. FTC accused a company called Frontier Publishing of charging people $69 for federal job listings it claimed were not available to the general public, but that were in fact available on USAJobs.gov.
Frontier also allegedly falsely told job seekers that they should not worry about meeting minimum job requirements, because the government would pay for their job training. That was untrue, FTC said, and most federal agencies will not hire applicants who don’t meet minimum job qualifications.
Frontier allegedly did not provide people who paid the fee enough information to determine their suitability for for a job or instructions on how to apply for the job, as they had promised. FTC said that Frontier’s customers just received a spreadsheet of federal jobs in their area, and a so-called employment resource workbook that contained general information on how to get a federal job. Frontier also promised to provide sample questions and answer for a required “federal employment test,” but most federal jobs do not require a standardized employment test.
FTC said Frontier and its owner, William Clayton, has agreed to a settlement order banning them from selling employment products or services, misrepresenting products or services, and from violating the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule. Frontier also was given 10 days to pay a $100,000 fine. If Frontier does not, or if it is found to have misrepresented its financial situation, the government will require it to pay $7.5 million.
Federal Times buyout tracker
August 19th, 2011 | Staffing | Posted by Stephen Losey
With well over a dozen agencies considering, planning or offering buyouts and early retirements, we thought it was time to compile all this data together into one easy-to-find chart. As new agencies announce buyouts or update their plans, we’ll update the chart too, so keep checking FedLine for the latest in buyout news.
The latest is the Library of Congress, which today told employees it would offer buyouts and early outs to up to 349 employees. And it’s a safe bet that plenty more are on their way, especially with the White House eying budget cuts of up to 10 percent.
| Agency | Month | Numbers | Details |
| Justice | Jan. | 31 | Antitrust Division employees who took buyouts |
| USPS | April | 2,003 | Employees who took $20,000 buyouts; left by June |
| FTC | April | 38 | Employees who took buyouts and early outs and left by end of June; offers were extended to 301 employees |
| USDA | May | 544 | Employees offered buyouts; unspecified number of early retirements also offered |
| Smithsonian | May | 104 | Employees who applied for buyouts so far; some may drop out by Oct. 1 deadline |
| GPO | June | 330 | Buyouts and early outs offered |
| NRC | June | Up to 50 | Plans to ask for permission to offer up to 50 buyouts and unspecified number of early retirements; says still polishing request to be submitted to OPM |
| HUD | June | Unk. | Said several offices have permission to offer buyouts and early outs |
| Army | Aug. | Up to 8,741 | Announces plans to cut 8,741 civilian jobs by Oct. 2012, at least in part through buyouts and early outs |
| Education | Aug. | Unk. | Announces buyouts and early retirements largely targeted at senior officials |
| GAO | Aug. | 56 | Employees offered buyouts, unspecified number also offered early retirements; must leave by Sept. 30 |
| Commerce | Aug. | Unk. | Offers buyouts and early outs through Dec. 31, 2012 |
| Air Force | Aug. | Up to 4,000 | Announces plans to offer buyouts and early outs to 4,000 civilians |
| Library of Congress | Aug. | 349 | Buyouts and early outs offered; 175 to Library Services, 52 to Copyright division, 40 to Congressional Research Service, 29 to Office of Support Operations, 24 to Office of Strategic Initiatives, 16 to Law Library, 13 to Office of the Librarian |
Tags: budget cuts, buyouts, early retirements