OMB director to staff: Step to it.
October 1st, 2009 | Executive Office of the President HR Management OMB Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
As a runner and general fitness nut, I was pleasantly surprised to find a press release in my inbox from the Office of Management and Budget this morning announcing a new mandate for OMB staff: wear a pedometer.
OMB Director Peter Orszag launched the “OMB Pedometer Challenge” today to improve employee health by having everyone wear a pedometer to track their physical activity throughout the day.
Employees will enter their daily steps on an internal Web site and compare their activity levels to Orszag’s activity levels and their division’s levels. They’ll also be able to enter health statistics like body mass index, blood pressure and heart rate to help track improvements in their health.
The employee with the highest activity level each month wins lunch with Orszag and the highest performing team wins a “health happy hour.” Free lunch and/or a free happy hour? That’s inspiration enough for me.
Orszag said:
This challenge will make all of us more aware of our current activity levels and help inspire us to increase our physical activity. Evidence shows that pedometers are one of the most cost-effective ways to increase physical activity. And in true OMB fashion, we like to walk down the path cleared by the best data.”
The challenge is part of a larger effort to improve the health and productivity of the federal workforce, while reducing health care and disability costs, OMB said in the news release.
Are you ready?
August 25th, 2009 | Agencies Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
National Preparedness Month starts next week. This year, in addition to stressing the necessary preparations for natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires, the focus will be on a new challenge: pandemic flu.
The H1N1 virus (the illness formerly known as swine flu) is expected to come back strong in the fall and agencies have to be prepared to continue operating in the event federal employees become infected, said Josh Sawislak, acting chief of the General Services Administration’s Office of Emergency Response and Recovery.
For GSA, pandemic preparation is more than making sure federal agencies have enough hand sanitizer to go around, Sawislak said. With a virus that spreads as quickly as H1N1, the agency will also have to ensure it quickly notifies tenants of federally owned and leased space when a fellow fed falls ill with H1N1, while protecting the privacy of the individual, he said.
Preparedness is also about making sure employees are up-to-date on their telework policies and training in case employees need to be quarantined or offices need to close to prevent the spread of the virus, Sawislak said in an interview. GSA sets telework policy for the government and runs telework centers for federal agencies.
“It’s important to be equipped and trained to do it and to have other people know how to work with [teleworkers] when they’re not in the office,†Sawislak said.
Sawislak and others will be dispensing this advice, along with personal and professional preparedness tips for pandemic flu and other emergencies, at training events throughout September.
“Embrace the boy scout motto and work hard to ‘be prepared,’†Sawislak said.
For more information on disaster and flu preparedness for your home and family, visit Ready.gov.
Tags: H1N1, National Preparedness Month
Funny Business at the Treasury
July 17th, 2009 | Procurement Treasury Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt is looking for a contractor to run a couple of three-hour discussions on “Humor in the Workplace.”
According to this FedBizOpps notice, which topped the Drudge Report today, the programs will “discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life.”
The requirements:
Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience.
At the end of the day the bureau wants its workers to learn the following:
• Understand the importance and power of humor in the workplace in a responsible manner
• How to use talents in a creative way that adds humor to everyday experiences
• Alleviate stress in home and the office
• Know how and why humor is important to communication
• Improve work-place relationships
• Prevent burn-out
While every workplace could probably use a little humor, one has to wonder whether the right way of going about it is a cheerless training session paid for by taxpayers.
Update: Treasury has canceled it’s search for workplace humor following a congressional inquiry into the item on Drudge. Guess FedLine wasn’t the only one wondering why taxpayers should pay to make Treasury laugh.
Tags: bureau of public debt, FedBizOpps, Friday Fun, humor in the workplace
Republicans: If you want to "CLEAN UP" government, open a phonebook
June 4th, 2009 | Congress Procurement Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
In April, several senate Democrats, led by Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski, introduced a bill to convert some contracted work to federal performance and otherwise prevent the government from competing federal jobs with the private sector.
Mikulski’s “CLEAN UP Act” – short for “Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements Act” – drew applause from unions and criticism from industry groups. But now Senate Republicans are getting in on the act with their own bill designed to do the opposite.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced the “Freedom From Government Competition Act” yesterday. The bill mandates federal agencies rely on the private sector for commercially available goods and services.
The bill would codify what Thune calls the “yellow pages test,” meaning if government employees perform tasks found in the phonebook, then agencies should compete those jobs with the private sector.
Thune said in a statement:
This bill would ensure the government isn’t involving itself in areas that duplicate products and services that are available in the private sector and in doing so protecting taxpayer interests. This legislation would give private companies the chance to do the work which has been shown to save taxpayer money.
However, Thune’s news release also claims the bill will “not mandate the privatization of any federal service and would protect those activities which are inherently governmental, such as certain national defense and homeland security functions, prosecutions, foreign policy and activities to bind the United States to take or not to take some action by contract, policy, regulation, authorization, or order.”
Thune’s co-sponsors on the legislation are Senators James Inhofe, R-Okla., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Sam Brownback, R-Kan. and David Vitter, R-La.
Tags: A-76, AFGE, Barbara Mikulski, insourcing, John Thune, outsourcing, privitization, Senate
Breaking: Postal Service cuts more than 1,400 jobs
March 20th, 2009 | Postal Service Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
The U.S. Postal Service is slashing its administrative ranks by 15 percent and cutting 1,400 mail processing supervisors and management positions at 400 facilities across the country, the economically imperiled organization announced today.
In addition, the Postal Service is closing six of its 80 district offices, a move that will eliminate another 500 positions. USPS is also offering early retirement opportunity to 150,000 postal employees nationwide.
The actions are expected to save the Postal Service more than $100 million a year.
Affected employees will have four months to find work elsewhere in the Postal Service, at an equal or lower pay grade, USPS spokeswoman Sue Brennan said. The employees will be offered “saved grade” for two years followed by indefinite “saved salary,” meaning they won’t be given a pay cut, but also will not receive pay increases.
Brennan said there are a number of vacancies nationally that affected employees can fill. Those employees also have early retirement options, she said.
The Postal Service has been struggling to stay afloat in recent years due to declining mail volumes and growing competition. First class, single piece mail volume has declined to levels not seen since 1964. Conditions have been made worse by the national financial crisis.Â
Previous cost cutting actions taken over the last year were simply not enough to make up for the shortfall. In the last year, USPS has:
- Cut 50 million work hours.
- Halted construction on new facilities.
- Adjusted letter carrier routes.Â
- Froze salaries for executives.
- Instituted a hiring freeze.
- Sold underused facilities.
- Cut operating hours at some facilities.
- Consolidated mail processing centers.
In today’s news release, the Postal Service said the “bold actions” were taken because there are “no signs of economic recovery in sight.”
The National Association of Postal Supervisors, which represents the affected employees has this document breaking down the job losses. I was told that none of the union’s officers were available for comment today.
Tags: Postal Service, reduction in force
Do NOT reply to this e-mail
January 12th, 2009 | Information Technology State Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
It’s happened at countless workplaces across the country. Someone, on purpose or by accident, sends an email to the entire office and people start replying…to every person on the list. Inevitably, angry co-workers also start replying to everyone, chiding those who hit “reply-all.†Inboxes overflow with message after message.
Annoying yes, but cause for disciplinary action?
It could be if you work at the State Department, which was recently hit by a similar scenario that got so bad it nearly crippled the department’s unclassified email system. Now, according to a cable obtained by the Associated Press, senior department officials are threatening to punish anyone who uses the “reply-all†function on emails to large distribution lists.
The cable, written by Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, did not define what disciplinary actions could be taken against those who decide to “reply all†to emails. But he does instruct managers to tell their employees of “the negative impact of hitting ‘reply all’†and directs employees to simply delete emails received in error rather than responding to them.
“Anyone who disregards these instructions will be subject to disciplinary actions,” Kennedy wrote. No word yet on whether anyone deiced to reply all to the boss.
Tags: email, Patrick Kennedy, reply all
While You Were Out: Can we kick that cliche now?
December 29th, 2008 | Agencies Facilities Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
The General Services Administration issued a rule last week that effectively ended the relevance of that old cliché about government decisions being made in smoke-filled rooms.
The rule, published in the Federal Register on Dec. 22, closed smoking rooms in all federal buildings owned or leased by GSA. It also prohibited smoking in building courtyards and within 25 feet of doorways or air intake ducts. Agencies will implement the rule over the next six months.
While this will undoubtedly change federal culture for many, FedLine wonders if it will change the lexicon of political expression. Somehow saying decisions were made in smoke-free rooms doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Perhaps we’ll just start using “backroom deals†more frequently as a replacement cliché. Or maybe this will spur us to make a New Year’s resolution to kick the cliché habit all together.
Tags: Smoking
Mad managers
December 19th, 2008 | Transition Workplace | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Does the federal government have too many middle managers?
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to thin the ranks of management, especially in the Washington area, and shift more employees to “front-line” positions in field offices.
But the plan isn’t sitting well with groups like the Senior Executives Association and Federal Managers Association. A coalition of managers groups sent a letter (pdf) to John Podesta, the co-chair of Obama’s transition team, urging the president-elect to reconsider:
An arbitrary cut of managers based upon an across the board ratio for all of federal service is not the answer. Instead, we encourage you to think about the long-term impact that qualified managers have on the ability of an agency to meet mission critical goals.
The coalition wants the Government Accountability Office to study President Clinton’s National Performance Review, which eliminated thousands of management jobs, before Obama makes his own cuts.
What do you think — does the federal government have too many managers? How should Obama reorganize the federal workforce?
2009 pay raises are out!
December 19th, 2008 | Career Information Pay & Benefits Workplace | Posted by Steve Watkins
The widely anticipated pay raises for 2009 were just released this morning. In an executive order, President George W. Bush outlined how various pay schedules will be impacted by the 3.9 percent overall pay raise that Congress enacted. Also, the Office of Personnel Management released the new 2009 pay tables for the various localities.
Among the highlights:
- Basic pay under the General Schedule will go up 2.9 percent. The remainder of the 3.9 percent overall pay raise enacted by Congress will go toward locality raises.
- Among the 30-plus locality pay zones, employees in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore-Northern Virginia region will see the biggest pay hikes. Those folks will get an overall pay raise of 4.78 percent, including the 2.9 percent basic pay increase. That amounts to base pay plus 23.10 percent.
- Meanwhile, the lowest-paying locality zone — “Rest of the U.S.” — will see overall pay increases of 3.52 percent, including the 2.9 percent basic pay increase. That amounts to basic pay plus 13.86 percent.
- The highest-paying GS employees — which are those at GS-15 Step 10 in the higher-paying localities — will see their pay capped at $153,200, which is the pay rate for Level IV of the Executive Schedule. That’s up from the previous cap of $149,000.
- The maximum pay for Senior Executive Service members in certified performance-based pay systems will increase from $172,200 to $177,000, while the minimum pay will increase from $114,468 to $117,787. For SES members outside of certified systems, the max goes up from $158,500 to $162,900.
- Executive schedule pay increases from $139,600 to $143,500 at Level V, the lowest level, and from $191,300 to $196,700 at Level I, the highest level.
Now you can see what’s in your stocking for the coming year!
Tags: Pay & Benefits
Want a four-day work week?
November 19th, 2008 | Agency Management Career Information Workplace | Posted by Rebecca Neal
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced yesterday he believes President-elect Barack Obama may support a four-day work week for federal employees.
Such an idea has been bounced around for months, and some agencies already allow employees to telework or adjust their schedules to allow for an extra day off a week.
So, readers, would you welcome a 10-hour, four-day work week? Reactions I’ve received via e-mail are mixed. Some say they’d work harder in exchange for a three-day weekend every week, while others said the alternate work schedule would ease traffic in the Washington, D.C. area. Others criticized the proposal, saying a longer day would force them to enroll their children in expensive day care.
What say you?
Tags: Civil Servants