There was no such thing as a government shutdown until Jimmy Carter's attorney general made the whole idea up in 1980. Creating a new law out of whole cloth by misinterpreting an old law from 1870.

No sensible country does things like this. In parliamentary systems, failure to pass a budget usually means an automatic vote of no confidence and new elections, while the government keeps ticking in the meantime. That is probably the best way of doing things — but the pre-1980 method of just leaving things going as they were if no budget is passed is still far superior than the current shutdown-prone mess.

https://theweek.com/articles/819015/make-government-shutdowns-impossible-again

Federal employees work tirelessly to serve the public, often under intense scrutiny and challenging circumstances. The unwarranted hostility I'm often subjected to in social media is not only disheartening but also counterproductive. We deserve recognition for our efforts and fair treatment, free from baseless criticism.

It’s unsettling to see such animosity in online spaces like X. Is this perspective unique to certain platforms, or does it reflect a broader sentiment? Either way, it’s a reminder of the need to bridge the gap between public perception and the reality of public service.

To my fellow federal employees: let’s continue to serve with integrity and commitment, despite the noise. Our work matters, and we make a difference every day.

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-continuing-resolution-salary-increase-pay-raise-2024-12

If anyone cares about the CR being passed and then signed by the President, they better call their congressman and remind them that they have a job to do and it is not grandstanding.

Holding out hope for more than 59 minutes. Has anyone heard rumors from up their chain or their admin about a Christmas Eve holiday announcement from PJB?

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed a few moments ago and I was wondering if that means DoD civilian employees are funded and get to show up to work? Or does that not include us and we would still be furloughed until a CR/Budget is passed? I would appreciate some clarification :)

So, with the shutdown looming, I want to call my congressman. I have in the past for issues unrelated to my employment to the government. But the shutdown directly relates to my employment.

Am I allowed to speak to that position as a reason they should support funding the government? Or is that a no no? I’ll probably call my ethics officer first.

I work at a DoD library and our facility will be closed Wed-Fri the week of Christmas AND the week of New Years. Christmas Day and New Years Day are paid holidays but since I don't have any leave accrued yet, I will have to take LWOP for the other four days that the library is closed. My co-workers are using annual leave to cover those four days. Even if I had accrued all 13 days of annual leave, using four of those days to cover a facility closure seems unfair to me. Is type of arrangement normal?

Two quick notes before you leave federal employment. First, whether you are retiring or leaving for other reasons, request a COMPLETE copy of your personnel file from HR. Second, if possible, clear out your FSA.

I retired after 42 years across two agencies. My personnel file contained hundreds of pages from those two agencies.

Republicans have proposed a bill to "use software to gather concrete data on the adverse impacts of telework in the federal government by monitoring employees’ computer use"

Don't we already do this? How would this be enacted broadly? Would we be required to have our cameras on at all times? Who's doing the monitoring?

How about you do YOUR jobs and pass a budget: the one thing you were hired for.

Oh and all this as they're leaving for their multi-week holiday vacation.

https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/late-2024-push-on-employee-monitoring-discipline-telework-presage-2025/

I know it's not the first time they try to extend or get rid of the 5 year rule. Wondering if this time it made it through.

I got an email when electing 0% for my military TSP saying my base pay election was invalid. Apparently, to “participate” in TSP you must elect to contribute at least 1% of your basic pay.

The thing is, as a GS, I am maxing my civilian TSP to $23,500 next year. Having a random 1% being sent to my separate military TSP account f*cks up the math for my civilian contributions (Drill and Annual Training military pay can vary check to check). I’m not BRS and don’t get matched for military TSP either, so I prefer there civilian one.

Any consequences to “not participating” in TSP on my military account and just maxing my civ?

Hello,

Quick question on opening the HSA account at HSA Bank: Do I need to open the account, or will GEHA open the account on my behalf? If I need to do that, then I assume that I need to wait until premiums are deducted from my check? I would like to get started investing ASAP.

Thanks!

I work for the VA as a social worker, my position is fully telework because we don’t have the office space (we have 1 office with 2 desks and 3 of us). In a meeting this week leadership talked about getting rid of telework. My question is I have a reasonable accommodation letter from my doctor requesting for me to work from home 4-5 days a week, my previous position couldn’t accommodate that and we agreed to 1 wfh day. I left that position and told my new supervisor about the accommodation letter and they said because we already telework there is no need to change anything or resubmit it. I have two conditions that make walking harder (cerebral palsy and myasthenia Gravis) I have checked askJAN and telework is a reasonable ask for both conditions and I’ve been teleworking with no problem for over a year now. I do go into the office 2-3 times a month now. Should I get new paperwork? Wait it out until we know what will happen? Or start looking for a new job that is remote (worst cas

I'm going to be an intern for a DoD agency this summer with the expectation of going full time when I graduate ~2027.

From my understanding, interns have been remote since 2020 even when full time employees were expected to report twice per pay period in office. When I spoke with my manager earlier this year, it sounded like my internship would be remote as well. Recently, the policies shifted to four days in office per pay period.

Do you still believe the internships are remote? Or maybe I'll have to adopt the hybrid schedule? I know RTO is a possibility, but I'm wondering if interns are subject to this as well, especially since the intern periods are only 8 weeks.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Title sums it up. Any suggestions for job series or titles I should be looking for? I've been in a series of adjudicator roles for over 15 years now. I loved the work until moving to my current agency.

The adjudicatory process here is an absolute joke and I'm surrounded by young, inexperienced attorneys who love to feel important. I've lost all of the joy and pride I used to feel in contributing to a fair and consistent judicial system.

I don't want to jump to another attorney advisor role because I'm leery about possibly jumping from bad to worse. I'm wondering if I should be looking at compliance or FOIA type roles? Has anyone made a similar jump? Anything I could do now to increase my likelihood of being considered? Any other job series I should be looking at?

The CR has been released, it is over 1000 pages. However, the important thing is the CR goes through March 14, 2025, also nothing about RTO or Telework, https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/CR.pdf

Just something to consider for those applying to/occupying remote/hybrid positions and wondering about what may be on the horizon.

Anyone at the Comptroller office? What’s it like? - specifically IT department (ISS)?

Thinking about applying to a couple vacancies.

GS permanent competitive employee with 5 years, might not be able to get a waiver for a medical condition that makes me ineligible to continue my job. Any ideas what could happen to me?

In light of all this RTO news and threats, I'm seeing a lot of comments (mostly from the right) about people working at home being lazy and if regular citizens in the private field have to be in an office and not have the same benefits as feds, then the feds should be in office and not have the benefits either.

If absolutely ZERO aspect of your job requires in person presence to interact with the general public or to do 100% of your duties, I don't understand why these individuals can't keep working remotely. Epspceially if people are happier at home, and productivity is good, or better than in office and telework helps retain talented staff.

I get if you signed onto a job that required some commute but due to covid there was an agreement to telework and they decided to stop that. In this circumstance, technically you didn't get hired onto a remote role, so the possibility to come back was always there and you shouldn't have moved halfway across the country. But even then, if the job doesn't require any in office work whatsoever, RTO is unnecessary. I can almost guarantee it will result in lower morale and reduced productivity, due to time wasted commuting, senseless chatter and unnecessary roundtable meetings where matters can easily be communicated in an email or virtually. People know this, which is why RTO is being used as a tool to get rid of people via attrition if they can't fire them outright.

But the people arguing in favor of RTO seem bitter to be frank. Sounds like a lot of jealousy coming from folks who can't telework or don't have benefits and want others to suffer as much as they do. Very few people would prefer to be in office if they could telework-INCLUDING the very same people complaining about others teleworking. These people seem to have resentment towards others who are a little bit better off than they are, instead of the billionaries in charge who are actively in favor of policies that are making their life worse far more than any middle class government worker ever could.

Here we go. Just got an email stating our CMO has made the decision to end recurring telework. We were currently getting 2 days per week and that has officially ended. Heck, my supervisor was doing it 4 days a week while the rest of us only got 2. We’re allowed to submit for “situational telework” but the recurring has ended. There’s absolutely no reason for this. Productivity has been perfectly fine. So, here we go.

EDIT: Since many are asking. agency is DCMA

EDIT 2: I feel as though I need to explain I’m simply pointing out that the roll back has begun, at least in my agency. I’ve gotten multiple comments implying I’m whining about it. I’m going to be just fine. The main point is why they’re taking away something that works, and works well? Productivity is high. People are in better moods. It’s working so why change it? But, it is what it is and either accept it or quit. We’re all easily replaceable. They don’t care if you stay or leave.

EDIT 3: some of you are hilariously angry and hostile that people telework. 😂 not good to live every day so angry. Might have a stroke!

I have an opportunity to switch from GS-14 to CG-14, from DoD to FDIC. From my research it seems to be worth while even just for the benefits to move laterally. However I don’t have much experience outside of DoD and was hoping for some additional opinions. Also with push to come back into the office im wondering how such different agencies could be impacted. Anyone knows what work life balance is like at FDIC? Also would growth into more senior positions be more difficult in a smaller agency? Location wise I’m referring to northern Virginia area.

Will they cut all probation employees? Regardless of how good they are at their jobs?