Workforce
Judge denies federal unions’ request to block mass probationary firings
The federal judge said in a preliminary ruling that the National Treasury Employees Union likely must first bring their challenge to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Workforce
‘Salting the earth’: Trump ends presidential management fellowships and federal executive boards
The move to kill a key pipeline for aspiring civil servants and regional agency councils reflects a desire to make it impossible to rebuild the federal bureaucracy, experts said.
Workforce
Social Security offers 40 probationary feds reassignments to avert blanket firings
Around 40 Social Security Administration employees were given eight hours—or until 4:30 p.m. Thursday—to decide whether to accept reassignments to a field or hearing office, teleservice center or payment center and avoid being swept up in the Trump administration’s purge of the federal workforce.
Workforce
Trump’s plan to slash the federal workforce isn’t the first, it’s just the worst
COMMENTARY | The triple-meat-cleaver approach to workforce “reform.”
Pay & Benefits
Senate Dem reintroduces Equal COLA Act, and more
A weekly roundup of pay and benefits news.
Workforce
Some fired probationary feds are receiving unexpected emails: 'You're re-hired'
Some offices within federal agencies are backtracking on their recent firing sprees.
Workforce
Thousands join class actions as fired feds weigh options to challenge Trump's moves
Former federal probationary employees are hopeful they can prove their dismissals were not actually performance based, as their agencies claim.
Updated
Workforce
Federal agencies are still firing probationary employees—most recently the Navy
President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading an initiative to reduce government spending, seek to shrink the federal workforce. Here are the departments and agencies where we have confirmed firings have taken place. We will update as we learn more.
Workforce
Dismantling government won’t make it more efficient–investing in it will
COMMENTARY | The work federal employees do is often invisible, but it’s always essential.
Workforce
Trump administration directs agencies to fire recent hires en masse
Thousands of employees were already let go as of Thursday, a number that is expected to skyrocket in the coming days.
Workforce
Trump orders agencies to plan for widespread layoffs and attrition-based hiring
The order tasks agencies to work in conjunction with Elon Musk’s DOGE to dramatically scale back government capacity.
Workforce
Making sense of the chaotic state of the civil service
COMMENTARY | Answers to eight questions you may be struggling with after the “deferred resignation” offer.
Workforce
Union chief: It’s not just a threat to federal employees
COMMENTARY | "Either we fight for our federal workforce now...or we will suffer the consequences of a government ill-equipped to protect and deliver for the taxpaying citizens of our nation," writes Doreen Greenwald, national president for the National Treasury Employees Union.
Management
Dems say thwarting Trump's controversial OMB pick is a top priority
The senators are still looking for a bipartisan coalition to vote down Russ Vought, a man they said "exudes hate for federal employees."
Workforce
How a pair of executive orders and a memo could fast track the civil service’s politicization
Good government experts warn that President Trump’s revival of Schedule F, inserting new criteria into the hiring process and demand for a list of all feds who are still on their probationary period portend a mass firing of career workers as the new administration seeks to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
Management
Government’s top career execs face new political oversight as Trump vows to get ‘rid of all the cancer’
New memo could boost transfer of senior executives, as the president did on a limited basis in his first term.
Workforce
The civil service system is a barrier to effective talent management
COMMENTARY | Government needs to adopt overhaul recommendations and “tailor employment policies toward specific occupations or labor markets.”
Management
Trump nominees offer praise to career feds, but promise efficiencies
The president-elect's picks to lead EPA, State and other agencies struck a different tone toward civil servants than some former Trump officials, suggesting the administration would lean on their expertise.
Pay & Benefits
Congressional Republicans dial up multiple bills to cull telework flexibility
The 119th Congress has started early on reintroducing or debuting new plans to reduce telework capabilities at federal agencies.
Management