June 2018 Federal Employment Law Training Group Newsletter
A few days ago, Samantha Bee said something that caused a big uproar in a lot of places. Well, I’ve closely reviewed what she said, and I’ve decided that she used a word that I find I should be using more often. Sadly, it’s a word that applies to too many practitioners in the business of federal employment law. Read no further if you’re easily offended, but the Samantha-Bee adjective of the week that we plan to start using more often here at FELTG is … feckless. Look it up on The Google and you will see feckless defined as “irresponsible, useless, worthless, incompetent, inept” and a few other choice synonyms. Recently, I had an agency attorney argue with me in a class that it is illegal for the proposing official in a disciplinary action to indicate a level of discipline: feckless. In another class years ago, I had a “senior HR specialist” tell me that before a supervisor could issue a Reprimand, he had to issue 23 Warnings: feckless. A senior management official once told me that it would be impossible to determine if an employee was performing unacceptably in fewer than six months: feckless. Yes, “feckless” has now become my second-favorite “F” word (you’ll find my Number One favorite f-word at the end of this newsletter). So, come to our FELTG seminars. Learn how to hold employees accountable expediently and fairly. Don’t make me use the f-word when describing something we hear you have said or done. We may be a tiny little training company, but we know how to hurl insults with the Big Dogs. And, the Big Bees.
Handling Social Media Threats from an Off-Duty Employee
By Deborah Hopkins, June 12, 2018 Here’s an email we received after a recent training program on managing employee behavioral health issues in the federal workplace: Dear FELTG, thank you for an excellent presentation today on behavioral health issues. I had a...
Religious Objections to LGBT Rights: What Prevails in the Federal Sector?
By Meghan Droste, June 12, 2018 As you may know, June is Pride Month—a time to reflect on the history of the LGBTQ rights movement and to celebrate the advances we have made. The timing is connected to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, which were a significant...
Are the New Executive Orders Legal and Do They Require Immediate Changes?
By William Wiley, June 12, 2018 As most everybody knows by now, last month President Trump issued three Executive Orders aimed at the world of federal civil servants. Here at FELTG, we’ve already published an article on the effect these EOs have on holding employees...
The Two Sides of EEO Reprisal Protections: Participation and Opposition
By Deborah Hopkins, June 12, 2018 Reprisal is a word that strikes fear in the hearts of supervisors everywhere. Indeed, we’ve seen a few cases where seemingly-minor behaviors were found to be EEO reprisal. For the purposes of this article, we’ll define reprisal as...
Tips from the Other Side: LGBTQ Terminology and Concepts
My Meghan Droste, June 12, 2018 “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” Mark Twain’s excellent note on word choice is a lesson we can all learn from...
Understanding and Supporting the Bipolar Employee
By Shana Palmieri, June 12, 2018 Have you ever noticed an employee or coworker who seems to have severe mood swings? I’m not talking about normal good day/bad day fluctuations, but episodes where the person is so hyperactive you can’t slow him down, or so depressed...