September 2016 Federal Employment Law Training Group Newsletter

znewsAll Your Civil Servant are Belong to Us

I have no idea what that means. My son, the Computer Guy, tells me that it is a take-off on a meme derived from a poorly translated video game from about ten years ago. He further defines a meme as a “unit of cultural transmission,” something of no inherent value that nonetheless is shared and appreciated by individuals within a community as an ethereal embodiment of a part of that community. And thus, it hit me; the FELTG Newsletter is a meme. Started on a whim, broadcast around the solar system for free with no inherent value, read monthly by tens of thousands of individuals within the federal employment law community. Yes, you can spend your agency’s bucks by subscribing to “official” publications of serious value and without typos. But you won’t get that same sense of camaraderie, that “we’re all in this boat together” feeling anywhere else but right here in the FELTG Newsletter. We write to help you feel good about yourself, to perhaps make you smile, and on occasion, pass along some bit of information that hopefully will help you run the government better. In some ways, we’re like one of the original huge memes, the Numa Numa guy. You’ve seen him singing to himself and to the world like nobody’s watching. One website describes that video clip as a movie of someone who is having the time of his life, wants to share his joy with everyone, and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.” That’s not far from the FELTG Newsletter, “a publication written by people having the time of their lives, who want to share that joy with everyone, and who don’t really care what anyone else thinks.” We hope that when you read us, we help you to feel good. Now, if you want to have a moment of feeling good outside of our newsletter, go waste some government time and revisit this guy; if he doesn’t make you smile and do arm pumps, you don’t belong to us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk

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EEOC Issues New Guidance on Retaliation Claims

By Deryn Sumner Last month, the EEOC issued revised Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues.  The Commission last issued such guidance in 1998.  Since then, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, which came into effect on...

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Yes, But Who?

By William Wiley Here’s another article in our series of advisories to the new incoming President. Hey, you may know a lot about building golf courses or flying around the globe acting all “Stately,” but here at FELTG, we bet you don’t know diddly about federal...

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Fox News Could Have Used This Report a Few Months Ago

By Deryn Sumner My colleagues and I are never going to see settlements in the range of $20 million dollars, as Fox News agreed to pay out a few days ago, after being hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Gretchen Carlson and others.  But harassment in the...

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Making EAP Referrals

By Barbara Haga This month we are exploring what a referral to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) looks like. Referral in Daily Practice Years ago OPM had a film that I often used in supervisory training on EAP.  In fact, I used it so many times I can practically...

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