Senior Status

Radio station WTOP in DC uses a line I can relate to: “News and weather on the eights.” It seems that my life has had news and weather on the eights, as well. In 1948, I was born on Boxing Day, right after Christmas. In 1958, my parents bought their first house, where I grew up and they lived until they died. In 1968, I had my first federal job, a summer Congressional intern on Capitol Hill. In 1978, the Civil Service Reform Act was passed, the basis of my life’s work. In 1988, the great state of California foolishly awarded me a passing score on my bar exam. In 1998, I was promoted to Chief Counsel to the Chairman of MSPB. In 2008, Ernie Hadley and I converted FELTG from a tiny non-profit organization into the behemoth juggernaut of a training company that it is these days. And it is today near the end 2018. The civil service is in flux, the political tides are a changin’, and Deb Hopkins is now a better lawyer than I ever was. Time for me to take my rest. It has been a wonderful ride. Attention in the FELTG Nation! Ms. Hopkins has control of the ship. I stand relieved.

[Hopkins note: We won’t let Bill get away that easily. He has graciously agreed to continue teaching the world-famous MSPB Law Week, and we’ll see if we can convince him to occasionally make an appearance elsewhere.]

How to Save the Merit Systems? Whitaker-ize!

Oh Lordy, we’re about to lose the civil service. Way back in 1883, Congress created a federal civil service based on merit instead of patronage. The...

Who Says AWOL is NBD?

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching a class to supervisors. The topic was discipline. We were discussing AWOL and how serious an act of misconduct i...

Restock Your Manager Toolbox in 2019

When my son decided to move from South Florida (a place he’d lived his whole life) to the Northeast last winter, the wife and I bought him everythin...

Tips From the Other Side, Part 12

One common theme in a few of my articles this year has been timeliness, such as the timely filing of formal complaints and the timely completion of in...

How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Breach?

This month’s earworm comes to you from The Sound of Music. Although not a seasonally relevant film, it has been stuck in my head for weeks. That’s...

Get Off the Pot

As our readers know, we strongly advocate that supervisors use the legal tools of civil service due process when confronted with an employee who is no...