Returning to the Physical Workplace May Be a Morale-Buster for Many

Last week, FELTG held its first in-person open enrollment training since March 2020. While we’ve done a few onsite classes for agencies over the past two years, most of us have been stuck in Zoomland on days of the week that end in -y. (That said, thank goodness for Zoom.)

We had some interesting (face-to-face!) discussions last week about how the return to the workplace transition was going at various agencies. And it turns out that a LOT of employees don’t want to report back at all because they’ve been successfully doing their jobs from home for the last two years.

Return to the workplace requirements are drastically impacting things like employee morale, retention, and more. We’ll keep you posted as we learn what agencies can better do to prepare for Navigating the Return to the Post-pandemic Federal Workplace.

In this month’s newsletter, we discuss whistleblowing, post-Santos guidance, pronoun use, and much more.

Take care,

Deborah J. Hopkins, FELTG President

The Good News: New MSPB’s Recent Whistleblower Decision Makes a Lot of Sense

The new, fully constituted three-member MSPB (HOORAY!) sure surprised the heck out of me with its recent decision in Skarada v. Department of Veterans...

She/Her/Hers, He/Him/His, They/Them/Theirs: Pronouns in 2022

There are many polarizing topics (abortion, gun control, COVID-19 vaccines, political affiliation) in this country. We’re going to address another t...

Supervisors Should Learn to Recognize Signs of Suicidal Ideation

[caption id="attachment_5760" align="alignleft" width="237"] Shana Palmieri, LCSW and FELTG Instructor[/caption]...

Post-Santos: Timing, Precedents, Retroactivity in Performance Cases

Most Federal employment law practitioners remember the day last year when the Federal Circuit issued Santos v. NASA. It set a new requirement for agen...

No BS: Prepare Your Agency for Possible BA.5 Wave

Folks, it ain’t over yet.  Forget the crowds of unmasked frolickers you’ve seen on your summer adventures or the lack of above-the-fold headlines...

Ask FELTG: Can Discipline Be Used as a ‘Prior’ to Aggravate the Penalty?

An employee is issued a decision to suspend dated July 1. The dates of the suspension stated in the decision are August 3-7.  If any misconduct tha...