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.
