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Survey: Views often rosier from the top in federal workforce

Survey: Views often rosier from the top in federal workforce

Federal employees protesting the government shutdown last month in Detroit. (Steve Perez/AP).

Federal employees protesting the government shutdown last month in Detroit. (Steve Perez/AP).

The federal government’s Employee Viewpoint Survey shows a significant disconnect between top- and lower-level workers when it comes to their outlooks on leadership and team dynamics.

The survey results, released last week, show that positive views often increase with rank. For example, only 28.2 percent of non-supervisor employees in the federal workforce said differences in performance are recognized in a meaningful way, compared to 51.3 percent of managers and 62.2 percent of executives.

MORE: Federal workers’ job satisfaction drops

The views from the top were significantly rosier than those among lower-level employees across the board in two survey categories dealing with leadership and team dynamics. Below are a few more examples we pulled from the results:

Continue reading “Survey: Views often rosier from the top in federal workforce”

Pentagon recalls civilian workforce

By Carlo Muñoz – 10/05/13 02:12 PM ET

The Pentagon has ordered roughly 400,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the worker recall in a department-wide memorandum issued Saturday.

After consulting with the Justice Department and Department of Defense legal counsel, Hagel noted furloughed employees could be brought back to the Pentagon, while still complying with federal guidelines governing the shutdown, according to the memo.

Civilian workers at DOD shown to play a role in the “morale, well-being [and]…readiness” of U.S. forces could be brought back, under federal rules, Hagel wrote. Continue reading “Pentagon recalls civilian workforce”

Government Shutdown Affects More Than Jobs

PR Newswire: news distribution, targeting and monitoring

Government Shutdown Affects More Than Jobs

American Geophysical Union Responds to Government Shutdown’s Impact on Scientists and R&D

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement is attributable to American Geophysical Union (AGU) executive director/CEO Christine McEntee:

“Science is essential to our economic stability, public health, and national security. It often represents the first line of defense against droughts, earthquakes, volcanos, and other natural hazards, and it allows us to make best use of the natural resources and mineral wealth that underpin our standard of living. Science-based products and services provided by government agencies support and protect millions of jobs nationwide.

For example, while monitoring infrastructure such as LandSAT satellites and the USGS stream gauge network will continue to collect data about the surface of the Earth, as a result of the shutdown no one will be there to analyze them and make them available to the public. Continue reading “Government Shutdown Affects More Than Jobs”

Our Democracy Is at Stake

Op-Ed Columnist

Our Democracy Is at Stake

By
Published: October 1, 2013 310 Comments

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

This time is different. What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.

What we’re seeing here is how three structural changes that have been building in American politics have now, together, reached a tipping point — creating a world in which a small minority in Congress can not only hold up their own party but the whole government. And this is the really scary part: The lawmakers doing this can do so with high confidence that they personally will not be politically punished, and may, in fact, be rewarded. When extremists feel that insulated from playing by the traditional rules of our system, if we do not defend those rules — namely majority rule and the fact that if you don’t like a policy passed by Congress, signed by the president and affirmed by the Supreme Court then you have to go out and win an election to overturn it; you can’t just put a fiscal gun to the country’s head — then our democracy is imperiled.

This danger was neatly captured by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, when he wrote on Tuesday about the 11th-hour debate in Congress to avert the shutdown. Noting a shameful statement by Speaker John Boehner, Milbank wrote: “Democrats howled about ‘extortion’ and ‘hostage taking,’ which Boehner seemed to confirm when he came to the floor and offered: ‘All the Senate has to do is say ‘yes,’ and the government is funded tomorrow.’ It was the legislative equivalent of saying, ‘Give me the money and nobody gets hurt.’ ” Continue reading “Our Democracy Is at Stake”

AFGE Statement on Government Shutdown

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 1, 2013

Contact:Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
kaufft@afge.org

AFGE Statement on Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement:

“The moment we have been dreading has arrived.  The House of Representatives has shut down the federal government, locking out 800,000 federal employees who want to go to work to support the American people.

“The seriousness of refusing the fund the government seems to elude the members of the House who maneuvered us into this lockout.  It’s anybody’s guess what their real goals may be:  Do they enjoy creating chaos?  Do they enjoy inflicting additional hardship on the working- and middle-class employees who provide services to the American public?  Do they hate the notion of letting the uninsured buy affordable insurance, or just hate the idea that the government is helping them do so?

“Or is this just an elaborate way to destroy the most popular and successful government programs, Social Security and Medicare?

“President Obama has promised that he will not negotiate to end this crisis, and we strongly support that position.  Recent similar standoffs have been resolved largely on the backs of federal employees, taking away our pay, retirement, and jobs.  This time, we expect the administration to hold firm, and resist the temptation to give in by cutting federal retirement or Social Security.  There is no justification for using federal employees to pay ransom.”

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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. For the latest AFGE news and information, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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