For the last several months the TSP has been running a beta test of its new website. Many of you who have accessed your TSP accounts have been given an opportunity to test the site and to make comments. The TSP claims the new site is “Better. Faster. Easier.” and that it is “improved” and “user friendly”.
There is potential good news on the horizon for federal employees who plan to retire with a large annual leave balance. The news relates to the ability to contribute their annual leave balance to the Thrift Savings Plan.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has not been silent about its desire to change the federal hiring process which, it says, is too complex, takes too long and doesn’t get the job done in helping increase the size of Uncle Sam’s civilian army. Here is a significant change now being implemented.
Highlights from the Council meeting include approval of 24 implementation plans and return of 21. Permissive issue bargaining is apparently still a hot issue, and FLRA’s General Counsel and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will offer joint training on the Executive order.
“Poorly-paid federal employees cope as best they can. Many defer retirement and work into their late sixties or seventies. Some claim as many as thirty federal tax exemptions—this is a strategy that offers short-term relief and long-term headaches when the IRS catches on and garnishes their salary. Many work a second job.”
In the author’s last article, “Agencies Legally Discriminate Based on Sexual Orientation,” readers asked whether it is “really” legal for agencies to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation under the current law. Here is a response to these questions.
OPM recently encouraged employees to take an hour of administrative leave by walking from the office to view the area’s cherry blossoms. Is this a good idea? Our readers chime in with a variety of strong opinions.
The appeals court has sustained the firing of a VA Police Service lieutenant stemming from his treatment of a homeless visitor.
Discussion of “risk pools” and “call letters” from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) doesn’t sound very exciting. And, in most years, the issuing of an OPM call letter doesn’t generate much press publicity in the federal community. This year may be different though.
If the federal government’s deficit could be closed by increasing taxes, how much of an increase would be necessary? This article clearly illustrates the degree to which our government is spending money compared to what it is bringing in.
