Some federal managers see HR officials as a necessary evil or an obstacle to overcome in getting a job done. Developing a relationship of trust between a supervisor and HR specialists can make the job of a supervisor easier. Here is a view from a former federal human resources officer.

The Internal Revenue Service does not play around with any employees who play games with their individual tax returns. The MSPB and a federal court recently upheld this theory as an IRS employee with improper deductions loses his appeals and his job.

A Postal Service employee gets a big win from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. He had a sleep disorder that led to excessive drowsiness and he was late to work frequently. He gets another shot at disability retirement as a result of a new court decision.

A GS-6 accounting technician argued that a 120-day suspension was retaliation against her for union activity after she was charged with several offenses including making false accusations against a supervisor. A federal court, however, finds the suspension was not an abuse of the agency’s discretion.

An Immigration Judge fired for repeated use of “sexist and ethnically insensitive generalizations” and profanity, failed to persuade the federal appeals court to overturn the Merit Systems Protection Board decision that upheld his firing.