FedUpward Podcast - Tips for Federal Government Employees

Life insurance questions? FEGLI can be confusing and there's a new offering you might not know about - whole life insurance for feds. Brian Sigwart breaks it down for us. He's a Certified financial planner with Cummins and Associates Financial Group. He focuses his practice on educating federal employees how their benefits work. He has been providing financial wellness classes for over a decade at...

Dr. Jean Kanokogi, PhD, Director of Mental Health & Peer Support Services at the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and a current federal employee, joined me to talk about her work to support feds' mental health. She supports federal law enforcement officer resiliency and creates resources to support their mental health. Learn more about the legislation she's currently championing and h...

Learn how you can nominate your SES for an award honoring his/her service and ability to inspire, get details on the Key Leader Program and Dr. Malone's new book, Leading with Love and Laughter. https://www.american.edu/spa/dpap/roger-jones-award.cfm https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Love-Laughter-Letting-Getting/dp/1523093218 https://www.american.edu/spa/key/

If you are stuck trying to make sense of job classification, need your own position upgraded/changed, or if you need to do that for someone on your team, please meet David Bachrach.  (Nope, this isn't an ad.) http://www.bachrach.us and www.hrlearn.com With an emphasis on bringing clarity to complex situations, David is a management consultant with 20 years' experience providing HR advisory service...

Meet Daniel Hulter, the incomparable innovator within the United States Air Force. Daniel tells his amazing story of perseverance and how his experience being different led him to create community space for innovators within the Department of Defense and beyond. Daniel candidly shares his successes and challenges speaking his truth, seeking out like-minded individuals, and what federal employees a...

Katie Atkinson, who defends federal employees and teaches classes through the Federal Employment Law Training Group (FELTG), walks us through recent guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  You need to understand your rights as an employee and/or supervisor as federal agencies and departments set rules for returning the physical office.

If you're feeling like you might hit your breaking point at work or at home, you need to meet Shana Palmieri. She teaches methods to maintain your mental health, physical health and how to show concern for co-workers without overstepping boundaries. She teaches classes on maintaining your mental health in the federal workplace through the Federal Employment Law Training Group (FELTG). Find her at...

I chatted with Ryan Changcoco, the lead for government programming at the Association for Talent Development (ATD). He described how ATD's tools for talent development, leveraging members from private and public sector organizations, can help federal employees. ATD hosts the Government Workforce Conference (link below) to speak directly to us as feds about up-leveling skills and shaping our organi...

Jason Briefel is a partner (non-attorney) at Shaw Bransford & Roth, where he serves as Director of the government affairs practice. As SBR's Director of Government and Public Affairs he provides legislative and organizational representation to clients of the firm's government affairs practice, including serving as Director of Policy & Outreach of the Senior Executives Association. Mr. Briefel serv...

Rob Seidner of the Office of Management and Budget's Federal Human Capital Team explains what stinks about civil service rules and why... and what you can do to ensure you make the most of it. Rob's worked at the Office of Personnel Management, and currently works as OMB's Senior Career Staffer on federal human capital policy.  

Meet Razi Hashmi and Rabeah Sabri, the co-founders of Mosaic - the Muslim Federal Employee Association. They launched this week (May 2021) and want to support you in your career. The mission of Mosaic is to establish a professional network of American Muslims in the federal government dedicated to career advancement, leadership development, and diversity and inclusion. Mosaic advances their missio...

It's Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), y'all!! To honor amazing feds, the  Partnership for Public Service awards the Service to America Medals (Sammies) to deserving public servants working to better the nation everyday. Listen to my interview with 2021 Sammies finalist Mary Gibert from the General Services Administration. She discusses the work she did to prepare the Trump and Biden teams f...

It's Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), y'all!! To honor amazing feds, the Partnership for Public Service awards the Service to America Medals (Sammies) to deserving public servants working to better the nation everyday. Listen to my interview with 2021 Sammies finalist Mary Frances Matthews of Veterans Affairs. She discusses the work she does, and gives advice for new feds. https://serviceto...

It's Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), y'all!! To honor amazing feds, the Partnership for Public Service awards the Service to America Medals (Sammies) to deserving public servants working to better the nation everyday. Listen to my interview with 2021 Sammies finalist Kenneth Graham of the National Hurricane Center. He discusses the work he does, and dishes advice for new feds. https://serv...

Dr. Theresa Horne - Army veteran, former federal civilian employee, leader, coach, talent management professional - explains how you can get started with a succession plan and what diversity, equity and inclusion factors to consider moving forward. She offers strategies and resources to help you start thinking about how to set your team up for success as it grows and changes. Dr. Horne will speak...

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, recently fought to bring union representation back into EPA's physical spaces. Spoiler alert: they won. On the show to talk about recent events and what unions do, is steward Brian Kelly. Find Brian Kelly  @AFGE704_EPA To read more about the agreement between EPA and AFGE, visit  EPA Workers' Rights Restore...

We've worked remotely for over a year now and it's obvious that some level of telework will continue. Enter Alexis Gerst. She's an Air Force officer who saw a need and filled it. Her book, "Leading Remote Teams," chronicles her experience working through the pandemic shifts, bridging generational divides, and keeping her team engaged. Tap into the lessons she learned in this podcast.  Connect with...

Do you know your rights as a supervisor and an employee after the recent court ruling on performance improvement plans (the Santos v. NASA case)? Deborah Hopkins, president of the Federal Employee Law Training Group, covers what you need to know about the decision ,and about performance management in general.  https://feltg.com/ https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2021/03/landmark-ruling-court-raise...

I chatted with GovExec's Ross Gianfortune about how he ended up covering government issues, podcasting, what he thinks feds should read and listen to, and how to contribute articles if you're in an op-ed kinda mood.   https://www.govexec.com/?oref=ge-nav

Ever wished you could chat with a federal job recruiter and pick his or her brain for a bit? Kenny Rios, Diversity Recruitment Program Manager at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), chatted with me about cover letters, resume tips and how to get your foot in the door. He delivers no-nonsense advice that we all need.  https://www.intelligencecareers.gov/nga/index.html

Here's another professional organization that you should consider joining for the networking and development opportunities it offers. I chatted with national president of Federally Employed Women, Karen Rainey, to get her perspective on what she and her team offer. https://www.few.org/

Heard of the Senior Executives Association (SEA)? Did you know you can join as a GS-12 and work on some of the biggest challenges across government with high level executives? Mr. Marcus Hill, the highly respected SEA member and former senior advisor to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, chatted with me about what the organization does, upcoming events, networking opportunities and how t...

This month I'm continuing to focus on professional organizations that can truly help you move forward in your federal government career. I spent time with #NatSecGirlSquad's founder Maggie Feldman Piltch. We talked about the networking opportunities her organization offers, events, how to make the most out of membership, and the wave of women coming into important positions during this Administrat...

If you haven't already heard of the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund, you should listen to this episode with Joyce Warner and then head to: https://feea.org/ Don't miss out on the opportunity to apply for scholarship money. Click the link below for application instructions. The deadline to apply is Thursday, March 25, 2021, at 3:00pm Eastern Daylight Time https://feea.org/our-program...

Are you a student looking for paths into federal service? Or have you been in government for years and get asked all the time by your neighbor/friend/relative how to get a federal job? The Gov Geeks, Javier and Karen Lopez, have answers for you. They offer coaching and training services to public servants and in this episode, they outline three main avenues to federal employment. you can find them...