Leadership is difficult in any environment, but leading in the federal government comes with unique challenges, and frankly, government leaders aren’t receiving rave reviews from their employees.
An analysis of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® data by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, reveals that leadership in the federal government is one of the lowest ranked out of 10 workplace categories, with a score of only 54.9 out of 100. Keep reading →
An annual study of internet security vulnerabilities released today concluded that “2011 was the first year that mobile malware presented a tangible threat to businesses and consumers.”
The findings, released by Symantec Corp., showed that mobile vulnerabilities nearly doubled, increading by 93% in 2011, with a particular rise in threats targeting the Android operating system. Keep reading →
In an effort to ensure taxpayers won’t be footing any more big bills for lavish Las Vegas parties, lawmakers have approved the first of what could be several new rules governing events for federal workers.
The House voted Wednesday to approve the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) to set new standards for federal agencies planning outings. It includes a $500,000 spending cap on conferences held by individual agencies and would require every agency to disclose what they are spending on contracts on a single public website. Keep reading →
As part of a plan to upgrade technology and support a mobile workforce, Federal Aviation Administration inspectors are taking part in a pilot project using iPads to conduct safety checks on airline carriers.
About 50 of the FAA’s 3,300 inspectors are testing the mobile devices in a six-month pilot project across a range of airports, FAA’s Chief Technology Officer Douglas Roseboro told Breaking Gov. Keep reading →
Email in the workplace is credited for both increasing productivity — and hindering it. Most of us groan about hours and hours of answering email, and analysis shows that most communication that happens via email is unproductive. In 2010, organizations lost about $1,250 per user a year in productivity due to spam, and up to $4,100 per year due to emails which were written poorly.
However, as the Economic Development Administration recently discovered, it is not so easy to get by without email either. A computer virus took out the agency’s entire computer network for a total of 81 days, forcing employees to rely on fax and ‘snail mail’ for paper communications. Though workers at the agency found ways around the lack of email, they did find it challenging. Keep reading →
Many believe leaders are born, not made. Chris Inglis disagrees.
The National Security Agency’s Deputy Director explained why at the annual Federal Senior Management Conference in Cambridge, Maryland. He kicked off the event at a Sunday evening dinner reception by recounting a memory of a first meeting with about a dozen federal workers he was about to manage. Keep reading →
General Services Administration officials used the pretense of fake awards programs as a way around federal travel expense rules in order to hold dinner events at taxpayers’ expense, according to a report today by Roll Call, citing an interview transcript it had obtained.
The transcript of the interviews, conducted by GSA’s Office of Inspector General, show that the problem of abusive spending practices may run deeper than first reported when GSA’s inspector general released a critical April 2 report that the agency spent almost $823,000 on an October 2010 Las Vegas conference for about 300 people. Keep reading →
With Baby Boomers exiting the workforce and budgets becoming increasingly strained, there will continue to be a high level of employee turnover in every sector — and government is no exception.
High attrition rates are often considered negative indicators of an agency’s health, but last week GovLoop blogger Doris Tirone wondered: “Is there an upside to high turnover?” Keep reading →
White House officials confirmed that President Obama today is appointing Todd Park as the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer, stepping into the position formerly held by Aneesh Chopra.
Park will have “the important task of applying the newest technology and latest advances to make the Federal government work better for the American people,” said John P. Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the man who will be Park’s new boss, in a White House blog posted just after 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. Keep reading →
Apparently one of the biggest challenges teleworkers had during a week devoted to the practice was remembering to bring power cords to their workspaces.
The common snag was indicative of what GSA Administrator Martha Johnson said remains the main challenge when it comes to transforming federal workers into a mobile workforce. But ironing out these issues, Johnson said, are what Telework Week is all about. Keep reading →