Because Democracy is Not Free — we all have to work at it
I’ve turned in my statement of non-frivolous allegations of constructive discharge, but decided not to post them for now as I contemplate the effects that exposure may have on unintended individuals. I think this goes back to the whole “free will” debate about how much choice an individual can exert in an oppressive culture. For [...]
From Raw Story, a tale of yet more “heckuva job Brownie” awards. FEMA staffers who posed as reporters have been given promised promotions for their loyalty. For some reason however, Pat Philbin, the individual orchestrating the bogus gala, never got the promotion he was in line for. Taking a cue from FEMA, Julie Myers staged [...]
Whistleblower Groups Ask President to Fire Bloch, says Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Quite frankly, the public doesn’t seem to care about the head of OSC: his incompetence, malevolence and antithesis of mission. That’s because they’ve never heard of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an office charged with protecting government whistleblowers. I’ve had [...]
Let’s see: We have a forestry service, whose mission is conservation, logging trees on protected land. We have a watchdog agency retaliating against its own employees. And, we have a labor department openly permitting sexual harassment of minority women. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fcivilservicechange.org%2F%3Fp%3D55′; addthis_title = ‘US+Government%3A+Like+Fahrenheit+451′; addthis_pub = ”;
With the flip of a coin, participants in the Stanford Prison Experiment were deemed guards or prisoners. None had records of arrests, medical conditions or psychological disorders. By the end of the experiment, participants were torturers and tortured. The chilling 1971 experiment, originally scheduled for two weeks, had to be shut down after just six [...]
“Julie MacDonald . . . should never have been allowed near the endangered species program. This announcement is the latest illustration of the depth of incompetence at the highest levels of management within the Interior Department and breadth of this Administration’s penchant for torpedoing science. Today we hear that seven out of eight decisions she [...]
Refill your canteen; that may have been the only useful advice I received from Ms. Steno, the documentary therapist. Essentially, what she meant was that if you choose to fight, be sure that you know what brings you joy in life. And, pursue that joy with a fervor, because you will need it to counter [...]
This lesson is a clarification to management lesson one on the Employee Assistance Program. Even if your boss approves of using your employees as escort services, do not issue official memoranda disavowing friendship in the office. This is particularly true if you are being investigated for sexual harassment. If you work for Human Resources, do not assist employees in [...]
Even the brave know when to flee. As I review my last few months in federal service, I believe I should have fled much sooner than I did, and that I should have been even more fearful than I was. This weekend, my friend’s mother and I were discussing my experiences. What was interesting for [...]
A person who represents himself has a fool for a client While the age-old adage may be true, I think it is important for the public to see exactly how much work goes into these cases, and how difficult it can be for the average person to sift through the convoluted verbiage. One misstep, and [...]