Workforce

  • An exclusive Federal News Radio online survey shows feds are happiest when they work in offices where they can close their doors. Cubicles and open spaces with little separating them from colleagues are a recipe for distraction and lower productivity, they say. "My colleagues just pop up like prairie dogs and ask me questions all day," said one respondent. The survey is part of Federal News Radio's latest special report, The Federal Office of the Future.

    July 14, 2015
  • Politicians and the press have a taste for meat, says Senior Correspondent Mike Causey. Their most recent feast was a healthy serving of OPM director, well skewered.

    July 14, 2015
  • We know a little more now about both cyber breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. But there are still plenty of questions. David Snell is the director of the federal benefits service department at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. He testified before the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittees on Research and Technology and Oversight last week. He tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu that he's worried not just about the breaches themselves, but the lack of communication between OPM and the federal workforce since then.

    July 13, 2015
  • The risk of cyber attacks -- like the recent OPM cyber breaches -- are exactly the type of events risk management programs are designed to identify and plan for. The Treasury Department is one agency that has stood up an entire office to strategize enterprise risk management -- well in advance of OMB guidance for 2016. Montrice Yakimov is the chief risk officer for the Bureau of Fiscal Service at the Treasury Department and leads its Office of Enterprise Risk Management. She tells Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller why Treasury's mission itself prompted the agency to develop a risk management portfolio.

    July 13, 2015
  • Danny Werfel, the former acting IRS commissioner, sheds light on the challenges Beth Cobert, the new acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, will face leading an agency in trouble.

    July 13, 2015
  • The two cyber breaches at the Office of Personnel Management have got the attention of the media and federal managers. It’s also landed on the plates of many chief information officers. “Everyone in the government…

    July 13, 2015
  • It'll be a tough road ahead for the next director of the Office of Personnel Management after Katherine Archuleta resigned. That person will enter an agency trying to recover from the biggest known breach of federal employee data in history. But what can they do to ensure success? Danny Werfel has been there, done that. He was brought in to lead the Internal Revenue Service in 2013 after its administrator stepped down due to a series of scandals. Now a director in the Public Sector practice at The Boston Consulting Group, he joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to share his experience.

    July 13, 2015
  • What does the future hold for the Office of Personnel Management? Federal Drive host Tom Temin offers new steps for the agency to take following Katherine Archuleta's resignation.

    July 13, 2015
  • Is your government job a calling, just a living or a joke? Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says for many long suffering feds laughter truly is the best medicine.

    July 13, 2015
  • Federal News Radio speaks with Recreation News Editor Marvin Bond about interesting things to do in and near the nation's capital.

    July 11, 2015
  • A cyber breach to the Office of Personnel Management's background check database is much larger than originally expected. 21.5 million people are affected. The agency's response to employees has revolved mostly around identity protection. But the focus on the espionage aspect of the attack has not gotten as much support from the agency. Retired Air Force General Michael Hayden was director of the National Security Agency and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that if he had a chance to get that kind of information about government workers of another country -- he'd do it instantly.

    July 10, 2015
  • The Office of Personnel Management faces the daunting task of trying to make victims of its data breaches whole. Altogether there are more than 22 million people whose sensitive information was compromised in the hacks on OPM's personnel and security clearance systems. Alan Lopatin is the chairman of the Federal Postal Coalition whose member groups represent about five million federal employees and retirees. He tells Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp why he's advocating for more protection for data breach victims even before the latest details came to light.

    July 10, 2015
  • The cyber domain is often referred to as a new frontier in global conflict -- one that nations are still learning to fight in. But one expert says there are actually plenty of historical examples of conflict in cyberspace -- and that leaders need to study them if they want to understand what it means to win or lose in that domain. Jay Healey is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and senior research scholar at Columbia University. He tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu what it means to win in a cyber war.

    July 10, 2015
  • The federal government isn’t just setting up credit monitoring services for the millions of federal workers affected by the Office of Personnel Management cyber breaches. OPM is also pursuing giving all federal employees some type of credit monitoring

    July 10, 2015