If you must take leave from work because you are sick or need to care for a sick family member, you have a range of leave options that probably include: • Accrued or advanced annual leave. You may be advanced as much annual leave as you would be expected to accrue throughout the rest of that leave year. • Accrued or advanced sick leave. You may use up to 13 days of sick leave per leave year for bereavement or for caring for a sick family member who is not necessarily seriously ill; and up to 12 weeks of sick…

My June 25 column described a sample of fellowship programs for feds. By participating in such programs, you may enhance your success at your home agency. For example, participating in a fellowship program that would place you on a congressional staff would likely teach you about how Congress generates laws and agency budgets; political considerations affecting agency programs; opinions and misconceptions about your agency held by lawmakers and their staffs; and the prominent personalities on Capitol Hill. A congressional fellowship would also likely provide you with contacts among congressional staff — many of whom wield potentially pivotal power and may influence…

Want to gain experience, learn about timely policy issues, hone your leadership credentials, network, earn qualifications to enter the Senior Executive Service — or just climb out of a professional rut? If so, consider applying to one of the fellowship, training or education programs for feds. Costs are usually covered by participants’ agencies. Some programs: American Council of Technology and Industry Advisory Council leadership development programs. The Partners Program is for GS-15s or advanced GS-14s who are involved with business transformation, information technology management, program implementation, development or acquisition, and are considered promotable to the SES within the next three to five years.…

Each agency’s success hinges, to a significant degree, on how much its headquarters and field offices cooperate. As one GS-15 headquarters manager who has previously worked in the field said, “The field offices are where the rubber hits the road. So if you don’t understand how these offices work, it’s tough to get anything substantive done. I wouldn’t have traded my field experience for anything.” Still, relationships between headquarters and field offices can be strained. That is because of geographic distances, cultural differences, differences in the pressures faced by field and headquarters offices, and because of the limited opportunities for…

This column summarizes the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in agency field offices. The mission of field offices usually is to implement and enforce programs, policies and regulations issued by headquarters; provide feedback and progress reports to headquarters on these activities; and work with local media. These roles may require, among other things, trying legal cases, conducting inspection and monitoring activities, running research programs, issuing permits and conducting outreach activities. Field employees often have authority to make decisions faster than headquarters employees because the activities they manage often demand quick responses. As one headquarters media officer who has extensive field…

As the saying goes: “location, location, location.” So what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in an agency headquarters office in Washington vs. a field office elsewhere in the U.S.? In this column, I’ll describe the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in a Washington-area headquarters office. Some caveats: Conditions vary from office to office. And impressions and perspectives about any particular office would likely differ among staff members, depending on their personal preferences and individual circumstances. The mission of headquarters offices is to design and develop programs, policies and legally binding regulations; monitor implementation and enforcement by…

If you will be interviewed for a job via Skype and a webcam, review my March 19 column as well as these tips: Prepare. Review the description of your target job, practice answering likely questions, research your target organization, and craft questions to ask your interviewers, just as you should before in-person interviews. Rehearse. Role-play for interviews with a trusted adviser via Skype and your webcam in the same location and with the same lighting that you will use for your real interview, and while wearing your interview outfit. Center your body in the camera view, stay an appropriate distance…

Many agencies are cutting their travel budgets to accommodate cuts in their annual budgets. Because of this trend, more meetings that would require travel will likely be replaced with Skype meetings. To impress your colleagues and managers on Skype: Be serious. Treat Skype meetings just as seriously as you treat in-person meetings, and primp just as professionally for them as you would for in-person meetings. Know your fellow Skypers. When your Skype meeting is planned, collect the name, title and contact info of each participant. Check your technology. A few days before your meeting, check that your Skype technology works…

Here is some advice on responding to security clearance decisions and on maintaining security clearances that was provided to me by Derrick Dortch, president of the Diversa Group, a career consulting firm focused on federal jobs: • If you fail a polygraph test, your target agency will not necessarily inform you of this development — even though a failed polygraph would almost certainly doom your security investigation. If you are not informed of polygraph results within about two weeks of taking the test, ask the agency about your results and the status of your investigation. • If you are denied a…

Career consultant Derrick Dortch has reassuring words for security clearance applicants who are worried about being approved: “No one is perfect,” he said in a recent interview. “All of us have made mistakes and have blemishes in our backgrounds. So don’t assume that any mistakes you may have made in the past would necessarily doom your application for a security clearance.” A variety of factors, including the particular clearance policies of your target agency, would likely influence the importance of your mistakes or liabilities, said Dortch, who is president of the Diversa Group, a career consulting firm focused on federal…

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