Federal Sense: Recent Episodes
Friendly HR Guy
Welcome to Federal Sense, a podcast aimed at helping supervisors with those challenges unique to the federal government. New supervisors, experienced supervisors, or someday supervisors, I think you can get something from this podcast. As an HR guy I spend most of my day answering questions from supervisors who think the answer should be common sense, but you need more than common sense, you need Federal Sense. Each episode I give my opinion on the best way to handle real world issues supervisors face everyday.
Hello, do you have an employee who accuses you of harassment, retaliation, or discrimination, even after multiple investigations shows there is no inappropriate conduct from you? Wonder why HR doesn’t seem to care? Then this is the episode for you. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
Although you as a Federal Supervisor have resolve, do the people above you? Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
A contract EEO investigator emails you with a bunch of legal language about an EEO complaint from a year ago, NOW WHAT? Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
For supervisors with employees on a CLP track, it’s ok to hold that promotion. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
In this episode I talk about how the textbook answer is great on paper but rarely works. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
A manager calls with questions about addressing performance, but upon closer look the issue is more conduct than performance. Here I discuss the importance of first figuring out what type of issue you have before being able to start an action plan. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
If you aren’t having the best time in your PMAP meetings with your employees listen to this, it will help. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
A fan of the podcast asked for some advice, he started his new federal manager job a couple weeks ago. Listen to what I told him. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
In this episode I talk about the common problem of receiving an accusation of harassment. Harassment- Severe and/or pervasive conduct motivated by a legally protected characteristic or activity. Hope you enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
If you have an employee who doesn’t seem interested in training or 1-on-1s be careful trying to force that training. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
Thought I already did this one, but here I talk about writing performance elements. This is a little off the cuff, but good stuff about writing great performance elements. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
What if your office metrics are great for the year? Do your employees deserve all 5s? What does their Performance Plan say? In this episode I talk about how to discuss this with your employees. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
New managers, have you ever had a slippery employee that seems like they are stealing time, moving leave around like a shell game? This episode is for you. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
Today I talk about performance and conduct and give specific examples that I keep seeing. This will help you, as a new manager, figure out which one you have. Federalsense@gmail.com
I talk about administrative grievances, PMAP, and election year issues with the Unions. Hope you like it, federalsense@gmail.com.
Part 2 of the Unions series - Formal Discussions. I talk about how formal discussions should be handled and how to know if a meeting is a formal discussion. Enjoy! federalsense@gmail.com
A Weingarten meeting is an investigative meeting between one or more management officials and one or more bargaining unit employees. I talk about how to handle these investigative meetings as a supervisor in the federal government. Enjoy! federalsense@gmail.com
Part 1 - Reserved Management Rights and how they relate to the Union. Enjoy! Federalsense@gmail.com
In this intro I talk about my 4 part series on everything you need to know about The Unions. Being a new supervisor in the Government means a big part of your job involves working with the unions. Reserved management rights, formal discussions, Weingarten meetings, conditions of employment, administrative grievances, and a lot lot more. Enjoy! federalsense@gmail.com
A 2nd line supervisor emails me asking a question, I give an answer I know she will not like. I talk about how the job of a 2nd line supervisor differs from a 1st line supervisor. If you manage managers this episode is for you. Enjoy! federalsense@gmail.com
If you are a confident manager you can skip this one. I go over what I consider the most effective management style. I talk about what you should focus on and what you should ignore. I do a deep dive into what I think is important and what is a waste of time. Please don’t send this episode to your boss as a passive aggressive way of telling them they are a bad supervisor. Enjoy! federalsense@gmail.com
A federal supervisor needs to know about the Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. In this episode I talk about your role as a supervisor. What you can do and say and what you shouldn't do or say. Most of this stuff is common sense, but some of it is federal sense. federalsense@gmail.com
As a new manager in the federal government you need to know about reasonable accommodations. I breakdown the process and what you need to know about your role as the supervisor. Missing this episode could get you into the funny pages. Send questions to federalsense@gmail.com.
Each episode I give my opinion on the best way to handle real world issues supervisors face everyday. Today I want to talk about the Indicator Light! On Skype or MS Teams there is an indicator light that shows the status of the employee. Green for active, red for busy, or yellow for inactive. It will also show how long someone has been inactive, such as “inactive for 3 hours”. About two or three times a month I get the following message: “I need help with one of my employees, his teams says he has been inactive for three hours”. In this episode I go over how to handle this issue. I also cover requiring video in virtual meetings. I hope you enjoy, email the HR Guy with any questions at federalsense@gmail.com.