http://www.psretirement.com/federal-employees-receive-boost-in-pay/Weekly Newsletter: Sharp Mind

Weekly Newsletter: As we live longer and longer in retirement it is our hope that our quality of life will keep pace with the extended years.  We go to the gym and participate in  activities to keep our physical selves in tact.  To have mind, body and soul working in perfect synergy is where we would all like to be.  I am inspired to pay tribute to a lady who kept her mind sharp to the end.  She passed away today – May, 28, 2014, at the age of 86, and wrote her last tweet on May 23, 2014.  I think that is a remarkable testament to how being actively engaged in learning can keep our minds sharp until the end.

A woman who graced us with more than 30 books, allowing us to peep into her very florid life through six writings of her autobiography, yet she gave us just a bit more to think about in the end.  She told us that she knew why the caged bird sang.  She invited us to  sing, swing and get  merry like Christmas, and she also told us that we all needed traveling shoes.  What a remarkable ride this woman took us on even lulling us to say simply, very simply with hope Good Morning – Good morning to a life we deserve to live with sharp minds, strong backs, quick feet, and happy hearts knowing we have worked hard to make useful and worthy contributions to our country.

And when we retire and have given our all to make a difference in someone’s life maybe even the world, we can take a page out of a phenomenal woman’s life where all who hungered for knowledge and wisdom sat at her feet, heard her teach as no one else could, and lovingly called her Auntie Maya.  Maya Angelou, the poet, the teacher, the preacher, the phenomenal woman – you leave us words to strengthen our minds, you leave us your last tweet – “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”   Read and read, write and write, engage our minds so that we will perhaps tweet something when the time comes about the wisdom of retiring well.  Good morning Auntie Maya. This concludes our weekly newsletter.

P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Dianna Tafazoli

Weekly Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter: The brave men and women who serve in the Armed Forces provide a service to the nation that is unsurpassed.  They make tremendous sacrifices, even putting their lives on the line to protect the nation’s borders.

These selfless men and women often leave their families behind for long periods of time, missing out on the birth of children, watching them grow, birthdays, the first day of school; things most of us take for granted.  Although many families travel around the world with their service member spouses, often deployment means being stationed where safety is an issue and families must be left behind.

As the world has changed and continues to change, and opportunities in the military are extended to both men and women,  children are often found without either parent left to be raised by grandparents and other relatives.  The commitment and sacrifice these parents make are indescribable.

Taking care of Vets when they return home is often a lengthy  legislative discussion of cost and affordability.  A discussion may be warranted just to determine program implementation, but that should be about the extent of the discussion.  Whether to promote the programs should never be a point of contention.  Men and Women who wear the uniform of the various branches of the U.S. military should be welcomed home and honored as heroes both in war time and in times of peace.

There has been a lot of noise about Vets not getting the health care services they so desperately need and amplified in recent months.  This is news that should merely be an aberration and not an everyday struggle for Vets and their families.  Vets should not be without appropriate and timely health care, including mental health services.  Vets should not be homeless or jobless.  They should not have to beg and wait and wait for benefits to be approved.  When these individuals went into the military and signed on the dotted-line, their signature said ….”I submit to lay down my life for my country.  I sacrifice all to protect not only my family, but those I don’t know and will never know because simply put, they reside within the borders of the nation I love and have sworn to protect.

To a nation where such an ultimate sacrifice has been made, how can we in earnest deny any of our Vets and their families anything short of a respectable life with the resources to assure such a status. We hear many negative things about services to Vets.  I had the opportunity a few years back to participate in a study for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  I had the privilege of meeting with the head of a VA hospital in Atlanta, Georgia – Mr. James Clark.  I take the liberty of using his name because it is my opinion that managers who get it, should be celebrated and applauded.

Mr. Clark knew what service delivery was and what excellence in service delivery meant to Vets and their families.  He knew a thing or two about succession planning and the importance of diversity and inclusion that covers the wide-expanse of America’s multi-faceted quilt.  As I left his office and was given a tour of the hospital, I was struck by what was undeniably and visibly at every conceivable exit of the hospital’s complex – a statement that read something like this —–Please do not exit this building before letting us know how we are doing in providing you the best service possible and how we can do it better?

I haven’t seen him since my visit, but I did call him a couple of years after and he graciously took my call.  I wanted to ask if he might speak to a young woman who had a future interest in heading up a VA hospital.  I could not think of a better mentor than Mr. Clark.  He probably never knew  I had such high regards for him.

To the men and women who wear and have worn the uniform of the United States military, those still with us and the fallen, we salute you.  We celebrate you and honor you for your service.  We thank you for your sacrifice.  We stand with you in your fight to be recognized as America’s heroes deserving of all you need and all this great nation has to give. This concludes our weekly newsletter.

P. S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Dianna Tafazoli

Respect in the Federal Workplace

Our previous post discussed an individual being forced to retire as the only possible solution to being harassed and bullied.  Harassment and Bullying certainly have no place in the federal workplace, but we know that is often not the case.  Organizations post sexual harassment policies, perhaps some even have highlighted anti-bullying policies.   I think, however, all organizations could take a page out of the United States Postal Service’s playbook.  They have put it very simple and direct to the point – TREAT EMPLOYEES WITH RESPECT.  That’s it.  If we can treat employees and each other with respect, the problem of disrespect, which is what harassment and bullying sum up to, would rapidly dissipate.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) states very emphatically

“That it is committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment and fostering a climate in which all employees reach their highest potential.  The Postal Service will not condone harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identification or gender stereotypes.  Managers and supervisors must take appropriate steps to maintain a workplace free of threats or harassment – actual or perceived.”

Everyone, not only managers and supervisors, has a role to play in reaching this goal.  Employees should: Treat co-workers with respect and dignity. Examine attitudes and actions toward those with different orientations or backgrounds. Speak out when they witness harassment in the workplace.

USPS encourages employees to report variances from this policy to a manager at their earliest opportunity. Managers and supervisors are obligated to conduct prompt and thorough investigations of any allegations of harassment and “to take corrective action when warranted.”

The USPS has covered all bases making certain that every single person in its organization understand that they have a role and responsibility to safeguard the workplace and it inhabitants by being vigilant in creating an environment that respects all employees.

The USPS did not stop short of placing equal responsibility and onus on managers and supervisors as well as employees.  The USPS’s policy regarding respecting and protecting the dignity of all employees is by far the most comprehensive I have every witnessed.

After working for the greater part of one’s adult life, looking forward to a retirement from federal employment that brings comfort and stability, it is hard to imagine that those dreams could be shattered by having to leave a job, a position, an agency because the harassment and bullying was just too much.

If you see something that looks strange or sounds strange in the workplace, even if the action is not directed towards you, speak out. It just might help some deserving employee retire on their own terms.

P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Bullying in the Federal Workplace

Does bullying only happen on the playground or in classrooms amongst elementary, junior and high school students?  If the parameters were that contained, we might be able to get a better handle on it.  Bullying takes place in almost every venue and avenue we can think of.  The saddest report is that it takes place in the federal workplace.  I was asked the other day if bullying were the same as harassment.  I thought about it for a moment and then I said, “Let me think about it while I prepare for my next class and I’ll give you my thoughts.”

I rarely respond to such profound questions without exploring the subject matter deeply.  Even more so because I sensed the woman posing the question had a very painful and personal reason for doing so.

Webster defines HARASSMENT as such: To annoy or torment repeatedly and persistently.  To impede by repeated attacks or raids.  To wear our, exhaust.  He also defines BULLY:  One who is habitually cruel, especially to smaller or weaker people.  To intimidate with superior size or strength. I told her in my estimation bullying and harassment were virtually the same.  Each encompasses habitual or repeated annoyance to someone whether that someone be smaller in stature or position.  It is the taking advantage of someone whom you feel lacks the standing or position to level the playing field.

I further told her that there are laws that protect individuals from harassment/bullying and the workplace should be particularly cognizant of such behavior. I explained that action to prevent it and stop bullying and harassment should be swift and unyielding.  Whatever we want to call it, to make someone so uncomfortable that they fear your presence or fear coming to work, to school, to the playground, the library, home or countless other places and situations are an unbearable predicament to be in.

Then I had to separate realty from the law.  We have many laws that are designed to stop and prevent.  However, laws are written and can only be enforced by legal means often taking an exhaustive amount of time to actually realize a remedy.  Preventing and stopping harassment and bullying is the responsibility of parents, families, communities, churches, schools, places of employment and each of us individually.

My explanation did little to heal her wounds of suffering for more than 15 years at the hands of her supervisors (superior size and strength via their position).  After becoming literally exhausted, she retired without being financially or emotionally ready.  She felt she had no choice, because her supervisor was the head of the agency and she felt the climb was too steep to make a difference.

Now here is the lesson.  Harassment and bullying are not reported because it is specifically happening to you, but because if it happened to you, it will inevitably happen to someone else.  It is like discrimination, it is not a raindrop that only falls on your head, it sort of rains all over and who knows where the rain will fall.  Harassment and bullying are pervasive and deadly.  We need to stop it in its tracks and we need to be very stern and deliberate about it.

Making our world safe and free of harassment, discrimination and unwanted sexual advances are the responsibilities of everyone.  The next post will feature what the United States Postal Service has to say about safeguarding all of its employees.  I think they have said it best.  They have made it all inclusive and have covered the kind of ground every employer needs to.

Retirement should never be because you have become exhausted due to ill treatment, cruelty, consistent and habitual tormenting by someone you feel has the power to make your life miserable.  Remember these two evils – harassment and bullying or this one evil can come from anyone, any place and at any time.

P.S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Respect Is A Huge Word

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Don’t Be a Target as a Federal Employee

The Federal Employee a very special group.  They are often identified as people who have money especially when then reach retirement age.  With those thoughts in mind, federal workers become the target of many scams and unsavory plots designed to swindle them out of their money.  Individuals looking to take advantage of federal workers, including postal workers, see two things – an aging population and a good government pension.

There are a few things you can do to protect yourself from scams and individuals who don’t have your best interest at heart, but rather are trying to find a way to empty your wallet.  When something sounds too good to be true, it generally is.  These individuals look, talk and act like legitimate business men and women.  They’ll tell you that they can turn your annuity into a golden nest egg if you purchase one of their courses but often won’t be from a company you have ever heard of. You might be invited to attend a seminar that promises to show you how to control and make money from the stock market when everybody else is losing money in the stock market.  But if these presentors had all of the answers would they be teaching this course, or would they be sitting on a yacht in the Carribean?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to increase your resources, grow your money; just make sure you are doing it through venues you can trust (a few pointers about financial professionals and federal employees).  You are definitely a target because it is well known that you have a pension income and perhaps some substantial savings as well.  Just visit one of the seminars I am describing and the only people you will find in the audience are generally people who are considered senior citizens, the newly minted retiree.

If the seminars are there to make people rich and show them how to increase their money, then why not target all age groups.  If you are looking for people with money, then many younger workers have good salaries and might have a few dollars stashed away as well.  These fast talking, polished marketeers are looking for vulnerability and access to your cash.

Of course, they’ll give you a nice meal at some hotel they’ve negotiated a pretty good bargain for in order to further legitimize themselves.  Here is a basic question you should ask yourself when you receive one of those shiny invitations in the mail about how a seminar is going to change your life and your entire future.

It is said that Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in the world who knows a heck of a lot about investing and ebbs and flows of the stock market. Here is the question.  Have you ever received an invitation in the mail from Warren Buffett promising to help you learn the secrets and the mysteries of the stock market so that you can get rich?   You never have and you never will.  What makes the people who want to show you how to get rich different from Warren Buffett?  They are trying to get rich from selling you a bill of goods.  He is already rich and it didn’t come from  hosting seminars teaching people how to get rich.  It is sad to say, but true – the average human being is just not that altruistic.

Oprah tells us how to live our best life.  Iyanla tells us how to fix our lives.  Dr. Phil tells us to confront our problems. T. D. Jakes tells us to get ready, get ready and Joel Olsteen tells us to receive it.  None of these wonderful people, most  who have substantial holdings and great financial wealth have ever and will never invite you anywhere and tell you how they are going to make you rich.

There is a reason why Florida leads the nation in Medicare fraud.  Senior citizens and the elderly are targets for all kinds of sophisticated and unsophisticated scams.  Talk to your family members, someone you can trust when you think about opening your purse or your wallet to pay someone to show you how to become rich.  You worked hard to earn the right to retire and live comfortably and secure in your retirement.  Beware and don’t let someone take your security away from you.

P. S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Weekly Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter: Who will keep the fires burning as current federal and postal employees look towards retirement?  It is estimated that more than half of the federal and postal workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years or before.  This estimate represents a huge drain of institutional knowledge on the largest workforce in the world.  It not only represents a huge drain, but threatens the continuity of expansive services these workers bring to the world.

Whose job is it to fill the potential gap in service delivery or is it necessary to fill the gap?  The question could be answered in a number of ways.  Most apparent would be that the leadership of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would be first on the firing line to ensure services and personnel qualified to render those services are in the pipeline of next generation federal and postal employees.  Not so obvious would be the workers themselves, who would become a part of the continuity of services by participating in and championing the need for succession planning in-action; part of an ongoing day-to-day strategy to pass on critical information to employees holding positions subordinate to their own.

Great ideas come from collaboration inclusive of all levels of an organization.  Imagine the feedback if OPM would send out a survey asking each employee to give at least 3 things that could be done currently to ensure continued service delivery after an individual retires.  We receive not because we ask not.  Federal and postal employees are imbued with information, knowledge and know-how that is absolutely remarkable.  Allowing such massive and critical data to leave when these valued workers exit the workforce would be the greatest breach of data harnessing imaginable.

Now let’s address the other part of the question – the necessity to fill the gap.  There are a number of individuals who think the government is too big, that there are too many employees.  In order to make that assertion with validity an exhaustive study would have to be initiated to determine the number and kinds of positions that would be needed to carry out the mission, goals and objectives of the federal and postal service going forward.  Until that is done, the notion remains merely an assertion.  It is however, good planning to determine the future needs of an organization as the world evolves and via technology becomes smaller and more integrated.

I am not endorsing any particular strategy in our weekly newsletter because I don’t have enough information to make an informed situation.  I am qualified to say that proactive Succession Planning is a key strategy that should be prioritized across government and industry. Whatever the course taken, it is the responsibility and the charge of federal leadership guided by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ensure that all  services within federal parameters are properly executed under the umbrella of the United States’ overarching goals.

The next generation of leaders in the federal and postal service stand waiting to keep the fires of our government burning.  Their success depends on the passing of the torch from the dedicated men and women who have served so gallantly before them. This concludes our weekly newsletter.

P. S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Dianna Tafazoli

Weekly Newsletter: PAYING HOMAGE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

Weekly Newsletter: Law Enforcement Officers, whether they are local police officers or members of the elite Secret Service assigned to protect Presidents and their families, all make significant contributions toward ensuring the safety and protection of all citizens. Law Enforcement Officers often do not get the kind of applause they should, and perhaps some of the owness, rests with them.  But in large part the nation owes a debt of gratitude to these men and women who put their lives at risk to keep our streets and borders safe.

Americans have the good fortune of getting up everyday going about their affairs almost in an oblivious manner.  We don’t consciously in most of our towns, cities or states think about whether it is safe to leave our homes.  We are used to living with the ease to go and come as we please without constant  fear or danger.  We enjoy those feelings because we are conditioned to feel safe as a result of the organized presence of law enforcement.

This is certainly not to deny that we live in a time where violence and killing have become more than mere aberrations; but yet we still embrace an overall sense of safety and well-being.  Tragic incidents like 9-11, Columbine, New town, Boston and many others not rising to the level of front-page newsworthy silence us for a moment, but we rise as a nation and begin again.  We live in a nation where order is a high priority.  We live in a nation where a 3 digit number can be dialed and someone will respond to your emergency.  All human-engaged systems have glitches,  ours is no exception.  But we keep using our failures and short-comings to try to make good systems excellent systems.

To Law Enforcement Officers, we applaud you from the White House to the  hallways of our nation’s schools.  We applaud you from the local jails to Federal prison systems, our museums and airports, vigilance on land, sea and in our expansive skies.  We also honor and applaud LiteBlue, the postal police and inspectors who work hard to ensure packages delivered to our homes and workplaces are safe.

To the men and women in law enforcement uniforms, we are safer because of you. This concludes our weekly newsletter.

P.S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Dianna Tafazoli

Weekly Newsletter: Shelter in Place

Weekly Newsletter: The tornado season is upon us.  The past week rounding out the month of April brought much devastation to families caught in the path of tornadoes.  Heavy rains caused roads to give way creating huge sink holes. Flooding was up and down the East coast.  What does bad weather have to do with Federal and Postal employees.  The answer is EVERYTHING.  These workers make up the largest workforce in the world making it highly conceivable that the workers and their families or someone they know will be impacted by disaster whether an act of nature or man-made.

Because the Federal Government takes the possibility of such occurrences very seriously a program called PREPARE-ATHON shelter-in-place is a part of the government’s emergency preparedness efforts.  The workforce actually has practice drills to understand what to do in case of such an emergency.  When something unforeseen happens, the first instinct of the average individual is to leave the facility where they are and rush out to gather children and other loved ones.

Although it is a natural instinct, it might not always be the safest step to take.  Shelter-in-place programs are becoming more and more wide-spread because if workers can best be protected where they are and children can best be protected where they are, perhaps not the ideal situation for parents, then it might be the best and safest course to stay where you are.  That is easier said than done, especially for parents of children of any age.

We are reminded of the terrible winter storm in Atlanta where children were not able to leave their schools for safety reasons and parents could not get to them.  When parents did try to reach their children, the massive pile up on the roads and expressways of Georgia were like a back-up we had never witnessed.  Cars had to be abandoned and children had to sleep in schools for more than one night.

There are many disasters that happen thus the reason for emergency preparedness plans that the workforce is thoroughly familiar with.  The largest workforce in the world must be prepared to respond to such emergencies.  In addition to the Prepare-A-Thon program, the Federal Government has a Dismissal and Closure Guide that outlines everything employees need to know.  There is also an Occupant Emergency Plan.  None of these programs are effective if the largest workforce in the world is not thoroughly familiar with them.  If your agency is offering the Prepare-A-Thon program individually or in tandem with other agencies, participate so that you will be prepared and you will also be prepared to help someone else.

Employees can take initiatives on their own by designating individuals in their agencies to be Emergency Preparedness Captains of Information.  This only means that the Captains of Information are charged with staying abreast of safety and emergency offerings of their employer – the Federal Government and passing that information down to their colleagues.  Email news alerts are great, but brown-bag lunch gatherings give workers to collaborate and discuss what they think they would do in case of an emergency.

Based on the information discussed, Captains of Information could determine if OPM needs to add additional information to their emergency plans or if they have answered the call as is.  Helping to get prepared is a burden we should all want to share.  There is safety in numbers.  For more information go to READY.GOV. This concludes our weekly newsletter.

p.s. Always Remember to Share What You Know