Know what changed before the rumor reaches you.
The Federal Employee Briefing brings together three important stories, plain-English context, and practical legal or mindfulness guidance.
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You do not need to wait for the crisis to understand your rights.
Start with the need in front of you: current information, practical preparation, steadiness under pressure, deeper education, or case-specific legal help.
Choose your route
The right next step depends on where you are.
Information is most useful before choices narrow. Preparation is not panic; it is a way to keep options open.
Build the record while you still have access.
Organize your SF-50s, performance evaluations, position description, awards, and relevant communications within your agency’s security and records rules.
Hear the full case-file episodeProtect the decision-maker inside you.
Mindfulness cannot change the deadline or erase the conduct. It can help you see clearly, document accurately, and respond without making the record worse.
Explore toolsUnderstand the system before it is testing you.
Courses, briefings, and community at The Mindful Federal Employee turn complex federal processes into practical preparation. You can also start free by browsing the federal-employee blog.
Visit the education hub blogTake individual facts and deadlines to a lawyer.
Southworth PC’s confidential intake process is the right destination for an active federal employment matter—not a public comment or personal-site form.
Start confidential intakeRights before crisis
A calmer career is often a better-prepared career.
You cannot control every policy change. You can improve the quality of the information you will have when a decision arrives.
- Know where your current SF-50s are
- Retain performance evaluations and awards
- Understand your appointment and probation status
- Keep a lawful, contemporaneous chronology
- Learn the deadlines tied to your process
- Separate agency records from personal copies
- Follow security and records-management rules
- Ask for help before an option expires
This list is general preparation, not instructions for removing government records or restricted information. Follow your agency’s security, privacy, and records rules.
“Tell the truth. Don’t overstate things. See clearly enough to choose the response that protects you.”Shaun Southworth · Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Understanding the process
Facing proposed discipline or removal?
Shaun and Lydia explain why the document you received matters, how they approach the record, and why an individual matter needs individual guidance.
Read the transcript
The Merit Systems Protection Board exists to protect the merit systems. So for a federal employee who’s facing a major employment action, such as a removal, a reduction in grade, a suspension that lasts 15 days or longer, if they are facing one of those things, they can choose to challenge it before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
I would say the first thing that an employee should do if they get a removal notice is determine exactly what type of document they are holding in their hand. Are you holding a proposed removal or are you holding a decision for removal? Because those are two very different things. They’re two different actions that come with different sets of rights and different deadlines.
So a federal employee can challenge many of their actions before different forums, the EEOC, the MSPB, or the OSC, figuring out which one of those forums and in which forum they can raise, which arguments and which election of remedies apply and how that works practically speaking is so complex.
The Merit Systems Protection Board requires agencies to prove charges against the employee and to prove that they followed their own policies in the action that has been taken against an employee, to know if what’s being charged actually matches what is in the record. I want to know who all is involved. I want to know if this employee is somehow being treated differently than other similarly situated employees.
At Southworth PC, we take on MSPB work because it’s what we specialize in. Most of our attorneys are former federal employees. Everybody is driven by the mission to help federal employees to protect the civil service. If your civil service is worth protecting and you receive a proposed discipline, you should contact a federal employee attorney to see if we think they can help you if that’s something that you think you might be interested in challenging.
Know the boundary
Education is not an assessment of your case.
Do not send confidential facts, documents, or deadlines through Shaun’s social media comments or this personal website.
The Federal Employee Briefing
Don’t wait for a crisis to learn how the system works.
Three important stories, plain-English context, and practical legal or mindfulness guidance—delivered for federal employees.
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