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Federal News Radio
Ghosts of
former bosses
By Mike Causey
January 15, 2016
During the 8 years of a two-term presidency, most career federal
workers have the joy/slash heartache of serving under a number of
political bosses. Cabinet heads come and go. And the typical political
appointee, according to some estimates, lasts about 18 months. Some are
great, some are awful.
Sometimes the relatively short-time politicos move on to better things.
Sometimes they leave in quiet (they hope) disgrace. But they leave. At
least for a time.
Regardless of whether Democrats hold on to the White House, or the next
POTUS is a Republican, your odds of working for a recent or a current
political boss in 2017 are slim. But …
There is a much better chance that you may encounter or hear through
the grapevine that The Departed is back in government. Maybe at another
agency. The difference is that in their second-time-around mode they
appear as humble, low-profile civil servants who have laundered
themselves and emerged as regular folk.
The plan for the political-to-career feds is to work long enough to
qualify for a lifetime inflation-indexed annuity, and the federal
health program where the government pays roughly 70 percent of the
premium. Many people initially take political jobs to punch their
ticket and flesh-out their resumes. They use contacts made while in
government to get good private sector jobs, often in the field or
sector they monitored as feds.
But lots of hardened career civil servants think they’ve seen it all,
and continue to watch for resurrected politicals
For many years “burrowing” into the career civil service was a popular
survival technique among politicals. Especially as the days of a given
administration were numbered. Although nobody knows the actual numbers,
some, maybe many, got caught when honest, or revenge-seeking, career
employees ratted out their former bosses to Congress or the media. The
Office of Personnel Management started making a big deal out of orderly
transitions, and monitoring attempts to burrow into the civil service.
The result they have made it difficult, but definitely not impossible,
to leave a political job, launder oneself with some inside help and
return to life as a career civil servant someplace else.
In the past, many long-time feds know or heard of politicals who shed
their skin and went to ground. Some managed to have long — often
successful — careers, then retire as civil servants years later.
Whether that can still happen — and will happen this time —
remains to be seen. Remember these are usually very smart people. With
connections. The Office of Personnel Management has its anti-burrowing
regulations out.
But lots of hardened career feds who have seen it all wonder if
burrowing is a thing of the past. They will continue to watch for
resurrected politicals. The rule of thumb, one survivor veteran is “if
you see something, say something.”
Read this and other articles at Federal News Radio
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