A thank you note to all the govies – Plus your Thanksgiving Reads!

This past year has brought tremendous upheaval to the public sector. Sequestration slashed budgets, furloughs created backlogs and the shutdown shuttered progress. But through it all government employees stood tall and stuck to their mission. For that, we here at GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER thank you.

But it is not enough to just say thank you, no, we have to share the message of the good work that government does on a daily basis. Scott Gould, the former United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs said it best:

“You have seen the military from time to time, suffer from a separation from the people that they serve. If you are a veteran like me you may have felt this. It happens. Well oiled, mission oriented people, can be pushed away by the people that they serve. I want to ask you to reach out and make the case by your own actions, with your own employees. Show them you care by developing them, growing them, training them. But also take the effort to talk to that person who thinks you have two horns and a tail, reach out and communicate, make the case. Because we know the mission that matters, we know what you do day to day, but they don’t. And they are acting like it. That has to change.”

Tell us your story. What are you thankful for this holiday season? What have your employees, co-workers, bosses done to make you proud to be a government worker?

Here are some stories that make us proud:

• Air Force Saves More Than A BILLION Dollars on Energy
• Discover North Carolina’s New Tech Hub
• Landing Curiosity– Meet the Mind Behind the Rover
• Positively Defiant – How These Feds Focus on Mission
• Engaging Youth in Democracy Abroad – The State Department’s Youth Mission
• Getting the match right – mentorship made simple
• Meet the Bug Man – Who Could Be Saving Your Life

These are just a snapshot of the stories that should make the American people proud of their government. Send us your stories and we will do our best to get the good message of government out.

Thanksgiving Day Reads

If you need an escape from family time, here are some good reading materials:

• Building the social enterprise By following a few simple principles, leaders can realize the vast potential of social technologies to engage employees and transform organizations.
• How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management – Harvard Business Review
  • High-performing knowledge workers often question whether managers actually contribute much, especially in a technical environment. Until recently, that was the case at Google, a company filled with self-starters who viewed management as more destructive than beneficial and as a distraction from “real work.” But when Google’s people analytics team examined the value of managers, applying the same rigorous research methods the company uses in its operations, it proved the skeptics wrong. Mining data from employee surveys, performance reviews, and double-blind interviews, the team verified that managers indeed had a positive impact. It also pinpointed exactly how, identifying the eight key behaviors of great Google managers.
• Reduce Your Stress in Two Minutes a Day – Harvard Biz
• TedTalk: Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity