Bullying in the Workplace and Making Mobility Work

Bullying in the Workplace and Making Mobility Work by GovLoop Insights

Happy Wednesday March 21st 2012… So much to get to today!!!

Happy Wednesday… SO much to get to today.

On Tuesday, the House Republicans unveiled their version of the fiscal 2013 budget. There is a lot of stuff in there, as you might imagine. The budget wars are heating up again. Government Executive says the plan includes an extension of the federal pay freeze and a reduction in the federal workforce. We’ll get to some of those details in just a minute.

Let’s be honest… just as the Obama administration’s version of the fiscal 2013 budget is really just a vision document, this plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan isn’t going to get passed as is. But it is an important read because it gives you a real sense as to the issues in the debate.

Read the full Ryan fiscal 2013 budget plan… and read the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

And… Today marks the 6th birthday of Twitter — the now ubiquitous collaboration platform where people share 140 characters of information. It was on On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet.

And it’s GovLoop — we’re looking for your insights… How has Twitter changed government? how you do your job? how you get information?

On today’s program…

• Bullying doesn’t stop in middle school. Tips for dealing with a workplace bully with the Partnership for Public Service.
• Making mobility work…its not an easy 1,2,3…but you can do it, with some tips from our expert panel of federal CIOs and CTOs.
• We’ll talk about the New iPad… my first impressions…
• And how is your March Madness bracket doing? Not great? Well… we’ll tell you about the bracket that GSA has going on… it’s cool stuff…

All that ahead…

But as we do each day, after the break… we start with the stories that impact your life for Wednesday the 21 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…

• The Republican party’s version of the fiscal 2013 budget would have a impact on government workers.The proposal was released by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan on Tuesday. The bill seeks cuts well below the agreed to $1.047 trillion dollar cap Republicans and Democrats passed into law seven months ago.. The National Journal says the Republicans proposal cuts discretionary spending to $1.028 trillion for fiscal year 2013.
• Congressman Ryan’s budget proposal would also make big changes to your federal pay and benefits. The Washington Post says the blueprint would extend the federal pay freeze through 2015. It would also increase retirement contributions, having feds pay for half of their pensions. The proposal also calls for the federal workforce to shrink by 10 percent over three years. GOP leaders said the plan would save nearly $400 billion in 10 years, but the White House called it unbalanced and that it failed the test of shared responsibility.
• 2011 might go down in the history books as the year of the hacker. But that doesn’t mean all these attacks yielded many results. The National Journal says government efforts prevented cyberattacks from having any major effect on Defense Department systems. General Keith Alexander, who heads up US cyber command, told a Congressional subcommittee that while several loosely organized bands of hackers like Anonymous targeted defense networks and websites, Cyber Command successfully blocked the attacks.
• Major budget cuts to the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Office of Special Counsel could make it tougher for the departments to resolve personnel disputes and whistleblowers may have a tougher time getting a fair hearing. Federal News Radio says leaders of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Office of Special Counsel told senators they have no more fat to cut. MSPB chairman Susan Grundmann warned case resolution time would stretch beyond its current 98 days. Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner pointed out 89 percent of her budget went to people and rent.
• After two years the Obama administration’s national broadband plan failed to add many new broadband users. A group of technology CEOs released a study showing the percentage was stuck in the 68 percent range. TechNet reports that federal efforts to push broadband have been un-coordinated. The stagnant broadband adoption rate persisted even as millions more Americans acquired smartphones.
• A number of State Department employees here in Washington, DC are stuck at home for the second day in a row after a fire yesterday morning brought productivity to a stop. The Washington Post says the fire broke out on the fifth floor of the building at 2401 E Street, which is across the street from the main Harry S. Truman building. No word yet on what started the fire.
• And over on GovLoop, Do you watch the NBC Show Parks and Rec? No, its a comedy starring Amy Poehler. The show follows the workings of a local government’s park and recreation department. GovLoop member Jon Flood writes about the Parks and Rec Effect. He says the show might actually be having an impact on the way the Americans views public service. Its a really cool post and its garnering a lot of comments so head over to the site and check it out.

Workplace bullies
Tom Fox, vice president for leadership and innovation at the Partnership for Public Service

Unfortunately, some bullies don’t grow up, they just grow older. And dealing with a workplace bully can be just as challenging as dealing with a bully in middle school.Tom Fox is the vice president for leadership and innovation at the Partnership for Public Service. He wrote about the topic of workplace bullying in his column in The Washington Post… and it generated a significant response. I asked him what workplace bullying actually looks like.

On GovLoop: 12 Signs You Might Be A Bully by Paul Wolf

On GovLoop: How have you dealt with a workplace bully?

WashingtonPost.com: Federal Coach: Bullying at work

Mobile in the government workplace
Sean Carroll, Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development; Dr. Emma Garrison-Alexander, Chief Information Officer at the Transportation Security Administration; Lloyd Griffiths, Dean, Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University; Avi Bender, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Census Bureau

Mobile technology is fundamentally changing the way the government runs. And it is also changing how you work. There are a lot of challenges there in making the workplace mobile.

I moderated an AFFIRM panel dealing with this exact issue. And I got to talk with a array of technology experts: two federal CIOs, one federal CTO, and a university mobility expert. I started off talking with Avi Bender the CTO at the Census Bureau. Avi told me what the mobile workplace is….

On GovLoop: Yammering on about mobility but no real solutions…think again; Some solutions

See video of the AFFIRM mobile government conference.

Before we head out… a few closing items…

• The New iPad… Yes, I’ve been talking about it. I finally have mine in hand. I’ve been getting it all set up, but my first impressions: Screen is amazing. I haven’t noticed a speed difference yet. If you’re moving from some other tablet or an iPad 1, you’ll definitely notice a difference. If you’re moving from an iPad 2 to the New iPad (TNiP, I guess?), it is a less dramatic shift. That being said, I did find two interesting stories out there. The Fiscal Times writes about How Apple Is Changing Kids’ Brains. And some worry that Apples are leading to attention deficit hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and worry that children’s real-life social skills will be permanently damaged. Meanwhile, one 15-year-old says that they are just fine. And if you haven’t seen the video of the two-year-old trying to iPad a magazine…

Coming up tomorrow on GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER… We sat down with Waldo Jaquith the developer behind Virginia Decoded and Ethics.gov and discussed the importance of open source and open government and his plan to become the Johnny Appleseed of open source for government by taking his code across statelines and beyond.

That does it for us today. The producers of GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER are Emily Jarvis and Stephen Peteritas.

I’m Christopher Dorobek… Thanks for being here. Go out and do good work.

And we’ll see you online… DorobekINSIDER.com