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Brittany Ballenstedt

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Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.

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New tech grads earn a lot more in industry than in government

January 31, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV College students majoring in computer science and engineering face a better job market upon graduation than their peers in other fields, particularly when it comes to starting salaries, according to a new report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The January 2013 Salary Survey report found that computer ...

Telework group expands into broader mobility issues

January 30, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Many federal agencies are moving quickly to implement telework programs to help cut costs, increase productivity and improve employee work-life balance. Still, the means to achieve those goals are extending beyond just telework, so much so that the leading public-private organization for federal telework is rebranding itself under a new ...

Feds like BYOD so much they’d consider paying their agency to update their devices

January 15, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Editor's note: Brittany Ballenstedt will be on maternity leave until mid-February. The majority of federal employees believe that mobile devices are making them more productive, so much so that many of them are using their own personal devices for work, even if their agencies lack of an official bring-your-own-device, or ...

Comfort for federal techs

January 14, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV With the threats of sequestration and additional budget and job cuts still looming at federal agencies, it might be comforting at least to federal technology professionals that unemployment in their field remains significantly lower than other job professions. Dice.com’s Tech Employment Snapshot for the fourth quarter of 2012 found that ...

Telework Keeps People On the Job Longer

January 14, 2013 Technology has been touted as a means for retiring federal workers to pass on their knowledge and expertise to tech-savvy new hires. But that may not be the only benefit it is having on knowledge transfer in the federal government. In fact, telework is playing a big factor in many ...

Job flexibility may slow boomer retirements

January 10, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Technology has been touted as a means for retiring federal workers to pass on their knowledge and expertise to tech-savvy new hires. But that may not be the only benefit it is having on knowledge transfer in the federal government. In fact, telework is playing a big factor in many ...

Maven madness: Apparently everyone’s an expert on social media

January 9, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Maven. Ninja. Evangelist. Guru. The Atlantic reports that these are all popular names that self-proclaimed social media experts are giving themselves, according to an analysis by Ad Age, which counted the most used social media titles on Twitter. In January 2013, the number of Twitter users with “social media” as ...

Those in charge of social media programs can be the ‘most lonely’

January 8, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Social media is having a profound impact at several federal agencies, with social media being tools used to improve how agencies carry out their work, fulfill their mission and engage with stakeholders. But not every agency has bought onto this trend, and ironically, the employee in charge of social media ...

Teleworkers are more motivated by autonomy than bonuses

January 7, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Telework has been touted as a means to help managers motivate their employees based on performance rather than the amount of time an employee spends sitting at a desk. And many of the characteristics that make a good telework manager – such as giving employees the freedom to decide how ...

Should We Ban After-Hours Work Emails?

January 7, 2013 Late last month, I wrote about some of the potential downsides to teleworking, particularly when it comes to work-life balance. And as workers kick off their 2013 round of career resolutions, it’s interesting to see that some companies are making at least one resolution for their workers as well: turn ...