News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

SECTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

10th Annual Federal Quality Conference

Get more information on this special conference and download a brochure and registration forms from our special conference section.

U.S. Navy International Logistics Symposium

Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton will be a guest speaker at a three-day International Logistics Symposium sponsored by the Navy International Programs Office in conjunction with the American Society of Naval Engineers, July 14-16, 1997, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Crystal City, VA. Representatives from government, industry and foreign nations will meet to exchange ideas and review exhibits on a variety of logistics topics related to the Navy's Foreign Military Sales program. For program information contact NAVSEA (703) 602-9000.

The following news summaries are usually from OPM AM, the daily newsletter of the Office of Personnel Management. OPM AM is available on OPM Mainstreet, the agency's electronic bulletin board, at 202-606-4800.

**TSP OPEN SEASON**The Thrift Savings Plan Open Season runs through July 31. During this time, you may begin contributing to the TSP, change the amount of your TSP contributions, or allocate TSP contributions to your account among the three investment funds. To get more information and download the forms you will need, click here.

THE FEDERAL DIARY--OPM announced several key job changes among its executive staff...and...OPM has extended the period in which federal agencies can let employees take early retirement. The early-out runs until the end of this year (The Washington Post).

EARLY OUT--"In a sign that the government continues to downsize and restructure, the Office of Personnel Management will allow federal agencies to offer employees the option of voluntary early retirement through the end of this year...But eligible employees should not assume they will be offered an early out (The Washington Post, Stephen Barr).

FEI EXPANDING--OPM Director King broke ground Wednesday for a new building at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA. The new building should be competed in April 1998 and is expected to allow FEI to conduct more training (The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA).

OSHA--The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is using a new interactive program that simulates the decision-making process of a health and safety expert in the field and is available for free on OSHA's Web site (The Washington Post).

SICK BUILDING--Eight more federal workers in a Baltimore federal building were overcome by fumes and taken to the hospital. Health investigators are baffled by the mysterious fumes that have sent twenty-six people over a two-week period to the hospital (The Sun, 5/29/97).

TEAM WORK--Agencies using work teams can make appraisals less time-consuming and more effective by using team improvement reviews. The idea is to get everyone on the team together in one room at once and let everyone give feedback to everyone else (Federal Human Resources Week, 5/26/97).

TIME STACKERS--Time stackers are busy people who juggle two or more tasks at once. The behavior is rampant, especially among well-educated professionals. Some experts say the construction of double-and triple-decker lives is taking a toll on mental and physical health (USA Today, 5/28/97).

OVERLOAD--E-mail overload can cause messages to take hours or even days to reach their destination. A senior vice president of marketing at America Online, says the on-line service never experiences full-scale outages processing the 14 million messages it handles daily--but there are delays (The Wall Street Journal, 5/29/97).