I continue to officially be a resident of San Diego, CA, but spend quite a bit of time (about a month at a time) in the D.C. area, doing some consulting work. I can't seem to make a clean break from the Federal personnel business.

The fact is that there's quite a bit of consulting work available in the HR field. But that's a sad commentary on the way things are these days. Every HR office seems to be contracting out both the operational work and anything that requires some thinking. Seems that there are fewer and fewer folks around who know how to classify a job, prepare selection factors for a job vacancy, or prepare a Letter of Caution. So the consultants are now doing all this work that used to be the personnel office's bread-and-butter, and by extension, the reason that the office was an integral part of the organization. Before too long, every aspect of what we remember as personnel work will be done by people external to the organization.

Every personnel office I come in contact with is overburdened and just treading water. And every senior personnel specialist I talk to seems to be overworked, tired, cynical, and counting down to that magic eligibility date.

The days of robust career programs, technical competence, opportunity for gaining experience through travel and variety of assignments are long gone. The days when a personnel officer could actually influence local actions and contribute to the organization's success are past. Now, local folks can't act without worrying about how a particular course of action complies with the President's Management Agenda, with OPM's Human Capital Accountability Framework, and with the agency's Human Capital Strategic Plan.

We used to bristle at the "Fed-bashing" that politicians participated in a decade ago. But it usually didn't translate into real actions after the election, because congressional reps and unions somehow managed to keep defending the status quo. Although the bad-mouthing of Feds isn't as obvious these days, the damage to the old systems is actually more serious. The "stealth" anti-Federal employee policies of the current Administration have created more widespread turbulence than anything I've seen before. I think the climate for performing public service and being appreciated for doing so is gone forever.

So I conclude, as have many of our former colleagues, that indeed the golden age of Federal personnel work occurred in the 70s and 80s, especially in the Navy. And I continue to be thankful that I was a part of it.

Best wishes to you and the rest of the alumni.

Henry