The politicians on Capitol Hill are making it sound like the only reason these government workers are there is because they can t do anything else. The good news behind all of this agony is that the very people responsible for the pain are also trying to cure it. In 1994, along with the demand to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs, President Clinton also issued an order requiring agencies to provide career transition services to their workers. Then, in a September 1995 memo, Clinton told the agencies to do more. Many federal agencies now have full-time career transition offices as result of this mandate.
Most employees can use the offices at no cost.
The offices cater to the downsized, but employees not affected by reorganizations are encouraged to use their services as well. Both government and private-sector experts agree that now, just doing your job well is not enough. You must keep alert to see where the next one might come from. Downsizing has placed more responsibility on the employees to manage their own careers, which they can do in conjunction with the resources at their agency, says Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance. In response to the President s mandate, the Agriculture Department s Graduate School set up a Career Management Resource Center.