Home / Featured Stories / Mission Support
Many public servants do not serve in the front lines but serve important mission support rules essential for gov’t operations - IT, human resources, facilities, acquisitions, among many others.
Do you work in mission support? Tell your story.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
When I used to think of public service, I associated it with volunteering, or as a career in a non-profit, but after working in the government for over three years, I see the many benefits of serving the public as a federal employee. My career in the government started with student intern/appointment at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At the time, I was in graduate school and I took the job to get more experience and pay the bills. After graduating with a Masters of Public Administration, I was offered a permanent position and three years later I continue to work for OPM and have been given many opportunities to development in my career.
I serve as a Human Resources Specialist and do projects in a variety of areas including: recruitment, outreach, new employee orientation, human resources, special events, and performance management. In this position, I have been able to grow professionally, travel, and interact with very talented people.
Government employees serving on the front lines and behind the scenes both have valuable roles, and need one another in order to be successful and to serve the public. Agency missions are accomplished by employees of all levels working together. Being strategic in human capital planning allows this to happen. This is one reason I continue to do what I do!
From my short time in government, there are many ideas I have to improve government, and two of them are: First, ask WHY? Sometimes work is done one way because it has been done that way for so long. Asking why and suggesting alternative approaches can improve processes; and second, use more technology. By developing online systems and using current technology, the labor time of employees can be maximized and paper will be saved. In long run these simple ideas will save the government money, by doing more with less.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:42 am
The IT Support Team for EPA Region 6 in Dallas is one of dozens of teams in our agency and 100’s in the civilian government that provide data and communications for the 1000’s of staff in the office and in the field.
Our network operations run 24/7 and we are available at all times to troubleshoot problems. We are on call today, and on the 20th we backup our counterparts in DC. As our workforce becomes more mobile, we are the ‘network’ behind the mobile warrier/workers.
My request for the new administration is to invest in IT consolidated network infrastructure, to reverse the outsourcing trend to return to a stronger career federal workforce, and to ‘green’ the government by launching into mandatory 40% telework schedules.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Very nice site, keep on posting.