Being a government employee comes with plenty of stereotypes—job security, decent benefits, stable pay. But if you’ve ever actually worked for the federal government, you know that “stability” is a fragile illusion (this year more than ever). Nothing makes that clearer than a government shutdown, which always seems to be looming over our heads. On
Last month, I got to return to the U.S. for Home Leave, a congressionally mandated form of leave diplomats get at the end of assignments, or after serving a year in many danger posts. It’s meant to allow diplomats to kiss the soil of the motherland and reacclimate to their own country after being away
Let’s circle back to something I wrote about a few year ago that everyone does but no one really likes to talk about: using the bathroom. Specifically, what happens after. For most Americans, that means reaching for the trusty roll of toilet paper. But here’s the thing—why are we still doing this when there’s a
Last month the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) ceased to exist as part of the restructuring of the U.S. Government, and the remnants were folded into the Department of State. For those that don’t know, USAID makes up a large presence at overseas embassies, particularly in the developing world, so their departure has
I have received this question multiple times from readers interested in joining the Foreign Service, and the simple answer is: I don’t know. For the last several months there has been a government wide freeze on hiring, and at this point it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. What this means is job announcements
One of the benefits provided to employees of the Foreign Service serving in unaccompanied posts, is the department will pay for your kids to meet you in another country, called family reunification travel. After a lot of discussing with Angeli and our eldest daughter, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to meet up
Apologies for the delay in posting this. My site host went down last weekend and apparently never posted anything that was scheduled over the weekend. July marks 4 years since I started writing this blog, which is sort of surreal to think about. 4 years ago I was working as a hospitalist in Southern New
Another year, another period of the Employee Evaluation Report season has come to a close. For those of you that have been around a bit, or know the State Department system, each year, employees have to submit a review of their own performance, which their boss then also adds to, then you submit into your
One of the hardest things about being in the Foreign Service is not being with your family on a routine basis. This is especially difficult when a loved one passes and you aren’t there to say goodbye. During my first tour in Nouakchott, my grandmother passed away after a long bout with dementia, and although
