The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

behind as essential personnel during emergencies, but we may only be allowed to bring in one car to that country, while officers are allowed two, because of our status. The small, but impacting, examples go on and on. Overall, I enjoy the travel that’s involved, seeing the world, meeting and living with different cultures as well as working with my specialist colleagues, and how this transforms the world into a very small place we all call home. It’s unfortunate that to enjoy these benefits, we must accept treatment as a “special” class. I can only hope it will continue to improve, and I believe it will when the older generation of officers retires. The scary part is that I’ve already seen JOs who are following in their footsteps. Jeffrey J. Hoover Regional Desk Officer IRM/M/CST/LD/ OB-EAP Senior Threshold Block I am an FS-1 specialist serving as a Senior General Services Officer in Rome. As a specialist, I have no regrets, and have always had good relations with my generalist col- leagues. I knew the rules coming in and am not the type to complain after the fact – with one exception. As a GSO specialist, I compete for promotion not only with other specialists but with generalists. So far, I have been fortunate and have been promoted fairly regularly to the 01 level. However, this year, my performance will be considered by a promotion panel that will be told that no GSO specialist can be pro- moted to OC because there are no jobs for them. Thus, even if I were (hypothetically) ranked number-one in my category by the panel, they will not want to “waste” a promotion on me because that would hurt the generalists who also have limits on the number of promotions. Yet even though I can’t be promoted, I can be low-ranked. Admittedly, not all specialist cate- gories have senior possibilities, but some do (RSO, IMO, ESO, and oth- ers). I bring this to AFSA’s attention only to ask that the organization take a look at the possibility of ensuring a few senior GSO slots (like other spe- cialist areas). Surely, there are posts like Cairo, London, Paris, Manila, and Mexico City that could use a GSO at the senior level. Dan M. Cushman Senior General Services Officer Embassy Rome We’re All Officers Why are new-hire generalists called “junior officers” but new-hire specialists not? Either they should be called “junior generalists” or all new hires should be called “junior officers.” Starting people off in the Foreign Service with this distinction cannot help promote unbiased rela- tions later in their careers. Does AFSA think this is worth taking on? References should be to FS spe- cialists and FS generalists — using the “officers” tag just reinforces the mythical distinction inherited from the military between officers and enlisted personnel. This is a legacy of the old Foreign Service Act that had designated separate salary scales for Foreign Service officers and Foreign Service staff. The 1980 Foreign Service Act was supposed to eliminate this dis- tinction and some of the class war- fare by unifying both salary scales. Unfortunately, Human Resources for some reason finds it necessary to distinguish between specialists and generalists in their records. So the FP and FS designations are used, perpetuating the class distinction. Loren F. File Information Management Specialist Embassy London Encourage Language Training I would like to see State make more of an effort to announce lan- guage-designated jobs far enough in advance so that specialists can take advantage of language training. Officer language-designated positions are announced early, so they have the opportunity to take language training, usually for one year. I’ve noted that several jobs that may be on the bid list this summer require 2/2 in a particu- lar language; however, there is no time allowed for training in the lan- guage. Therefore, those are positions that I have to cross off the list, limit- ing my options. If foreign language is a prerequisite for a position, the job should be announced early enough to allow time for language training. Violet Kotto Office Management Specialist Embassy Kingston Why Discriminate? Compared with specialists, junior officers seem to receive special treat- ment when it comes to training oppor- tunities and special project handling. This may be because it is often per- ceived that the average specialist is specifically trained and hired to do one specific job only —or it could also be that managers assume it would be particularly difficult to relieve individ- ual specialists from their daily respon- sibilities to take advantage of such opportunities. Consider the department’s recent call for nominations for a training opportunity in Guatemala, which was 50 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3