Colleagues have recently faced sudden departures from the workplace and/or restrictions on returning to the workplace. Under those circumstances, there is little to no opportunity to download important personal documents.

Ensure your “virtual go bag” is ready for a sudden departure. For a checklist of essential documents and resources, visit our “Virtual Go Bag” page.

If you are placed on administrative leave, your agency’s Labor-Management / Employee Relations staff may show up at your desk to escort you out of the building. This will be unsettling but remember to control your behavior in light of any future adverse action.

• Follow instructions.
• Collect your personal items.
• Contact AFSA at member@afsa.org as soon as you are able to do so.

While on administrative leave, it is important to remember:

• You will not have access to your .gov email account or your former work site.
• You will continue to be paid and accrue benefits and time in service.
• You should be notified by your agency if your leave status changes (e.g., from investigation leave to notice leave).
• If your agency moves to separate you while you are on administrative leave, you will be notified by your agency.
• Review the following FAM and FAH regulations on administrative leave:
  • 3 FAM 3460 – Other Paid Leave
  • 3 FAM 3464.1-2 – Conduct-Related Excused Absence
  • 3 FAH-1 H-3417.2 – Granting Authorities
  • 3 FAH-1 H-3461.2-2 – Granting Authority for Conduct-Related Administrative Leave (State & USAID only)
  • 3 FAH-1 H-3461.6-2 – Conduct-Related Administrative Leave – More than 16 Hours (State only)
  • 3 FAH-1 H-3461.6-3 – Employee Notification of Conduct-Related Administrative Leave (State only)

The Department of State generally allows employees to engage in domestic outside activities—including outside employment and volunteer engagements —as long as they are able to comply with the ethics rules. For details, please refer to this document. Note that while the title indicates that it is for unpaid administrative leave, the ethics considerations will be the same for paid administrative leave status. For those on paid administrative leave, please pay particular attention to 11 FAM 614 and 11 FAM 616.

AFSA has developed a one-stop resource featuring everything you need to plan ahead. Our Retirement Resources page includes pre-retirement checklists, articles, videos, and links covering retirement benefits and career options after the Foreign Service.

We have also created a detailed PowerPoint—“Benefits at Retirement, Resignation, and Involuntary Separation”—to answer common questions from our members.

• Employees can file grievances with their agency. Denial of agency-level grievances can be appealed to the Foreign Service Grievance Board.
• In many cases (except separation for cause or RIF), employees may remain in paid status until a final decision on the proposed separation.
• Employees eligible for an immediate annuity (typically age 50 with 20 years of service) cannot be deprived of it, except in cases involving espionage.

Tenured, untenured, and limited non-career employees who are proposed for disciplinary action, to include separation, based on allegations of misconduct, are entitled to a proposal which sets forth the basis for the proposed disciplinary action, and the opportunity to respond in writing and orally. All Foreign Service employees proposed for separation for cause, other than those convicted of a felony, have a statutory right to a hearing before the Foreign Service Grievance Board.

Limited non-career appointees (LNAs) at State and similar categories such as Foreign Service Limited (FSL) staff at USAID may be separated at any time, akin to an “at-will” employment. If separation is based on allegations of misconduct, see above guidance.

Untenured employees can be separated for failure to gain tenure or for unsatisfactory performance.

Tenured members may be separated due to time-in-class and time-in-service limitations or poor performance as determined by a performance standards board.

As discussed above, all members (tenured, untenured, and LNA) can be separated for misconduct or a failure to maintain a security clearance.

AFSA’s position is that untenured Foreign Service employees are not probationary employees. Untenured employees have greater statutory appeal rights under the Foreign Service Act than probationary civil service employees.

For information about RIFs and untenured members of the Foreign Service, please visit our Reductions in Force Information page.

To request assistance from AFSA, we recommend members use their personal email accounts to email member@afsa.org. It is AFSA’s policy to protect its members’ privacy and confidentiality to the greatest degree possible. As such, only AFSA staff whose official duties require them to review requests for assistance shall have access to these queries and requests.

AFSA communications will be sent to the primary email on your AFSA account. Please ensure you have updated the primary email on your account by visiting your My Account page and selecting contact info. If you have more than one email address on your account, your primary email will be indicated by a flag icon. If you need assistance or are not receiving AFSA email, please let us know by emailing member@afsa.org.

AFSA strongly advises members to obtain professional liability insurance (PLI). More information about PLI can be found here. To access a list of providers, please click here.

Our general advice is to be prudent about what you post. Please review our guidance on the usage of social media for federal employees.

Discrimination, including political affiliation bias, is prohibited. Employees can file complaints with the Office of Special Counsel if they believe a PPP has occurred. See Prohibited Personnel Practices Overview for categories of PPP.

Weingarten rights are the rights of members of AFSA bargaining unit to have a union representative present during interviews that could result in disciplinary action against the employee. Discipline could include written reprimands, suspension, or termination. These rights were established by the Supreme Court in the 1975 case National Labor Relations Board v. J. Weingarten, Inc. Please note that employers are not required to inform the employee of these rights. All employees, regardless of their bargaining unit status, have the right to have an attorney or other representative present during any interview that could lead to disciplinary action. For more information on Weingarten rights, please click here.

Over recent years, AFSA has partnered with the Government Accountability Project (GAP) staff to bring information on whistleblower protections to AFSA members. This Foreign Service Journal article and our joint webinar provide information on the legal rights of Foreign Service members who make the decision to bring allegations of waste, fraud, or illegal activity to the fore.

Whistleblowers perform an important service to the federal government and the public when they come forward with what they reasonably believe to be evidence of wrongdoing. Federal law protects employees against reprisal for whistleblowing.

A protected disclosure is information the whistleblower reasonably believes is evidence of:

• a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety;
• a violation of any law, rule, or regulation;
• gross mismanagement; waste of funds; or
• an abuse of authority

Protected disclosures can be made to:

• your supervisor or other management official,
• the Office of Special Counsel (OSC),
• the Office of the Inspector General,
• another employee designated by your agency to receive such disclosures,
• other individuals or organizations (e.g., a congressional committee or the media), provided that the disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law and the information does not have to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or for the conduct of foreign affairs.
• Disclosures involving classified information should be made in accordance with applicable laws.

If you believe you have been retaliated for your protected disclosure, we urge you to file a complaint with the OSC at https://osc.gov/pages/file-complaint.aspx.

If you believe you have been discriminatorily harassed based on conduct that showed hostility towards you based on race, color, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age (40 or over), disability, genetic information, participation in the discrimination complaint process, please contact the Office of Civil Rights (S/OCR) at SOCR_Harassment@state.gov. The newly created S/OCR Anti-Harassment Program is also available to employees who have encountered workplace harassment issues. Depending on the circumstances of your case, employees may also have the option to pursue alternative paths such as mediation or filing a grievance.

The “Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs” executive order issued March 27, 2025 strips collective bargaining rights from key categories of federal employees under the guise of national security. It affects our members at the Department of State and USAID and strips AFSA of its right to negotiate changes in Foreign Service employees’ conditions of employment. This allows management to make decisions on assignments, evaluations, and promotions, among other areas, without consulting the union—removing key safeguards for fairness, transparency, and employee voice. AFSA continues to be recognized as the union for our members at the Foreign Commercial Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Finally, AFSA’s Office of the General Counsel has moved out of our former offices at the Department of State HST 2805. You can find us at our permanent address at 2101 E St NW. AFSA is challenging this in court. Read more on our lawsuit tracker page.

When a new administration takes office, it has the authority to set federal workplace policies, including those related to hiring and performance evaluations. The current administration exercised this authority through executive orders addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The executive orders, however, did not create any legal obligation for AFSA to renegotiate the agreed-upon 2022-2025 core precepts.

On March 19, the Department of State issued an ALDAC titled “2024-2025 Updated Foreign Service Employee Evaluation Report (EER) Guidance: DEIA Core Precept Eliminated,” unilaterally eliminating an entire core precept at the end of the rating cycle. To navigate this change, we recommend that employees, raters, and reviewers draft Employee Evaluation Reports (EERs) highlighting all the relevant skills demonstrated and the impact achieved during the rating period, avoiding any mention of core precept titles or inadmissible comments. As the ALDAC notes, you should “continue to provide impactful examples for all accomplishments that will help the Selection Boards determine whether the employee has the potential to succeed at the next level.”

Below are a few general examples of what such accomplishments might look like without reference to any specific competency title.

• Developed host-country language versions of training materials or official documents to drive efficiency and expand our reach, created programs that facilitated an open exchange of ideas, listened respectfully to other viewpoints.
• Hosted training programs for staff based on principles enshrined in U.S. law, mentored entry-level employees, managed conflict, provided guidance to others in challenging times.
• Addressed bullying and harassment, ensured reasonable accommodations in the workplace were made, and advocated with the host government to accredit members of our community appropriately.
• Cultivated professional relationships, including across organizational lines and with host country contacts, which resulted in a recent bilateral agreement to be effectively executed.

AFSA negotiated and signed the 2025 Procedural Precepts providing instructions to the 2025 Foreign Service Selection Boards (FSSB). Absent any further negotiations about the future 2025-2028 core precepts, the existing 2022-2025 core precepts apply. For the latest on AFSA’s engagement regarding the core precept, procedural precepts, and FSSB changes, please refer to our June 11 communication, “Updates on FSSB and 2025 Procedural Precepts.”

To help you prepare for the difficult possibility of a government shutdown, we have compiled a thorough list of resources and guidance, including the Furloughed Employees Handbook. Please visit our Government Shutdown Information page for more.

The 90-day hiring freeze was scheduled to end on April 20. It has since been extended to July 2025.

In the cable “Updates to the Department’s Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas (DETO) Guidance” (25 STATE 14642), the Department of State clarified that all domestic State Department employees whose sponsors are assigned overseas are exempt from the “Return to Office” mandate if they have an approved DETO arrangement. Additionally, eligible employees may request new DETO arrangements from their employing bureaus, and the Department has resumed processing such requests.

This decision was made by the Secretary of State in accordance with the Feb. 12 OPM memorandum, which exempts all federally employed spouses of members of the Armed Services and the Foreign Service from the Return to Office mandate.

For specific DETO-related questions, contact DETOPpolicy@state.gov.

We hope other foreign affairs agencies will follow agency-specific guidance to restart DETO requests and processing for those within their agencies.

EFM hiring remains frozen along with the U.S. government wide hiring freeze. AFSA is advocating for continued hiring of EFMs across U.S. overseas missions, as this type of employment provides significant savings for the U.S. government and allows embassies, consulates, and missions to continue operating seamlessly.

Since January 20, AFSA has taken multiple legal actions to defend the Foreign Service, protect our members, and hold agencies accountable. To help you keep track of where things stand, we’ve created this lawsuit tracker. We’ll update it every Friday.

AFSA is actively engaging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to safeguard Foreign Service careers and benefits. We’ve also launched Service Disrupted—our boldest public outreach campaign yet—to rally Americans and policymakers around the urgent need to protect the Foreign Service. Your voice matters. Join our campaign here.

If you do not know your members of Congress, you can locate them here.

Contacting Congress about USAID

AFSA members have asked how they can be helpful when reaching out to Congress in a personal capacity. AFSA suggests any outreach to members of Congress end with a call to action:

“The Constitution grants Congress the power and responsibility to oversee the actions of the executive branch. It is crucial for Congress to fulfill its vital role in ensuring accountability and transparency in our government. As my elected Representative/Senator, I urge you to assert your constitutional authority to conduct thorough oversight over recent actions at USAID. Demand accountability, promote transparency, and protect the checks and balances that are fundamental to the nation.”

Foreign Service Early Retirement Authority

To support continued outreach, we’ve created this template.

Before You Contact Your Lawmaker

As always, please ensure compliance with the Anti-Lobbying Act by reaching out to Congress in your personal capacities and not on government time or using government resources. Please see a summary of AFSA’s guidance below and a longer version on our website here.

The Anti-Lobbying Act (18 U.S.C. 1913) prohibits unauthorized government employees from using appropriated funds to influence Congress on legislation.

• Employees have the constitutional right (5 U.S.C. Section 7211) to petition Congress in a personal capacity but must clarify that their views are personal and do not represent their agency.
• Personal communications must not occur during duty hours, and employees must not use any government resources.
• Employees also cannot assist or encourage the public to lobby Congress on behalf of the government.
• Employees should not suggest others contact Congress about legislation in an official capacity.