State VP Voice

BY HUI JUN TINA WONG

Thank you to the more than 2,500 members who joined our AFSA town halls on Feb. 27. We welcome your participation and know you had many more questions than we could answer in the span of one hour.

I am particularly grateful to our amazing AFSA staff who managed the chat room and answered as many questions as possible, adding links to critical resources such as the AFSA virtual go bag, the reductions-in-force (RIF) references in the Foreign Affairs Manual, and the AFSA lawyers list.

There is one area about which I know many of you have unanswered questions: What should I do about this year’s performance evaluation (EER) cycle? How will I be measured? Will I be negatively targeted for prior accomplishments in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility precept?

First, I want everyone to consider the big picture. Our annual performance evaluation is an opportunity for us to explain how our accomplishments were effective in advancing foreign policy for the promotion boards. Effectiveness is not merely a precept title or buzz word: It is about impact. The building blocks of this evaluation have always been the Core Precepts: a set of standards that the boards use to make promotion recommendations.

The State Department released guidance on March 19 unilaterally eliminating the DEIA precept for the 2024-2025 rating period, without AFSA’s concurrence and in violation of the department’s collective bargaining agreement. We shared our stance in an AFSAnet to members, explaining that AFSA and the department have negotiated core precepts every three years for decades. Foreign Service members use these precepts to establish job duties, seek assignments, and prepare for their evaluations, and AFSA will challenge this unilateral action.

I reiterated AFSA’s position during the AFSA town hall: that we, along with the Bureau of Global Talent Management, proposed a path forward on messaging the core precepts that would have aligned with the administration’s Executive Orders and the 2022-2025 AFSA-Department of State negotiated EER Core Precepts.

However, the department rejected our proposal, declaring that only four precepts (leadership, management, communications, and substantive and technical expertise) will be evaluated for the 2024-2025 rating period. I note that a number of examples such as interpersonal skills, professional behavior, and external engagement strategies can also form the basis of strong accomplishments that make America strong, safe, and prosperous.

We advise all employees to follow the latest department guidance and review their current-year narratives for inadmissible comments and any DEIA titles or subtitles. More importantly, all employees should highlight relevant skills demonstrating impact that will help the Selection Boards determine whether the employee has the potential to succeed at the next level.

There are plenty of accomplishments that fulfill all other precepts without referencing DEIA. Don’t discount any of your accomplishments but instead strengthen the links showing how they delivered for American security and prosperity.

While we continue to press for additional departmental guidance, we have no reason to believe that any previous precept-specific accomplishments, including those shared in the DEIA precept in previous EER cycles, would be held against any employee.

We will be looking closely at the upcoming 2025 Procedural Precepts—the instructions to the promotion boards we expect to negotiate later this spring. We will work hard to ensure there is a clear, transparent, and fair approach that will enable the 2025 Foreign Service Promotion Boards (FSPBs) to appropriately apply all past and present precepts, including the cross-functional competency, for promotion decisions.

The Procedural Precepts provide Foreign Service Selection Boards (FSSB) with specific instructions to make their decisions. For example, one major change is that we will forgo the use of the precept-by-precept scoring rubric this year. As a historically accepted best practice, we anticipate FSSBs would evaluate each employee’s five-year file to determine if they would fall under “promote” or “mid-ranked.” Those who are recommended for promotion will still be ranked and those employees will see their specific rank order.

Please read the 2024-2025 EER rating period guidance carefully and engage with their raters and reviewers to make any necessary adjustments. AFSA also successfully advocated for all untenured officers who have not yet gone through a tenure board to be given sufficient time to submit or resubmit their EERs so they have equal opportunities to review and adjust if they so choose.

I continue to offer drop-in virtual and in-person office hours on the third Friday of each month. Write to me at wong@afsa.org and write to ogc@afsa.org with individual EER grievance questions.