The Foreign Service Journal, June 2004

agreeing to be available to serve worldwide. Almost all survey respondents agreed that Foreign Service employees should be world- wide available upon entry into the Service. Yet almost all of them also agreed that not all FS employees are, in fact, worldwide available. The interpretations of what exactly world- wide availability should mean throughout a career varied greatly depending on the employee’s family and health status. In general, single employees support a strict interpre- tation of worldwide availability, and those with families want more flexi- bility. Many respondents noted that worldwide availability must be looked at in relation to the individual employee’s situation. Several res- pondents pointed out that “the Foreign Service is not the military.” On the question of serving at an unaccompanied post, an issue very much tied to worldwide availability, it is the employees with young chil- dren who expressed a strong prefer- ence not to serve at an unaccompa- nied post. Several of them expressed a belief that worldwide availability should mean availability to serve in difficult hardship posts but not nec- essarily unaccompanied posts. In an increasingly dangerous world — as places like Saudi Arabia move to (possibly temporary) unaccompanied status and as more employees are needed in unaccompanied posts such as Baghdad and Kabul — this issue may rapidly rise in significance to the Service. A view expressed by many survey respondents and by the focus group participants is that worldwide avail- ability applies to the Foreign Service corps as a whole, not necessarily all individuals all the time. The diversi- ty of the employee pool should ensure that all posts can be filled. “There are many single women who want to go to Baghdad,” says a mar- ried, female political officer heading to the Middle East. “If you want us to stay in for an entire career, let us work our own way up, in a way that makes sense for us.” The focus group participants stressed that flexibility was key. “Not every career needs to look the same. We have single females in our class who are already in Baghdad and can do that as single officers. But it’s not an option for me right now (with an 8-month-old baby). I will do my duty when my country calls me when my child is a little older,” says Sara Lechtenberg Kasten, heading to a posting in Jordan. “Look at Powell’s policy guidance,” she adds. “He’s say- ing we’re not hiring the person, we’re bringing on the whole family. It’s up to us to make sure that his policy guidance is implemented.” Ellen Eiseman points out that 40 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 4