The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

EFM at a hardship post: “I have been very impressed with the importance that post management has put on fam- ily member employment. I am at a hardship post, and since I have been here I believe that almost every spouse that wanted to work in the mission has a job here.” A family member new to the Foreign Service, who runs her embassy’s Web site, says: “I have been overseas for seven months now, and have seen many opportunities for fam- ily members. I post all the jobs on the Web site so I have seen all of them. I believe HR works with all family mem- bers to find positions suitable and enjoyable for them.” So much depends on the manage- ment team at post. The key players determining the employment situation at a post are the ambassador and deputy chief of mission, the manage- ment officer and the community liai- son office coordinator. The players and the dynamics are different at every post as American personnel cycle through from year to year and as the needs of each post change. Therefore, opportunities for family members can vary widely from post to post, and from year to year at any given post. Outside the Fold: When a Family Member is Ineligible The FMA hiring mechanism is only open to AEFMs who are not receiving a U.S. government annuity, so there are many family members who do not qualify. This is a point of stress for those family members outside the AEFM box, including Members of Household, other unmarried partners and non-U.S.-citizen spouses of Foreign Service employees. “The program of employment for family members fails to address the needs of the significant portion of spouses who are not U.S. citizens,” says USAID Health Officer John Dunlop. “These people find themselves plunked down in a foreign country without even real cultural ties to the American community, much less the local community. They cannot work in the embassy, which can lead to a very isolating situation of forced unemploy- ment. This is very hard on the family as well as the spouse.” There are nepotism considerations that preclude other categories of fam- ily members from gaining access to embassy jobs, including family mem- bers who would serve under the chain of command of their spouse if they served in an embassy job. As the Foreign Service employee rises in rank, the options for the spouse become more limited due to the wider authority under the employee. There are also conflict-of-interest concerns that can limit employment options. The Foreign Affairs Manual requires that spouses ask permission to accept a job in the local economy. A family member is not supposed to work in a position involving duties that could overlap or conflict with those of the Foreign Service employee spouse. This can limit work options both inside and outside the mission. The American Foreign Service Association heard from a family member in April who had to decline a lucrative private sector job offer because the work might have involved issues her spouse was working on inside the embassy. Management saw potential for a con- flict of interest. The implementation of the rules on this vary from post to post. What’s New or Improved? In a March message to all chiefs of mission, entitled “Supporting Our People,” Director General W. Robert Pearson laid out eight specific sug- gestions for helping validate the com- mitment to “improve the quality of employment life for our family mem- bers throughout the world.” Half of the suggestions focused on mission employment, and requested that chiefs of mission: endorse the USAID/State pilot project to place qualified family members of USAID and State employees into profession- al positions; endorse the current department policy of family member preference in recruiting locally engaged staff; keep an eye on con- sular associate positions as CAs lose their visa-adjudication authority in September 2005; and ensure that every family member employee who works at post receives a performance evaluation. The FMA hiring mechanism is providing spouses employment bene- fits never before available to them in mission jobs. Since its 1998 incep- tion, with support from the director general, it has become the hiring mechanism of choice for many EFMs and managers. A pilot program under State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs is aiming to increase opportu- nities for EFMs by implementing hir- ing preferences for “locally employed staff” positions. Announced in De- cember 2004, the pilot project is a col- laboration between the Family Mem- ber Employment Working Group and the executive office of WHA. (Note: The FMEWG is comprised of repre- sentatives from the FLO, the Office of Overseas Employment, Employee Relations Office and the Office of Policy Coordination, all under the director general’s office.) Under the 74 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 The FMA hiring mechanism is providing spouses employment benefits never before available to them in mission jobs.