The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 27 “We’re trying to market family members,” Frost says, to hiring managers within the State Department. She reports that FLO has also begun to brief other federal agencies on the pool of potential employees among FS EFMs. Because of this push, Frost says, there has been a large increase in the number of positions advertised on the FLO Network, an email listserv of job openings FLO sends to EFM subscribers weekly. (Interested EFMs can sign up for the Network by making a request at FLOaskemployment@ state.gov.) Still More to Do By creating the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps, the Foreign Service is finally addressing one of the real stumbling blocks to EFM employment: timely security clearances. How- ever, there is no indication that any of the current employment programs will be expanded, which is also a QDDR goal. Even the cable announcing the FSFRC made it clear that increasing the number of jobs available to EFMs was not a goal. “Fiscal constraints limit the department’s ability to create new positions overseas,” the cable reads. “Therefore the FSFRC, in and of itself, will not create additional employment opportunities.” Still, the Foreign Service should get credit for officially rec- ognizing that EFM employment is an issue it must address. “As evidenced by the QDDR,” says Under Secretary Kennedy, “the department has been working to improve the hiring process for our Foreign Service family members, who are,” he adds, “a valu- able resource to fill available jobs at posts around the world, and we know that they want to work.” Getting EFM employment right has never been more criti- cal for the Foreign Service. Says AFSA’s Angie Bryan: “We have employees who are considering leaving the Foreign Service because they don’t see a long-term solution for a spouse who wants and expects to be able to work.” Fulfilling the goals stated in the QDDR is essential. “It’s not like the Foreign Service of 20 or 40 or 60 years ago,” says Bryan. Foreign Service members “are not going to stick around if their spouses are unhappy.” n