The Foreign Service Journal, October 2014

36 OCTOBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL cone, the employee is typically ring on all cylinders, doing some of his or her best work across a range of issues and utilizing greater depth of skill/knowledge. • Survey the 17 Financial Management Officer specialists cur- rently serving out of cone to nd out why they are serving out of cone. Ask themwhy many FMOs leave their specialty and do not return. As someone who served out of cone, I confess it was an exceptional experience; but I was told that I should either return to my specialty or try to convert, because promotion opportunities would be nonexistent from there. • Develop a specialist designation cone, which allows FMOs (and other specialists) to serve out of cone without being disad- vantaged for promotion purposes. Consider something similar to classwide promotions on the generalist side. • Increase opportunities for specialists to convert to generalist if they so desire. • Develop a senior leadership seminar for specialists during years of service between FS-1 and, potentially, FS-OC. While many do not cross the threshold or perhaps choose not to open their window at all, serving at the 01 level can be a long stretch in a career. Once you have taken the current 01 leadership course, it could be years before you return to FSI for training, if at all. Consider developing an experiential seminar focusing on real-life events that participants can dissect and share among peers. • Provide mandatory (fast) language training for all special- ists! FSI language training is humbling (to put it nicely); but in the end the challenge of learning a language always serves us well. A basic foundation of everyday survival words and phrases from FSI would be useful. All department personnel must be able to function in the countries they serve. Lan- guage has grudgingly been authorized for specialists (less grudgingly than when I started), but it is still unnecessarily dif- cult to obtain. After so many years in the depart- ment, I realize that gaps can and are managed at post, and there are very few world-ending situations that arise if the employee shows up in October as opposed to August. Language ability will make the years of service more positive and productive. Fortunately I served under several top leaders and was always treated as a respected partner and contributor to the team. However the “Us” (specialists) vs. “ em” (generalists) divide still remains, with disdain owing from generalists more so than the other way around. It seems to notch up or down depending on the front o ce attitude and how post leadership develops the entire team. As I prepared this note, several colleagues revealed long- standing resentment about treatment received at the hands of generalist colleagues who acted as if they were superior—as if, in the middle of incoming re, a bullet would know to swerve and hit the specialist instead of the generalist. We’re a team, each providing valuable contributions. Despite Challenges and Change, We Make a Di€erence By Henry Mendelsohn Regional Information Resource Ocer, Public A‡airs Section Embassy Nairobi I’ve been a Foreign Service Specialist and Regional Informa- tion Resource O cer for 20 years. I started with the United States Information Agency in 1994 and have been overseas since 1995 serving in mostly hardship and greater hardship postings. One of the best pieces of advice I received during my rst assignment is that I could easily do the job of a generalist, but a generalist could never do my job. I’ve found this to be consistently true. e specialized information science skills I’ve brought to my work complement and support the work of the State Department AFSA/Jeff Lau