The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

below the office-director level), as directed assignments for which bid- ders with hardship equity above the minimum would be given priority consideration. HR should have total control over these plum assignments, as it now has over entry-level jobs, and prohibit lobbying for them. It would then give bidders with at least a set minimum number of hardship points a special early-bidding opportunity before the regular bidding season to bid on these posts, and would be able to offer handshakes (informal promises of assignment) before the regular bidding season. These posts would open up to all bidders as of the open- ing date of the regular bidding season if no handshake had been given, but no bidder with less than the mini- mum number of hardship points could be assigned to any of them as long as there was at least one bidder with the required minimum number of points who had not yet been given a handshake on a job. Offer linked follow-on assign- ments. Employees who accept assign- ments at 20-percent and higher posts, or those with danger pay, should have the chance to be paneled into a desir- able follow-on assignment at the same time as they are paneled for the hardship tour. This could be an offshoot of the Individual Develop- ment Plans discussed above, or a separate program allowing those who agree to take a tour at post with a differential of 20 percent or high- er to pick from the next cycle’s list ahead of time. Link professional development to hardship service. The aim would be to make service in a minimum num- ber of hardship posts a requirement for attractive professional develop- ment assignments. For example, one hardship tour after tenure would be needed for FS-3 professional devel- opment, two hardship tours after 18 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 S P E A K I N G O U T u