President’s Views

BY TOM YAZDGERDI

One of the most satisfying aspects of my job is hosting lunches at AFSA headquarters for new Foreign Service orientation classes to encourage them to join AFSA, as more than 80 percent of active-duty FS members have done.

We are expecting another large State Department class this month and potentially two USAID classes by the end of 2024. I want to take this opportunity to thank all our table hosts, both retired and active-duty members, who share their wealth of knowledge and experience with our newest colleagues.

It is also satisfying that we are still seeing incoming classes at State as large as 230 members, reflecting and responding to the overriding need to boost the size of the Foreign Service and fill the many vacant mid-level positions overseas that have strained our workforce. We need robust hiring in the other foreign affairs agencies as well.

We do not yet know what the budget reality will be in 2025. Class sizes will likely decrease markedly, although we have been assured by State that hiring will remain above attrition. There remains some uncertainty at USAID on hiring levels for 2025 and beyond. While we expect that hiring will exceed attrition, new hires will fall well short of the goal of reaching 2,500 USAID FSOs by 2025.

With such large classes coming in, there will also need to be a renewed effort to mitigate the effects of the so-called “pig in the python” problem, so that promotion opportunities are not skewed by the size of one’s orientation class.

The makeup of orientation classes is different from when I joined the department back in October 1991. First, the average age has increased, from 28 to nearly 34. These new hires also have a lot more government and overseas experience, speak more languages, and are more diverse.

State Department FS orientation classes now comprise generalists and specialists, who learn together what the State Department is about and what each type of employee does. It took a pandemic to bring these two groups of new hires together, virtually. And AFSA successfully advocated to keep it that way when in-person training resumed. I know I would have benefited from learning what my specialist colleagues do by sitting side by side with them in class.

With greater life and government experience, today’s new hires are more inclined to speak up about issues they see within our agencies. They have raised the lack of per diem for local hires, a decades-long inequity at State.

That resulted in AFSA’s successful effort to have a provision mandating per diem for all hires included in the Senate version of the 2023 State Department Authorization Act (SDAA). Unfortunately, the provision was cut when the Senate and House met in conference. It was reintroduced in the 2024 Senate SDAA, and we remain hopeful that it will be accepted by the House this time.

New hires also drew attention to the four- to six-week gap from hiring until health insurance begins that created a real hardship for many employees and their families. That led AFSA to push State to direct the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to draft a new rule requiring health benefits to begin immediately upon entry—and for the entire federal workforce, not just the Foreign Service. The rule is currently in interagency clearance, and we expect it to be implemented this fall.

Today’s new hires also stand out in that they aren’t necessarily looking at the Foreign Service as a lifetime career. Back in the day, most of us were “lifers,” thinking that this was what we would do for 20-plus years and then retire.

This shift means that State and the other foreign affairs agencies need to focus even more on retention—instituting greater job flexibility and opportunities that may have been inconceivable years ago, but that will invest in this new talent and keep them on board.

What has not changed is the sense of duty and sacrifice I see in these newest additions to our proud Foreign Service. They are focused on our mission and ready to serve.

Please let me know your thoughts by writing yazdgerdi@afsa.org or member@afsa.org.