The Washington Post on Saturday had a great article about how the younger generation is shaking up the federal workplace with their tendencies to take risks, connect socially online and share information across boundaries. The Obama administration is hoping to fill up to 60,000 entry-level federal jobs within the next year, and government personnel experts believe that in 10 years, 400,000 of the 2 million federal workers will be younger than 35.
Meanwhile, the Post's Federal Coach column also provides some useful advice on how federal leaders can manage the expectations and maximize the learning opportunities of younger workers by connecting the dots between their current jobs and their future, encouraging them to have an apprenticeship mindset and reinforcing lessons learned through constant feedback.
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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