Today's show is another one in the series of podcasts that we created specifically for federal employees. These shows focus on the rights of federal employees, and also on tactics they can use if they are in trouble at work. Today, and for the following several shows in the series, we are pleased to have Rob Porter joining us. Rob is an attorney in our office with years of experience working with federal employees. On the show today, we are going to give an overview of the legal landscape of federal employees and we will be focusing specifically on how this differs, in important respects, from that of people employed in the private sector. Listen in today to find out what Rob has to share about this topic.

Rob is a law graduate from the University of Chicago and he has been practicing law for more than ten years. For the past five or six years, he has been working as an employment lawyer, representing employees in the DC area where much of his time was spent representing federal employees. Listen in to find out more.

Show Highlights:

• Rob explains the main difference between the experience of federal employees and that of people employed in the private sector. 
• The kind of rights and protection that federal employees have.
• How the constitution applies differently to federal workers and to those employed in the private sector.
• Why federal employees are different than private sector employees.
• The first amendment rights of the employees who were fired for attending the Charlottesville protests.
• The first amendment does not apply to private sector employees, so private employees can be fired for the things they say.
• How the first amendment restricts the government from limiting the speech of its employees.
• Rob explains what the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and the MSBP (Merit Systems Protection Board) processes are.
• What happens at an EEOC hearing.
• How an EEOC hearing differs from one in the private sector.
• How the MSBP process, which is exclusively for government employees, works.
• When a federal employee can actually be fired.
• What a lawyer needs to know when representing an employee from the private sector, as compared with representing a government sector employee.