Feature Story:

Civil Service Opportunities Overseas

Ronald Hartley considers himself a lucky man. As the husband of a Foreign Service office management specialist, he's had the opportunity to live and work abroad, experiencing new cultures and ways of life. When his wife was posted to Amman, Jordan; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Moscow, Mr. Hartley found work as a physical education assistant, a receptionist in an embassy commissary, a supervisor and assistant manager at a recreation association and a mail clerk for the Army and Air Force Postal Service.

Now, after nine years as a Civil Service employee in State's Bureau of Admin-istration, Mr. Hartley is serving as a Foreign Service general services officer in Kiev, Ukraine.

It's an assignment that would have been almost impossible for a Civil Service employee just a few years ago. But now, thanks to several new Department programs, Civil Service employees are getting more opportunities than ever to serve one- to three-year tours at U.S. Missions overseas.

State has several programs for placing Civil Service members overseas, and last year alone assigned more than 100. More than half were posted through the Hard-to-Fill Program, which enables Civil Service employees to bid on specific positions left vacant following the Foreign Service assignments process. The positions cover a wide range of specialties, but not surprisingly, most are at hardship posts.

Other Civil Service employees overseas are filling unexpected and critical-need Foreign Service vacancies announced through cables and Department Notices. Still others are serving in developmental assignments sponsored by their bureaus or in positions that demand the employee's unique expertise.

The newest program for posting Civil Service employees overseas, the Civil Service Overseas Mobility Initiative, was introduced recently by Edward W. "Skip" Gnehm Jr., director general of the Foreign Service and director of Personnel. In this program, the bureaus compete for five two-year positions anywhere in the world, based on need. So far, two Civil Service employees have been assigned through the program--a narcotics officer in New Delhi, India, and a refugee officer in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Regardless of what program they're enrolled in, all Civil Service employees receive limited, noncareer Foreign Service appointments for the duration of the overseas assignments. Their salaries are based on their Civil Service grades, not those of the Foreign Service positions they accept. Their overseas salaries are equal to or slightly higher than, but never lower than, their Civil Service salaries. When their overseas assignments are completed, Civil Service employees revert to their previous Civil Service grades and salaries.

All Civil Service employees serving overseas are granted domestic reemployment rights at State, generally by their own bureaus. Bureaus are not required to grant reemployment rights, and sometimes a bureau's denial is the only factor that prevents a Civil Service employee from accepting an overseas assignment. In granting reemployment rights, bureaus are obligated to reinstate employees in similar jobs in the same career series and at the same grade levels, but not necessarily in the same jobs they left to go overseas.

Joann Alba in the Office of Career Development and Assignments said the programs for placing Civil Service employees overseas benefit the Civil Service, the Foreign Service and the Department as a whole. They put experienced Civil Service employees into Foreign Service positions that might otherwise go unfilled. And they give Civil Service employees an opportunity to learn firsthand about Foreign Service operations overseas--and to apply that experience in future positions in Washington, D.C. "It's a win-win situation," Ms. Alba said.

And for Civil Service employees with thoughts of joining the Foreign Service, the Hard-to-Fill Program offers exposure to the rewards, the challenges and, sometimes, the frustrations, of overseas life. "It lets them test the waters of the Foreign Service," Ms. Alba said.

When Mr. Hartley, who said he has considered entering the Foreign Service in the future, applied for his assignment, he had a pretty good idea of what to expect. He'd already lived and worked overseas. And fresh out of the Foreign Service Institute's 12-week Foreign Service general services officer course, he felt confident he could do the job that awaited him.

But his experience in Kiev has reshaped some of his thinking about embassy operations. He remembers, for example, sitting in the Bureau of Administration's supply division in Washington, D.C., wondering why people overseas ordered certain items instead of simply going out and buying them locally. Now he understands. "I have been learning firsthand just how frustrating it is to procure items that either are not available, or are inferior in quality to what our standards require, or are simply cheaper to buy in the United States, even with shipping costs figured in," he said. Buying supplies from vendors in the United States or elsewhere in the world isn't always the ideal either, he added, because it increases delivery times and makes it difficult to quickly respond to needs at post.

Mr. Hartley said his assignment also has given him experience in one of the less popular aspects of Foreign Service life: family separations. He and his wife were separated in the past when he worked in Washington, D.C., and she was posted to Moscow, but they had hoped to work together in Kiev. Instead, she ended up with an assignment in Jakarta. "We knew that there would be separations during our careers and have planned accordingly," Mr. Hartley said. "We are working on being assigned to the same post in the future, or at least assigned to the same bureau so that we can visit each other on long weekends."

On the positive side, Mr. Hartley said his assignment has reinforced much of what attracts him to the Foreign Service. "It has been fun meeting the local Ukrainians and trying to communicate with them by sign language," said Mr. Hartley, who arrived in Kiev with no language training because he was critically needed at post.

"All in all, I am very happy working in the overseas environment and hope to continue for several more years," he said, quickly adding, "but it's not for everyone."

In contrast, Carol Oakley, a Civil Service secretary, almost gushes as she talks about her position as the ambassador's Foreign Service office management specialist in Paramaribo, Suriname. "I had always dreamed of someday working overseas, but never thought it would become a reality," she said. "I must say it is all I expected--and more!"

Ms. Oakley, who was a Civil Service secretary in the Bureau of International Organizations before accepting the Suriname position, said the new job is more diverse than any she's ever had. On a given day, she said, "my job may involve greeting visitors and putting them at ease, making appointments, working with host government ministers and protocol officials, typing cables and diplomatic notes, drafting letters, preparing the payroll, clearing the communicator's queue and getting the ambassador to the right place at the right time."

The experience is one she said she will long remember. "I have gained so much in the last year and a half that I am amazed," she said. "Living in a foreign country, being exposed to a unique culture and making friends that I would have missed all are a part of my life now that I value greatly.

"I cannot express enough gratitude to all who support and encourage this program," she said. "It is definitely a worthwhile endeavor."

Carol Oakley, second from right, at a Fourth of July celebration. With her, from left, are Valerie Lynn, Anne van Axel, Patricia van Aerde, Alexandra Holmstrom and Roy van Aerde.

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