| By Terry McNamara
The author is a senior writer in the Office of International Information Programs.
Photos by Robert Hennemeyer.
WAE Annie Artis.
|
 re you interested in working part-time as a transition from full-time employment to full-time retirement? Do you still want to stay in touch with professional issues and old friends? If so, retired senior Foreign Service officers can work as WAEs (that's bureaucratese, incidentally, for When Actually Employed). Indeed, the largest concentration of WAEs is now involved in a whole new industry accessing official records of the Department--an industry born of voluminous private and congressional requests, General Accounting Office investigations and lawsuits. Over the past 20 years, the Department has benefited from the services of retired officers in meeting its information access responsibilities and other demands. At the same time, careers of a distinguished corps of retired officers have been extended.
Given the administration's emphasis on the public's right to know, State's declassification activities are more open than in the past. The Freedom of Information Office has commanded front-page attention. For example, documents about Chile's Pinochet years are only one of many high-profile cases disclosed in Department records. Documentation on El Salvador, Iraq, the John Foster Dulles papers at Princeton, human rights abuses in Latin America, War Crimes Tribunals and an exhaustive search for records relating to the Kennedy assassination have all been subjects of intense media attention and scrutiny in recent times. The office has released more than 15 million pages of material under systematic review and is fielding in excess of 5,000 Freedom of Information Act cases a year.
If this type of work appeals to you, the Bureau of Administration's Office of Information Resource Management Programs and Services is looking for retired Foreign Service officers with long professional experience to increase its stable of skilled document reviewers who process and decide what state secrets may safely be released to the public under FOIA. Based on past Department of State and Foreign Service experience, appointments are made at suitably senior temporary Civil Service grades. Under the WAE program, retired persons are paid for actual time worked but receive no fringe benefits. This, of course, presents no problems for retired FSOs who already have health insurance
and other benefits in their retirement packages.
WAEs, from left, Bill Ryerson, Angela Robinson and Terry McNamara.
No retiree need worry about being deprived of too much well-earned leisure. Working time is limited to 1,020 hours per year. Additionally, WAEs can earn only the difference between their pension payment and their final Foreign Service salary or the salary of the Civil Service pay grade in which they are working as WAEs--whichever is larger. Thus, "topped-up" annuitants are assured a pre-retirement standard of living. And there is an added bonus: income and time worked are credited to their Social Security account and may help them qualify for Social Security benefits.
Aside from the monetary advantages, the work can be professionally fulfilling and personally rewarding. Employees normally deal with documents about problems and geographic areas with which they are familiar. Indeed, one condition of appointment is that candidates obtain endorsements from two Department bureaus certifying confidence in their professional knowledge and ability to deal with documents under those bureaus' purview.
FOIA's new quarters in SA-2, on Virginia Avenue near Main State, once housed the old Visa Office. The building has been refurbished from top to bottom. Reviewers have up-to-date electronic systems with which to work and windows that open. WAEs working either at the new National Archives facilities in College Park, Md., or Newington, Va., have ample free parking.
Making decisions on documents that concern events and problems of historic importance is rewarding work. Consider the joy of reading correspondence between Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower or Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Not all documents are derived from such exalted levels, but there are daily opportunities to read the reporting of our best and brightest. The telegrams and memoranda are usually interesting in themselves and require a reviewer's knowledge and judgment in making decisions whether to withhold them from the bank of publicly held knowledge. For those of us with a sense of the importance of the historic record, this is not an inconsequential responsibility.
We may all be proud of the Department's record in observing both the letter and spirit of "the public's right to know" as enshrined in the Freedom of Information Act and various pertinent executive orders. This is consistent with our national security responsibilities. We may all be pleased that we are able to contribute to this worthy endeavor.
These are employment opportunities for both those recently retired and those still on active duty. Both are sought. Although I have focused on opportunities for those already retired, there are equally attractive aspects of employment in declassification activities for active duty Foreign Service officers. Aside from the obvious substantial, professionally satisfying aspects of the work, the positions offer significant managerial responsibilities, regular working hours, high-tech work modes and preparations for post-retirement employment.
Check out our web site at http://foia.state.gov or call (202) 261-8303 to arrange a tour of our new digs and a chance to see what we do! If you would like to chat about what working here is really like, leave your telephone number and a current WAE will call you back. You may be pleasantly surprised with the vitality and new millennium prospects. Clearly, we cannot offer everyone employment, but we are looking for the right people to build our skill bank. Applications (on form OF-612) should be submitted directly to Peter Sheils, Deputy Office Director, Room 5081, SA-2.
|
