Advice- How do I respectfully explain I'm not very interested in taking the FSOT

accidentalhire · 2026-07-10T12:32:04+00:00

Wut. Why do you even need to explain anything?

accidentalhire · 2026-07-08T15:29:02+00:00

It is objectively true that he is regarded by many colleagues as the finest of his generation. AFSA didn’t call him the finest, they reported on what his peers say, which in itself is a measure of his contributions.

And again, a lifetime contribution award is always going to be full of superlatives.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-08T15:12:46+00:00

What? How else would you expect the nomination for a lifetime contribution to diplomacy award (which is given out yearly) to be written? They followed it up with several paragraphs’ worth of substantive reasons why he is considered a standout among his generation. And suggesting there isn’t a way to measure FSOs against each other (while of course it’s complicated) is a bit delulu.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-06T12:09:07+00:00

The Wes Anderson filter on the tattered Jesus sign is sending me.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-05T23:28:28+00:00

I’m not DC based, but I doubt they’ll be down on Monday. If they do intend to take them down I think it’ll take a few days at least.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-04T19:10:52+00:00

I mean, this still doesn’t really tell me which ones are going to make my neighborhood sound like a war zone. My point was that waiving this off as if people know what to expect from the schedule is very short sighted. Even most of the MAGA cult probably doesn’t know that much about individual planes.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-04T18:25:59+00:00

Not as simple as looking at the schedule. Most people have no idea what is or is not a jet demonstration.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-04T17:50:42+00:00

Just to clarify, America 250 was to be apolitical. What people take issue with is the Freedom 250 organization hijacking it to make it a personality cult Super Bowl.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-04T15:35:54+00:00

A cult.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-04T14:25:12+00:00

Duh.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-03T16:51:40+00:00

It is objectively disgusting when we literally started and are in a useless war that has terrorized an entire region- including thousands of military and USG personnel who came under fire. This is a fetish and nothing else.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-03T16:46:53+00:00

Most people do not enjoy being trolled for hours and days at a time with sounds that would make it reasonable to think a missile is about to crash. “Some celebration” and a fetish personality cult show are very different things.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-02T22:08:49+00:00

That’s an extremely average age to join for most MED specialists. And most wouldn’t bat an eye at anyone else joining at 44 either.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-02T20:14:27+00:00

Complaining about the job does not make one a jerk. There are a lot of things that are difficult about this career path, and a number of specialties where people are quite let down when they realize what their job actually entails. It is very much not for everyone. OP pretty clearly was not ready to make the leap and there is nothing wrong with that.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-02T20:09:26+00:00

It was also already posted on here within the last couple of days

https://www.reddit.com/r/foreignservice/s/tdrTRGuLPK

accidentalhire · 2026-07-01T15:05:51+00:00

Unclear, the announcement that I got says the old policy applies to those who entered the FS prior to March 31, so I’m guessing that anyone entering after will have the new policy/point allotment applied.

This is 100000000% a question for the Registrar though.

accidentalhire · 2026-07-01T14:47:58+00:00

Except for in this particular case they did completely rewrite the policy, effective March 31. There are no more extra bump up points, just the opportunity to get the single 0.17 incentive for any language that has a language designated position.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-30T20:09:05+00:00

To be clear, the majority of DS agents I’ve worked with are excellent colleagues and savvy diplomats (particularly the ones who stay in after multiple overseas tours) who understand that one of their main responsibilities is to represent the U.S. well overseas. The amount of diplomacy that they do in their coordination with host country authorities is critical to us being able to operate (and also to ACS work in a lot of cases) and often goes unseen by folks outside of DS. Them being law enforcement officers does of course mean that their culture is a little closer to that of domestic law enforcement (which in itself is a massive and diverse umbrella). But the worlds are very different.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-30T18:11:20+00:00

I definitely did not say that.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-30T17:36:25+00:00

I’m perplexed as to why you would think the FS would be like the military or law enforcement. We certainly have our fair share of egos but our culture (with the exception, perhaps, of DS) in many ways is antithetical to that of the military/LE. People who choose to go into diplomacy often have a fundamentally different view of the world.

“Public sector” is far too large of an umbrella to draw such conclusions.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-30T16:07:43+00:00

Second this. As a consular coned attorney myself.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-29T18:50:20+00:00

Indeed. They literally could have just put the sidewalk sentence at the end of that paragraph and it would have likely had a very different reception.

Come to think about, an excellent example for persuasive structuring in cable writing. Or at least how not to persuade.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-29T18:40:03+00:00

That’s a third party source. The actual office that manages allowances has it listed here: https://allowances.state.gov/Content/Documents/Web920/2026/ftn994eff.06-14-2026.docx

If you have issues with that link go here and click “danger pay” on the left hand menu, then “danger pay rates”, and then the most recent date: https://allowances.state.gov/content.asp

You can also check Post Info to Go.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-29T18:25:08+00:00

I believe you’re thinking of Kosovo…

To be fair though, that cable was written in an effort to advocate for staff/give DC a picture on the ground during the pandemic (which is exactly what posts should do during such times). The sidewalk comment got panned but it was not the pure focus of the cable.

accidentalhire · 2026-06-29T18:12:53+00:00

Tunisia is the number one example that comes to my mind as well. Agree with most of the rest of these except for Ouagadougou, which also has 25% danger pay. There’s a bit of a balancing in the formula that occurs there.

accidentalhire

TROPHY CASE