re: "Why diplo-spouses can't get real love at the State Department - they are headaches, especially when they are heard and seen"

Domani Spero at Diplopundit ("Just one obsessive observer, diplomatic watcher, opinionator and noodle newsmaker monitoring the goings on at Foggy Bottom and the worldwide available universe.") expands on the problems related to FS family-member employment.

Money quote(s):

"(T)he screener probably thought you were a foreign born spouse who speaks English learned from Sesame Street."

The old joke is that you can tell where a (male) FSO had his first assignment by the nationality of his wife.

This is true just often enough that it remains funny today. For values of "funny."

"Some years ago, we were at a dinner hosted by one of the Rising Stars in the Consular Bureau, who by the way, is now an ambassador over there. Anyway, one of the guests was an FSO with a spouse who was formerly an FSN with considerable experience in consular work. Now the FSO wanted to know if his English-speaking, embassy veteran wife, may be allowed to take the ConGen course. The Rising Star then also insinuated that most EFMs can't pass the basic English skills tests and that most EFMs at ConGen quit or flunk the course. In not so many words, the answer was like ... don't bother dude, find her a hobby instead.

It was most shocking to the FSN-EFM who had worked for a consular section for some dozen years, shocking to her husband who had at that time, far less experience in consular work than the wife, and shocking to us the poor audience, who had the misfortune of observing firsthand a bureaucracy that saw numbers rather than individuals."

Not being a "rising star," and having both worked side-by-side (as a junior officer) with EFM consular associates and as a supervisor of EFM consular staff later in my career, what I take from the perceived scarcity of English-language proficiency among EFMs that not that they should be discounted. Rather, my lesson-learned is that where they exist they should be exploited!

(But then, I'm not a "rising star.")

"The better paying jobs at the embassy are in the Consular Section, of course. Unlike most sections in the mission, the consular folks actually has (sic) money they can tap to request and pay for additional employees. And sometimes, you do get lucky when you have real leaders in the captain's chair. Other times, you get lemons, too, although CA hates to advertise that. But ConGen has always been a tad "complicated." I mean, management often wants the EFMs because they are cheaper, but they really would rather have junior officers if they have a choice. They want EFMs to fill in an empty slot, but they won't pay for you to go back to DC and take the course. Also some well-qualified EFMs can't get consular gigs because managers worry that they'd get bored over repetitive mindless work, go on leave during the peak visa season, take off to take care of kids or school issues, demand their Highest Previous Rate (if previously held a higher pay grade than advertised) and yada, yada, yada."

The Consular Section has (some) money because Congress insists that fees be charged for services provided, both visa- and citizenship-related. Said fees must reflect the actual cost to the State Department for providing said services. Every year or so a "cost of services" survey is conducted by experts in this sort of thing to figure out just what the true costs are. Every time they do this they get a little bit better at ferretting out "hidden" costs and overhead/support expenditures that make it possible to provide consular services. Also, every time they do this, some previously "free" service gets a fee attached to it. Annoucements of updated fee schedules are routinely greeted by howls of indignation from those who depend on these services.

However, since there are not congressmen or senators elected by our citizens-abroad-at-large, after a little bit of chest-thumping and pronouncing, the new fee schedule goes into effect.

"The bottom line I'm told -- there is a need for MANY more low-level visa adjudicators in the so -called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, China and India). Some can be filled by EFMs, but not all, even if all EFMs wanted to do so. They have to be filled by language-qualified applicants, they have to be filled full time, and filling them cannot depend on the availability of EFMs. The word out there is that EFM employment opportunities will not be reduced. Where language-qualified EFMs are available, they will be used."

Obviously, the thing to do is require unmarried FSOs to chose English-fluent spouses from one of the BRIC countries until further notice.

re: "Grave Responsibilities Taken Lightly"

Madam le Consul at The Consul's Files ("ask questions, answer questions, question answers, express frustrations, engage in debate, disagree, and tell their favorite consular stories, uncensored and anonymous") affirmed probably the most crucial role of front-line consular managers (Those studs. And studettes).

Money quote(s):

"More than anyone else in the mission, the consular section chief is responsible for raising up the next generation of FSOs, giving them a good, strong, broad, confident start in their new profession."

"What is a consular section chief's ultimate goal with the ELOs? It is to train them so well that if the chief is run over by a milk truck tomorrow, the section will barely hiccup. If we haven't taught them everything we know, we have failed.

What is a consular section chief's penultimate goal with ELOs? It is to teach them the most basic requirements of their careers: do hard work well; do it with class and style; do it with kindness and generosity; do it with the biggest possible picture in mind. We don't do our work for gratitude; we do it because it's our work. We don't bring our personal baggage to the work station. We are on a par with every other officer in the mission, and will be treated with and will behave with perfect professionalism and respect."

&

"What if they aren't consular coned and will never do another consular tour? Why bother to teach them so much? Because some day they will be doing visa referrals, they will be principal officers, they will be DCMs. It will strongly behoove us to assure that they know a great deal about and have great respect for consular work, if for no other reason than to spare the next generation of consular managers excessive heartburn."