Workforce Mapping Walter Reed, Bethesda

Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington will close in September 2011, with its personnel, patients and operations moving to an expanded, joint medical facility at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

This move, along with development of a new facility at the Dewitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, Va., will require a lot of juggling of civilian personnel at all three facilities managed by a workforce mapping process, according to the folks at the task force managing the realignment.

All civilian employees at the three hospitals will receive notification of their future job assignments in writing no later than the middle of June, the task force said.

Employees then will have an opportunity to accept their assignment, request a change in location or indicate they do not intend to continue working when the transition occurs.

These preferences will be tracked by the Civilian Human Resources Council. If employees request a change from their original assignment, they will be considered as vacancies.

Personally I'd opt for metro-friendly Bethesda, rather than Fort Belvoir, which stands a good chance of becoming the Commute From Hell. Once the work force there more than doubles to 41,700 people in 2011 as the result of the move of multiple Army and intelligence agencies, traffic will be a bit thick.