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A solid 2 weeks since selection and no TJO!
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Dec 4, 2020 05:56
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GD_American posted:After several years of dealing with angry claimants that he promised undeliverable stuff to and then is somehow magically off that day, I had it. To explain: the standing rule for dealing with immigration petitions/applications was that you should try to have the same person work on any individual case from first submission to ultimate approval or denial, so if you got stuck with someone else's garbage file that you had to deny after the person failed to submit new information to overcome any deficiencies, it could really ruin your day. You basically had to re-examine the entire file, including trying to ascertain what the other officer was trying to accomplish with the evidence request letter, to make sure you also agreed with the previous officer's interpretations and use of discretion. File responses arriving right at the end of the ~three months people had to respond were almost always the biggest messes that took the most effort to deal with, even if you were dealing with your own previous work. A succinct summary of my career at that office was "attend training, get certified to process denials, then before three months are up when the denials would actually need to be done: get moved to a new division forcibly/go on external detail/go on FMLA/go on internal detail/get moved to new division by request/transfer to different office across the country." At each one of those phases I had at least a handful of people come up to me and ask what they had done to deserve the punishment of having a dozen of my old terrible files dumped on their desk unceremoniously, with me not being formally allowed to help them with said files even if I wanted (though I did certainly answer a few questions over chat when I could). In my entire time on the job, working on thousands of files, I think I used my denial stamp 15-20 times, and that includes being required to process five denials just to be certified to perform them independently. I realize it is possible only Beerdeer will find this as hilarious as I do, but so be it Loucks posted:Until someone in HR realizes that the GS-5 who processed your appointment hosed up and corrects the error. That same person was then one of three of our incoming group erroneously given a step 10 starting offer for our base grade. Everyone assumed the government could not take that away since it was in the final offer, but apparently because the tentative offer they had agreed to was correct they handwaved it and made it all go away. I was not surprised when that double-screwed guy was the first one in our group to leave.
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Dec 4, 2020 07:10
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Dr. Quarex posted:At each one of those phases I had at least a handful of people come up to me and ask what they had done to deserve the punishment of having a dozen of my old terrible files dumped on their desk unceremoniously, with me not being formally allowed to help them with said files even if I wanted (though I did certainly answer a few questions over chat when I could). On a much, much smaller scale, I noticed when I was a service rep that the alpha roster got bounced around every few months (what part of the alphabet goes to which person). I noticed I was always cleaning up after shitbirds; some of the stuff they sat on would make your blood boil. I noticed I was always leaving my old alpha to meh employees. I never complained about it to my boss (I'm not stupid), but I was whining about it to a mentor when he asked me "if you were a boss and had a roster equally split between shitbirds, seat fillers and hard chargers, and you know the shitbirds are piling up cases, what would you do? Look at it as a compliment". My feelings run to "fix or remove shitbirds", but if upper management doesn't let you then yeah, that's the best Plan B I could agree with. Run that fucker like an ocean current. Oh God the things we always found in the desks of people after they retired.
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Dec 4, 2020 07:26
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Haha. Yeah. There are plenty of stories at USCIS of people who get a case they do not know how to deal with and just put it in their desk drawers and it gets found after they retire or whatever (or the classic example when they were shutting down the field office in Ho Chi Minh City and found somebody had stuffed dozens of cases they did not want to deal with into the ceiling tiles). The people who could reliably be handed absolute crap work and get it finished without too much complaining were definitely heralded as champions by management, so yeah, I am sure that is fairly common across the government. Or at least I hope it is, as the only real alternative is looking down on everyone equally.
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Dec 4, 2020 09:22
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Anyone tracking these HHS deregulatory rules? I'm finding them terrifying. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/11/04/2020-23888/securing-updated-and-necessary-statutory-evaluations-timely quote:Therefore, in order to ensure evidence-based regulation that does not become outdated as conditions change, HHS proposes that, subject to certain exceptions, all regulations issued by the Secretary or his delegates or sub-delegates in Titles 21, 42, and 45 of the CFR shall expire at the end of (1) two calendar years after the year that this proposed rule first becomes effective, (2) ten calendar years after the year of the regulation's promulgation, or (3) ten calendar years after the last year in which the Department Assessed and, if required, Reviewed the regulation, whichever is latest.[2] The RFA and executive orders have only resulted in limited retrospective review by the Department. The Department believes this proposed rule would effectuate the desire for periodic retrospective reviews expressed in the RFA and Executive Orders, as well as ensure the Department's regulations are having appropriate impacts and have not become outdated. That's one of five or so of similar scope targeting different parts of the agency's ability to function. Another requires that all agency analyses provide all data and documents and methods to the standard of full replication. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 4, 2020 09:31
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Hekk posted:I have friends who work as GSs who are convinced that I have a solid shot at applying for some GS13 range positions as a retiring enlisted Marine with a undergrad degree and service connected disabilities. That would be reasonable for some locations, but usually you'd start at a 12 and work your way to a 13.
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Dec 4, 2020 13:16
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Dr. Quarex posted:My favorite moment in onboarding was when four of us discovered on our first day that we had been assigned to the incorrect office, about an hour away from our actual office. One of the four of us had already signed a year rental agreement for a place right by that incorrect office (not me, fortunately).  I don’t think I’ve told this story before, but I took a poo poo appointment over a thousand miles away to get into Federal employment. Halfway through the drive to my new apartment the HR rep called me to congratulate me on my part time position and let me know what to bring in on my first day. Problem was it was a full time position on both the tentative and final offer. I pointed this out and stood my ground and finally they relented the next day. Later I found out that they had made my offer before knowing that someone up the chain wanted to give a family member a full time position and they had filled their FTE maximum with my offer. That dude came on as a part timer, but by the time I left they had already promoted him.
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Dec 4, 2020 14:34
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Loucks posted:
Hahahaha, I love it. Seriously tho I can't stand the boomers I work with. Some have been in the same position for 20 years. Military commanders that make up the 2% of our top leadership come and go, so this dudes just ride it out. Everything is slow and everyone has a rice bowl mentality where they don't want to do anything unless their boss tells them to. Every action takes a week at minimum. Days are spent in meetings that don't make decisions or actually send information up the chain. I'm scared of turning into a middle aged man in this system and having no other option but to ride it out. It's maddening!
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Dec 4, 2020 15:02
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Loucks posted:Later I found out that they had made my offer before knowing that someone up the chain wanted to give a family member a full time position and they had filled their FTE maximum with my offer. That dude came on as a part timer, but by the time I left they had already promoted him. I thought that was defined as nepotism, and hence illegal? How the hell do the nepotism rules work (in theory) anyway?
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Dec 4, 2020 16:09
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“Hey sorry, we put you in the wrong retirement sub-system 3 separate times so now you owe us $2000 and you have 1 month to pay it back or we’ll charge interest. Hope you and your family are doing well during these trying times  ”I’m livid.
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Dec 4, 2020 16:25
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App13 posted:“Hey sorry, we put you in the wrong retirement sub-system 3 separate times so now you owe us $2000 and you have 1 month to pay it back or we’ll charge interest. Hope you and your family are doing well during these trying times It might be worth it to appeal (there should be appeal information on the letter they sent). They'll probably still make you pay it back - but if they screwed up 3 times I'd try to push back a bit on this. They really should be deducting it over time out of your check. Did you just get a letter saying that you had until XYZ date to submit a full payment in pay.gov?
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Dec 4, 2020 16:43
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Spacewolf posted:I thought that was defined as nepotism, and hence illegal? Nephews only.
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Dec 4, 2020 16:52
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App13 posted:“Hey sorry, we put you in the wrong retirement sub-system 3 separate times so now you owe us $2000 and you have 1 month to pay it back or we’ll charge interest. Hope you and your family are doing well during these trying times That sucks. When they did that to us they were just like "Hey, we screwed up, but we're fixing it for you by taking it out of your paycheck for the next four months, have a nice day."
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Dec 4, 2020 16:57
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laxbro posted:It might be worth it to appeal (there should be appeal information on the letter they sent). They'll probably still make you pay it back - but if they screwed up 3 times I'd try to push back a bit on this. They really should be deducting it over time out of your check. Did you just get a letter saying that you had until XYZ date to submit a full payment in pay.gov? Oh definitely, I had an appeal written up and sent out ASAP. Figured there was no reasonable expectation for me to spot the difference between fers-Rae and fers-frae, nor the $7 difference in my pay checks. My local Admin dept. seems to agree. Got a letter saying I had a month before they’d be charging interest, and I could submit a payback plan that they’d look over and accept/reject. I selected a payback period of 3 years, cuz gently caress’em. Also I’m going to be very noisy about this. As someone who was very nearly sent to court martial during the cluster gently caress that was the 7th fleet 10 years ago, I’m ready for the long haul
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Dec 4, 2020 17:40
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Spacewolf posted:I thought that was defined as nepotism, and hence illegal? LMAO They don’t. Next question. Real answer is it varies by agency ime. My current agency takes that sort of thing super seriously for competitive positions.
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Dec 4, 2020 18:11
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Howard Phillips posted:Hahahaha, I love it. Ill be in 5 years in March. You get used to it.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:39
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PneumonicBook posted:Ill be in 5 years in March. If I can make it to five years then I can lock in my deferred pension.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:16
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Loucks posted:LMAO My wife is at the Corps of Engineers. That office puts unionized auto plants to shame with nepotism. To be fair, it played in our favor. She literally got her first job there (which she was qualified for, but didn't make the first USAJobs cut) because her ex-boyfriend's sister was married to a department head, and he dropped her name in the hat. But tons of kids of department heads and side pieces on the payroll there.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:24
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GD_American posted:My wife is at the Corps of Engineers. That office puts unionized auto plants to shame with nepotism. I've heard good things about the Army of Corps Engineers, is it a good place to be at?
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Dec 4, 2020 20:28
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Howard Phillips posted:I've heard good things about the Army of Corps Engineers, is it a good place to be at? I don't feel qualified to pass an opinion there, since she joined the agency she's only been in the Mobile office and culture varies everywhere. Not just that, she's admin and has worked in several departments, each of which vary a wide amount in quality based on the leadership. I can drop tea about leadership there all day, but unless you're in the same building it's not really advice.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:41
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App13 posted:“Hey sorry, we put you in the wrong retirement sub-system 3 separate times so now you owe us $2000 and you have 1 month to pay it back or we’ll charge interest. Hope you and your family are doing well during these trying times I had the same problem, but opposite happen to me. I tried to get them to refund my excess contributions and they were like "lol, there's a process for that but we don't do that in this HR office".
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Dec 5, 2020 00:13
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Loucks posted:They don’t. Next question. But then when several people told me similar stories about a person, using a name, who was both the niece of a higher-up in the office and whose supervisor was told to "back off" writing her bad reviews, well, I started to believe perhaps there were still some issues.
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Dec 5, 2020 01:10
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We have a LOT of families in our service center. It’s an inevitable result of being a major employer in a small city.
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Dec 5, 2020 02:44
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Let this be a reminder that you never know what USAJobs is going to pull at the last minute: I applied to my favorite kind of job (MANY VACANCIES) on a posting that was expiring in about 90 minutes. No big deal; I have done that countless times, and I have taken so many USAHire questionnaires this year that I know there is nothing left they can throw at me. Well guess what, this posting resulted in them throwing a not-even-kidding IQ TEST at me that HAD TO BE COMPLETED BY THE SAME DEADLINE AS THE VACANCY I mean it was a four-part test, and only one part was literally "finish these patterns," but considering I had about 60 minutes to go and had no idea how long the test was going to be I was almost assuredly not performing my best
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Dec 5, 2020 06:25
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El Mero Mero posted:Look at block 24. If it has a 2, you're in probation. If it has a 1 you can tell people to go gently caress themselves if they try to say otherwise. ah gently caress, yeah even more than a year later, when I left it still had a 2.... does that still qualify for reinstatement and such or do I get no extra perks like that, and am functionally a general public applicant?
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Dec 5, 2020 07:41
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Artificer posted:ah gently caress, yeah even more than a year later, when I left it still had a 2.... Unfortunately it's the latter.
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Dec 5, 2020 08:09
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why must so many people think the second stimulus is a thing it's not tax law yet, we don't know anything until then it's just a freaking bill that's passed the house, until it passes the senate and is signed by the president it's not real in any way that matters please, stop asking me if you'll get it or not, I don't know, and none of the 'first' stimulus poo poo you're going through will be relevant if it never gets signed into law STOP
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Dec 5, 2020 10:21
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El Mero Mero posted:Unfortunately it's the latter. drat shame.
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Dec 5, 2020 11:00
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sparkmaster posted:I had the same problem, but opposite happen to me. I tried to get them to refund my excess contributions and they were like "lol, there's a process for that but we don't do that in this HR office". did you ever get paid back? I know I've mentioned it here in the past, but I was put in the higher contribution retirement group (FRAE) and got them to reclassify me into the lower contribution (RAE) due to technicalities of my situation. They eventually refunded my excess contributions, but it took a long rear end time (like a year). I had to deal directly with the payroll and benefits people in HQ for the agency rather than any local contacts, who hadn't even heard of my issue.
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Dec 5, 2020 14:28
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on that note, everyone should get in the habit of scrutinizing their SF50 whenever you get a new one. I don't blame anyone for not knowing about it, but you don't want to let some error slip through for years that could really mess with you down the road. One person I know was excluded from a promotion opportunity she qualified for because her SF50 had never been updated to reflect that she was no longer a career conditional employee. I'm told the agency response was "oops, our bad!, but you should have noticed it earlier..." and by then the promotion application window had closed.
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Dec 5, 2020 14:34
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1 week to shutdown! what's the word on the street?
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Dec 6, 2020 01:23
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Seamonster posted:1 week to shutdown! what's the word on the street? Nobody is grandstanding so a CR is a near certain thing from Congress though we can’t rule out the president declining to sign it out of spite.
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Dec 6, 2020 01:26
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edit
Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Dec 6, 2020 |
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Dec 6, 2020 08:41
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Got an interview at DOL!! If any Labor goons see this, I would love to talk to you; PM me. I'm interviewing in the Office of Audit on Wednesday 12/9.
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Dec 6, 2020 17:19
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Midjack posted:Nobody is grandstanding so a CR is a near certain thing from Congress though we can’t rule out the president declining to sign it out of spite. It ain't in until it's in. I wouldn't mind a few days off though.
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Dec 7, 2020 20:51
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Xelkelvos posted:It ain't in until it's in. I wouldn't mind a few days off though. I don't even get that. I get to answer the phones with "nope, can't do that. Nope, that either. Nope. Nope." And although I know we'll get paid eventually, it's technically doing it for free
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Dec 8, 2020 00:24
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Shutdown is a big ol catch-22 for me. As a contractor who wants out of working 10-15 hours of uncompensated overtime in a crap branch every week, a shutdown means getting paid for just showing up/logging in. For reasons borne out in the last shutdown, my contract will NOT be getting a stop work order but with no feds approving anything its basically sitting around after a few days (firm fixed price!). I know alot of people suffered during those 35 days last time around and indeed some people ITT, but speaking strictly personally it was goddamn glorious; rolling up in jeans every day 20 minutes late with 2 hour lunch breaks and answering maybe 4-5 emails all day. As someone waiting on an offer though, poo poo is getting real nerve-wracking. It'll be a full month this week since selection with no word from HR.
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Dec 8, 2020 00:46
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I fully expect that we’ll be shut down. Petulant child gonna lash out everywhere he can.
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Dec 8, 2020 02:06
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Seamonster posted:As someone waiting on an offer though, poo poo is getting real nerve-wracking. It'll be a full month this week since selection with no word from HR. i don't remember how long it took, but after my selection they did the initial background check, and that took a little bit. depending on your history that might take a while... oh and it's the end of the year where people had trouble using their use-or-lose time off, and those people are just now realizing their employer isn't going to let them keep that extra time into next year, there might not be anyone in hr to process it  .
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Dec 8, 2020 06:00
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| # ? May 18, 2024 18:39 |
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killer crane posted:i don't remember how long it took, but after my selection they did the initial background check, and that took a little bit. depending on your history that might take a while... oh and it's the end of the year where people had trouble using their use-or-lose time off, and those people are just now realizing their employer isn't going to let them keep that extra time into next year, there might not be anyone in hr to process it They told us like four months ago nobody was getting leave restored outside of very specific circumstances so yeah, everyone is dumping in November and December. It also has the side effect of getting people out of the office at the height of flu season as well as when the post holiday plague bearers are back in the buildings.
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Dec 8, 2020 06:44
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