Mush Mushi posted:So uuuuh, I’ve been at my “new” position for over a year now and still don’t have anything approaching a full workload, even including the training program that I’m still in. Well if you want I can switch with you and you can spend all day looking at IDRS for taxpayers. 
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Jan 16, 2021 01:03
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Mush Mushi posted:So uuuuh, I’ve been at my “new” position for over a year now and still don’t have anything approaching a full workload, even including the training program that I’m still in. Literally governmentwork.txt for the most part.
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Jan 16, 2021 01:20
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I’m going to do the unthinkable. I’m going to proactively ask for more work. I’m going to put my foot down, set boundaries, and ask to be exploited more.
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Jan 16, 2021 01:34
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Mush Mushi posted:I’m going to do the unthinkable. I’m going to proactively ask for more work. I’m going to put my foot down, set boundaries, and ask to be exploited more. This can certainly pay off. I got my promotion to GS-13 by essentially taking on the workload of two senior staff members that both resigned at the same time. I didn't ask to take on their workload. I just started doing it. I also did some side projects. I'm now doing all of the work that they used to do - but hey at least I got my 13. Do not volunteer for more busy work. Do not say that you have you have lots of free time and leave it up to your supervisor to find you more work. Frame as you see that there is a need for someone to take lead on XYZ and that you think that you currently have the capacity to take on that mission critical project.
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Jan 16, 2021 02:20
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laxbro posted:Do not volunteer for more busy work. Do not say that you have you have lots of free time and leave it up to your supervisor to find you more work. Frame as you see that there is a need for someone to take lead on XYZ and that you think that you currently have the capacity to take on that mission critical project. I’m normally just a normal rear end engineer on a small team, but I recently took an acting lead role for a few months while some names moved around on the org chart. Not sure if this is a common sentiment up the chain of command, but the thing that irritated me about it the most was definitely when guys would just be like “I don’t know what to do please give me something to do”. I just...don’t understand.
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Jan 16, 2021 03:20
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Well in my case I was hired to be a subject matter expert but I literally cannot access work unless it is assigned to me according to very specific procedures that I have no control over. There’s literally an endless amount of work for me to do, and I know exactly what to do, if someone with authority would just release it to me.
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Jan 16, 2021 03:50
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Justus posted:I’m normally just a normal rear end engineer on a small team, but I recently took an acting lead role for a few months while some names moved around on the org chart. Not sure if this is a common sentiment up the chain of command, but the thing that irritated me about it the most was definitely when guys would just be like “I don’t know what to do please give me something to do”. I just...don’t understand. Engineer them some regular rear end work?
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Jan 16, 2021 03:55
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Justus posted:I’m normally just a normal rear end engineer on a small team, but I recently took an acting lead role for a few months while some names moved around on the org chart. Not sure if this is a common sentiment up the chain of command, but the thing that irritated me about it the most was definitely when guys would just be like “I don’t know what to do please give me something to do”. I just...don’t understand. I got let go from my position because I wasn't showing that kind of initiative but that was because I was an intern. Ignatius M. Meen posted:Well if you want I can switch with you and you can spend all day looking at IDRS for taxpayers. How are you enjoying the nightmarish jank that is the IRS computer programs?
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Jan 16, 2021 04:44
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laxbro posted:
Yeah this is great advice. All of my good stuff in government has come from either doing or volunteering to do stuff totally out of my lane that's above my position and that I found interesting.
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Jan 16, 2021 04:57
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I was always told either to fill the job's greatest unfilled need, or take the boss' biggest headache off his plate. And if possible, do it without asking. It's served me well for several decades. Sometimes, it puts in you in a position where you actually end up doing less work than otherwise 
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Jan 16, 2021 05:59
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I’m pretty much stuck at a 12 forever, but I have one of the best fed jobs and I’m about to become an empty nester so I’m content.
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Jan 16, 2021 06:06
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Xelkelvos posted:How are you enjoying the nightmarish jank that is the IRS computer programs? My job is 95% look and 5% touch, but for that 95% the clunky Matrix is all right when things are actually working. Doing most anything manually sucks, but when the tools are up and I'm just giving a timeframe, it's way more usable than I'd usually guess a system that wouldn't look out of place in the '60s would be, thanks to the IAT tools generally interfacing quite well with IDRS. It would still really improve our quality of life and ease of use to have a modern interface/math verification assistant/etc, but that costs $$$$ to create and make compatible with the old system and I know hell will freeze over before certain types of politician will approve modern nonsense that could make the IRS more efficient anyway. As it is, while I'm sure my perspective would be vastly different if I were trying to do IT or returns processing, for accounts research and small changes, it and the IAT tools aren't butter smooth or super nice but so long as you understand them and what you need out of them they'll get the job done faster than you might expect. Things not working are a work hazard same as people who were promised pie in the sky by the last idiot that I now get to explain doesn't exist. It's not really fine that either of those are unavoidable hazards but well, nothing to be done about that... Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jan 16, 2021 |
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Jan 16, 2021 06:47
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I wish I could just go around finding projects and helping whoever needs help through office networking, but I am not allowed to. Work is supposed to be formally assigned to me, and it doesn’t seem like anyone has an incentive to give me more to do, at least for the next year. Still going to ask next week, but I have a feeling I’m supposed to milk my current assignments for time until I am completely through training. I’m used to living and dying by the billable hour in the private sector, so I’m probably also dealing with some whiplash between that scene and government. I don’t like being babied. Throw me into the trenches, damnit. That’s why I’m here.
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Jan 16, 2021 08:41
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Mush Mushi posted:I wish I could just go around finding projects and helping whoever needs help through office networking, but I am not allowed to. Work is supposed to be formally assigned to me, and it doesn’t seem like anyone has an incentive to give me more to do, at least for the next year. Still going to ask next week, but I have a feeling I’m supposed to milk my current assignments for time until I am completely through training. Maybe I’m fundamentally not grasping something about your situation, but I can’t say I’ve ever experienced any job where I just wasn’t allowed to do anything at all to help unless I was explicitly assigned to do it. That sounds awful. Like, I get that you have at least some work that needs to be assigned, but surely not ALL of it. Like in my office, the software guys need to be assigned a ticket by a systems engineer before they can officially begin work on code changes, but that doesn’t stop the more enterprising ones from trying side projects like improving a build process or automating unit tests. I myself was promoted as a direct result of voluntarily mastering one of our product’s firmware so that firmware changes no longer had to be contracted back to the OEM.
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Jan 16, 2021 14:23
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Mush Mushi posted:I wish I could just go around finding projects and helping whoever needs help through office networking, but I am not allowed to. Work is supposed to be formally assigned to me, and it doesn’t seem like anyone has an incentive to give me more to do, at least for the next year. Still going to ask next week, but I have a feeling I’m supposed to milk my current assignments for time until I am completely through training. Yea you need to chill until you are out of training. You’ll probably ruffle feathers if you try to insert yourself into anything too early. I thought I knew everything when I first started but it’s truly a case of “you don’t know what you don’t know” with federal work. It took me about 3 years until I truly had a full grasp of how all the workflows worked together.
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Jan 16, 2021 14:40
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Mush Mushi posted:So uuuuh, I’ve been at my “new” position for over a year now and still don’t have anything approaching a full workload, even including the training program that I’m still in. Sounds like me. I can probably get my job done in 12 hours a week on the high end, but when I'm needed for something, I tend to be *needed*. (The latter may or may not be applicable to you.)
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Jan 16, 2021 17:00
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have you considered maybe chill out and enjoy the cushy situation while it lasts, especially while wfh???
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Jan 16, 2021 22:21
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You really can never tell how management is going to react to anything outside expected normal behavior. I would definitely recommend asking your co-workers about your plans. You might get to hear the story of the last person who went down this path and why that person no longer works there!
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Jan 16, 2021 22:27
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:My job is 95% look and 5% touch, but for that 95% the clunky Matrix is all right when things are actually working. Doing most anything manually sucks, but when the tools are up and I'm just giving a timeframe, it's way more usable than I'd usually guess a system that wouldn't look out of place in the '60s would be, thanks to the IAT tools generally interfacing quite well with IDRS. It would still really improve our quality of life and ease of use to have a modern interface/math verification assistant/etc, but that costs $$$$ to create and make compatible with the old system and I know hell will freeze over before certain types of politician will approve modern nonsense that could make the IRS more efficient anyway. As it is, while I'm sure my perspective would be vastly different if I were trying to do IT or returns processing, for accounts research and small changes, it and the IAT tools aren't butter smooth or super nice but so long as you understand them and what you need out of them they'll get the job done faster than you might expect. I'm sorta glad to be in Balance Due/ACS insofar as I'm only obligated to help taxpayers out in a mostly specific set of things and anything that doesn't fit is a transfer to AM or some other department. I don't make determinations If someone owes, just that they do or don't or are missing something that says they might and in that case, I'm not allowed to help anyways. It'd be even better if the IT department for the site was better about illustrating what a user is doing wrong, but lmao. Government IT is the absolute worst mess in the government, regardless of what part you're in. The only thing worth a drat is security and even then we've recently seen how good that is.
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Jan 17, 2021 05:32
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Thesaurus posted:have you considered maybe chill out and enjoy the cushy situation while it lasts, especially while wfh??? I wasn't complaining, that's for sure!
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Jan 17, 2021 21:09
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Dr. Quarex posted:You really can never tell how management is going to react to anything outside expected normal behavior. I would definitely recommend asking your co-workers about your plans. You might get to hear the story of the last person who went down this path and why that person no longer works there! This. I'm in a role where 90% of the time I just attend a few meetings and make a few phone calls. Then 10% it's hell on wheels with 60-70 hour weeks here and there. I used to feel very apprehensive about idling during the less busy times, but now I just enjoy it. When I started asking too many questions about tasking my supervisors would get anxiety and start wondering if things were going okay.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:51
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In terms of actual work done, I average about 4 months of nothing to do, 6 months of 3ish hours a day, and 2 months of 6-8 hours a day. Just finished up 4 months of nothing. With wfh I now have a very organized house.
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Jan 18, 2021 16:43
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Xelkelvos posted:I'm sorta glad to be in Balance Due/ACS insofar as I'm only obligated to help taxpayers out in a mostly specific set of things and anything that doesn't fit is a transfer to AM or some other department. I don't make determinations If someone owes, just that they do or don't or are missing something that says they might and in that case, I'm not allowed to help anyways. It'd be even better if the IT department for the site was better about illustrating what a user is doing wrong, but lmao. Government IT is the absolute worst mess in the government, regardless of what part you're in. The only thing worth a drat is security and even then we've recently seen how good that is. Yeah, I work AM IMF so I get some other stuff I can help taxpayers with, but while the scope is broader it still has limits. They're often a godsend because they let me play guide and messenger instead of IRS boogeyman; people poo poo all over me for just that even so, I can't fathom the near-constant unending unpleasantness of AQC or Exams calls. It does feel nice to get people moved along in whatever process they're in, but that's muted when the process is a long one, or their timeframe ended 3 months ago and the case has sat in clerical for 5, or any other time when having faith in the org to get things right is proved to be a fool's errand. I know that selection bias is a big thing since, well, if someone has their refund no muss no fuss, they're not exactly going to call us up to thank us, but still!
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Jan 18, 2021 21:16
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:Yeah, I work AM IMF so I get some other stuff I can help taxpayers with, but while the scope is broader it still has limits. They're often a godsend because they let me play guide and messenger instead of IRS boogeyman; people poo poo all over me for just that even so, I can't fathom the near-constant unending unpleasantness of AQC or Exams calls. It does feel nice to get people moved along in whatever process they're in, but that's muted when the process is a long one, or their timeframe ended 3 months ago and the case has sat in clerical for 5, or any other time when having faith in the org to get things right is proved to be a fool's errand. I know that selection bias is a big thing since, well, if someone has their refund no muss no fuss, they're not exactly going to call us up to thank us, but still! Exam calls are great. Oh yeah, I'll send you a letter, you can respond to the letter in writing. Have a nice day!
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Jan 18, 2021 23:44
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sullat posted:Exam calls are great. Oh yeah, I'll send you a letter, you can respond to the letter in writing. Have a nice day! Lmao, I don't think I could get away with that. What do you do with all the people who seemingly never get any of our letters or move every month?
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Jan 19, 2021 00:02
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Has there been any talk about what the Biden administration might mean for pay and benefits? We've had about 12 years of nothing but pain.
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Jan 19, 2021 00:20
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sparkmaster posted:Has there been any talk about what the Biden administration might mean for pay and benefits? We've had about 12 years of nothing but pain. Federal employees are convenient punching bags for both sides so don’t expect anything good. Pay was frozen for a few years under the Obama administration, I would expect a similar outlook from his Vice President.
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Jan 19, 2021 00:28
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Midjack posted:Federal employees are convenient punching bags for both sides so don’t expect anything good. Pay was frozen for a few years under the Obama administration, I would expect a similar outlook from his Vice President. The 1% was terrible. With DAWIA and being a new employee I didn't get anything other than the 1%. If I was a GS I would've gotten a step increase. My boss had the audacity to say "ACQDEMO is great, don't worry you are young, you will be in the top brackets before you know it."
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Jan 19, 2021 00:49
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Howard Phillips posted:The 1% was terrible. With DAWIA and being a new employee I didn't get anything other than the 1%. If I was a GS I would've gotten a step increase. My boss had the audacity to say "ACQDEMO is great, don't worry you are young, you will be in the top brackets before you know it." Your boss isn’t wrong - depending on your job you’ll probably get +3 to +6 your first few years, which will show up as a sizable bump. Agreed it’s annoying to not see anything until the end of your rating cycle though. For benefits in general, 12 weeks paid parental is a pretty specific population but it isn’t nothing. I was surprised there didn’t seem to be much of a stink about it.
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Jan 19, 2021 01:44
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It is because all human reproduction ceased not long after the benefits took effect Also, I know I am an optimist, but there are huge holes in federal employment that have been ignored (well, intentionally created) over the past four years, and I have the feeling the incoming administration can only be good news for people who want to work for the government. C'mooon Diamond Joe, get America rolling again
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Jan 19, 2021 01:54
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The new administration will work to rebuild State, but  if you think they give a gently caress about fixing federal civilian compensation or any other failing of the status quo. My agency is currently on nearly full telework, and I feel relatively confident that we will be ordered back into the office ASAP due to Joe’s Number-induced hard-on for Opening ‘er Up.
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Jan 19, 2021 02:26
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Loucks posted:The new administration will work to rebuild State, but It would be nice if they’d take that loving “make America open again” message off the opm status page at least.
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Jan 19, 2021 02:33
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Howard Phillips posted:The 1% was terrible. With DAWIA and being a new employee I didn't get anything other than the 1%. If I was a GS I would've gotten a step increase. My boss had the audacity to say "ACQDEMO is great, don't worry you are young, you will be in the top brackets before you know it." Your boss isn't wrong about ACQDEMO. Bah, what I get for posting without refreshing. I've gotten the max or close to the max raise my agency will give without paperwork every year and based on that trajectory I'll hit 75% relatively quickly. The fear comes when you start only seeing cash awards and no continuing pay. PneumonicBook fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 03:21
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I'm going to be contrary and say the demo pay is a crock. The fact that there's a single total available for an organization and everyone has to fight over it makes so much more paperwork and headache for basically the same outcome. When trying to sell it to the workforce, we were told it would lead to us being paid more, but also that the data showed it was a very similar pay distribution to the GS scale. My personal experience is getting maximum evals the last few years, when I went above and beyond my responsibilities, and the rate increases put me... right where I would be if the GS scale had in step increases. And I mean that extra money is nice, but I would trade it to remove the headache. The goal of the demo program was always stated to us as making the government pay competitive with private sector, and in my opinion it's an abject failure. There is still a large chunk of roles in my organizations workforce that are completely contractor because they make 2 to 3 or more times than a gov person. And that's the going rate in the private sector! Some of these people have been on the program for over 2 decades.
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Jan 19, 2021 03:48
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Hackan Slash posted:I'm going to be contrary and say the demo pay is a crock. The fact that there's a single total available for an organization and everyone has to fight over it makes so much more paperwork and headache for basically the same outcome. You know how you make fedgov pay competitive with private sector? Increase the numbers in the existing pay scale! (Original idea, do not steal.) Or quit being a chicken and fully implement the laws already on the books though that would instantly detonate everyone's budgets. The "everyone will get paid more" lie was obvious bullshit on its face since a quick look at the payroll numbers and some basic math would reveal that there wasn't suddenly a lot of extra money for people in a given agency. So of course that was never going to happen though amusingly enough there were a few trial runs where it did happen and it turns out that was because the parent organizations pumped a bunch of extra money into the trial to ensure everyone got paid more so they'd like it. Making workers compete for a finite pay pool disincentivizes teamwork and incentivizes sabotage, as well as opens the door for such classic crowd pleasing moves as as "pay pool controller awards the entire bonus pool to cronies" and "everyone files grievances over pay every year." But hey, if your goal is to trash fedgov because "it's corrupt and inefficient" then welding the gears together like this is a great plan!
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Jan 19, 2021 04:15
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Midjack posted:You know how you make fedgov pay competitive with private sector? Increase the numbers in the existing pay scale! (Original idea, do not steal.) Or quit being a chicken and fully implement the laws already on the books though that would instantly detonate everyone's budgets. This is a big problem even with things like annual raises. It's cool to see people making more money, but the labor budgets don't incorporate those raises, so that money has to come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is often painful. At the very least, pass legislation that would automatically amend appropriations so that labor budgets can handle the raises when the executive order comes out.
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Jan 19, 2021 04:30
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:Lmao, I don't think I could get away with that. What do you do with all the people who seemingly never get any of our letters or move every month? I mean, if they don't respond in writing, there's nothing you can do. If they did respond in writing, you can transfer them (assuming timeframes are met). It sucks that there's not a lot you can do over the phone, but so it goes. When you do find something you can solve over the phone, then jump on it with both feet! It's a fun puzzle sometimes to figure out what the heck happened. Although if you're tired of phone work, word on the street is that there's another round of RO and TCO hiring soon.
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Jan 19, 2021 06:46
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sullat posted:I mean, if they don't respond in writing, there's nothing you can do. If they did respond in writing, you can transfer them (assuming timeframes are met). It sucks that there's not a lot you can do over the phone, but so it goes. When you do find something you can solve over the phone, then jump on it with both feet! It's a fun puzzle sometimes to figure out what the heck happened. Although if you're tired of phone work, word on the street is that there's another round of RO and TCO hiring soon. The puzzle part of phone work is definitely the best part, when it's reasonable to solve. I was just talking about the people who take the Exam and AQC phone transfers from AM, though. The parts that get me are a) when the taxpayers treat me like dirt because I'm not telling them what they want to hear or just vent their understandable spleen at me over stuff other people did/didn't do and b) when the actual resolution is buried because the case has gone through a lot of people's hands. When I'm doing lead work or checking 4442's, I enjoy my job a lot more, and if I could just do that all or most of the time... RO isn't likely to be my speed since that involves face-to-face and I'm not great at that vs. phone stuff, but TCO might be, especially if that goes up to GS 12 like TAS or higher (which I've thought about doing solely because unlike my current work I can see processing of a case through to the end instead of just always wondering if I'm shouting in the void or not, making the emotional labor I have to go through on calls actually feel worth something even if the payoff time is insanely long and even when the original starting point sucks). I'm a little worried about that being what drove Discendo Vox into the arms of Cthulu, but on the other hand that's what leads are for when it's your first time seeing a snarl.
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Jan 19, 2021 08:03
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:when the actual resolution is buried because the case has gone through a lot of people's hands If it's any comfort, I'm not in AM and I still deal with this on the daily. Gleaning information from cryptic AMS history notes and IDRS transaction history is a wild ride every time, and I'd say helping new hires through it is about 60% of my OJI time. (The other 40% is, of course, telling them which buttons to push on Quick CC and other IAT tools. NO, NOT THAT ONE, THE ONE TO THE RIGHT)
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Jan 19, 2021 08:16
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Almost forgot I have an interview this week, because they scheduled the interview in early December. I have experienced some strange delays with federal hiring before, but "over six weeks before the interview takes place" was definitely a new one for me. Also my first interview with this agency, though I doubt this is standard practice for anyone. Surely.
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Jan 19, 2021 08:22
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