|
wolfs posted:Do any of you have thoughts on how I should frame an email to an agency’s Schedule A hiring person / email address? OPM posted:Provide "proof of a disability" documentation. "Proof of a disability" is a letter stating that you have an intellectual disability, severe physical disability or psychiatric disability. You can get this letter from your doctor, a licensed medical professional, a licensed vocational rehabilitation specialist, or any Federal, state, or local agency that issues or provides disability benefits. Many doctors and most of the entities listed above know how to format a Schedule A letter. OPM Regulation - Schedule A I just have a word doc given to me by my VocRehab counsellor where I change the job announcement and title/date each time. She said it wouldn't matter and would verify it if she was ever given a phone call. You should be fine.
|
#
?
May 28, 2021 18:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 16:07 |
|
|
wolfs posted:
Hey, same here! What a small world we live in.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2021 20:34
|
|
|
treat posted:My new technician is literally living out of a van next to the river. Insanity. Don't private sector geologists working in oil make insane amounts of money? ($150k+)
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2021 11:39
|
|
|
Howard Phillips posted:Insanity. Don't private sector geologists working in oil make insane amounts of money? ($150k+) To be fair, oil skews everything upward, but I’d bet in booming times it could significantly exceed that. Anything else and you’re likely looking at significantly less.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2021 15:11
|
|
|
Howard Phillips posted:Insanity. Don't private sector geologists working in oil make insane amounts of money? ($150k+) Well, I'm not a geologist and I don't work in oil. I work in a field focused on mitigating the damage inflicted by industries like oil, specifically post-fire restoration ecology, and this is America so it tracks; research that consistently points the finger at big money industries destroying the planet is going to be underfunded  . In fact, most of the work we do is funded by other agencies (primarily BLM), conservation nonprofits or private corporations (for things like novel herbicide development) and we take advantage of these projects largely for opportunities to collect data that may be useful and applicable to fire & ecological science. We also ALLEGEDLY* collect a lot of secondary data off the record and ALLEGEDLY* go to great lengths to hide that fact from funding agencies, as data that isn't specifically outlined or funded within the scope of something like a post-fire ESR monitoring plan would be considered misuse of project funds. Sketchy stuff like that is ALLEGEDLY* the entire MO of our science center because otherwise we'd be little more than a BLM contracting agency that doesn't do much actual science.*I don't know nothin', this is all just hearsay I picked up from my coworker's cousin's friend who knows a guy who has an uncle who supposedly overheard a conversation about something like this once.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2021 23:36
|
|
|
Oh no. I forgot about USCIS' insane 5-page résumé limit. Is education really at the end as it appears to be? Pretty sure it will just end up cutting off all of my degrees, but those are all in my transcripts anyway so who cares
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2021 02:05
|
|
|
Howard Phillips posted:Insanity. Don't private sector geologists working in oil make insane amounts of money? ($150k+) Yes, some private sector geologists in the oil business make tremendous amounts of bank. However, its very difficult to be a geologist and just walk into one of those roles or find yourself in that situation. Your best shot is to graduate from an oil school during an oil boom and intern yourself or use connections to get in the door. If oil has contracted when you graduated, and you don't have any serious connections then I have bad news. The whole sector has been trimming itself since 2014 and a lot of those positions probably aren't coming back.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2021 02:37
|
|
|
Looks like Biden’s handlers are pushing to reopen fed sites now that they’ve abandoned NPI and (re)embraced poor/black/brown genocide. Given the massive boomer management population and OPM’s regressive approach to remote work I’m not feeling confident that I’ll still be employed by the end of the FY. Anyone’s agency make an announcement about how things will look now that we’re officially “post-covid?” 
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 19:28
|
|
|
Loucks posted:Anyone’s agency make an announcement about how things will look now that we’re officially “post-covid?” Our was "nothing has changed" but we'll no longer be flying in contractors because it saved so much money.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 19:42
|
|
|
That’s basically what I’m expecting for most. Mine and a couple others I have contacts in have teased remote work and done employee surveys, but I’m expecting them to amount to nothing in the end. My only hope for change here is that enough civilian employees have told management that they’ll walk if remote work is ended.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 20:04
|
|
|
Loucks posted:That’s basically what I’m expecting for most. Mine and a couple others I have contacts in have teased remote work and done employee surveys, but I’m expecting them to amount to nothing in the end. My only hope for change here is that enough civilian employees have told management that they’ll walk if remote work is ended. Our section hired 3 employees from out of state, which will be virtual when we get called back into the office. Unless the PDs are different, I don't know how they won't be able to force employees that live near our Agency to be in the office while others are performing the same work remotely.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 20:27
|
|
|
My org did an internal employee survey asking about preferences on telework, schedules, hot-desking, protocols when we return, and how long the notice period should be. The people who left DC are not going to be happy that we're unlikely to change anyone's duty station andet them keep living in Alabama or West Virginia or whatever. I like living in DC, so I say "tough titties." We're not going back anytime soon, and my guess is October, personally, but it's just a feeling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 20:38
|
|
|
We might get another day of telework out of it, but my agency has terminal boomer brain so not only will we be forced back into offices, they are going into open-office concept because 'we upgraded the ventalation systems so COVID-19 won't be a problem'. My boss moved to Florida permanently last month so uh, I'm a bit peeved.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 20:51
|
|
|
Earliest we could go back is Aug 1st but I have a feeling it'll be extended out, but maybe not at 100%. A gradual return if anything.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2021 21:00
|
|
|
My agency is in no rush to get everyone back to the office. They even have plans to vacate one of the satellite buildings and consolidate everything to the main campus.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 04:02
|
|
|
I’m sure the field offices are back, but as a service center employee we’re on extended telework until the end of September. Word is they’re looking into full virtual, inshallah.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 13:04
|
|
|
Delorence Fickle posted:My agency is in no rush to get everyone back to the office. They even have plans to vacate one of the satellite buildings and consolidate everything to the main campus. Same, including an open office floor plan in our new building which, even setting aside covid for a minute, seems ill-conceived since our office doubles as a lab where where we run deafeningly loud grinders & centrifuges on the regular and have to talk loudly over the constant buzzing and rattling of large freezers. TBF this was planned and construction began long before the pandemic and everyone is too excited about getting out of that ancient building and into one with less temperamental IT infrastructure to think about the downsides right now. Moving day is in the middle of July and during the last meeting my boss dropped a hot pile of "we don't want movers touching our stuff do we?" and now I'm just counting the days until I get to claim a workers comp vacation after destroying my back trying to move a 2 ton cryogenic liquid nitrogen freezer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 13:48
|
|
|
I'm hoping for full-time telework, but would be fine with 1 day in the office per week. My agency has a nice little gym with showers so I used to enjoy getting squats or deadlifts in during my lunch break.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 13:55
|
|
|
My office is 1/3 field office, 1/3 publications, and 1/3 lab. The pubs folks are staying home most of the time, but they’ll have access to a telework office in the building. The field and lab folks can WFH when it makes sense, but most of the time we’ll be coming in (for obvious reasons). The major upside is we JUST signed a 10 year lease on our building, and since so many people work from home now everyone else gets their own office with a door and a window. What a dream this is. What a glorious dream
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 14:23
|
|
|
My personal experience is probably a huge outlier since I’m involved in one of the rare instances of fed employees actually doing engineering development rather than overseeing contractors doing it. But my experience with the pandemic and work from home has largely been that while it’s been observably awful for the giant talking-about-doing-work industrial complex, it’s been extremely good for the actually-doing-things subset of us. I’ve been more productive this last year than any year I can think of in my entire adult working career. I’ve even had the extra time and energy to create some pretty slick custom tools (up to and including spinning custom PCBs and prototyping) that I’m POSITIVE I would have been too sucked into dumbasses’ stupid self-aggrandizing meetings to have done before. I can tell because now that things are opening-r-up again, the drumbeat of constant “sit in this meeting and patiently wait your turn to talk about doing work” is noticeably ticking up once again and I loving hate it. And that’s how I feel as an engineer doing hardware design stuff that arguably at least benefits from having a physical lab to go to and play with expensive tools that individual middle class nerds like me could never afford to have at home. The software designers and IT people I work with have benefitted even more from the situation. But nearly everyone from first line supervisors on up the chain are noticeably champing at the bit to back off from “doin stuff” to more “talkin bout doin stuff” and “presenting the appearance of doin stuff”. Infuriating. Predictable yes, but still infuriating. Like I get that the pandemic was almost uniquely only good for “shut in nerds that enjoy doing shut in nerd stuff” and was pretty awful for everyone else, but god drat it I’m only human and a perverse part of me wishes the pandemic would never end. “Whaaat?” The ghost of Karl Marx that haunts me cackles into my ear. “Alienation? At the workplace?”
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 14:54
|
|
|
it's always fascinating to hear from feds who have equipment, labs, experiments, field work, etc. I inhabit a vast universe of paperwork, emails, and phone calls, so I sometimes forget that the government encompasses so much more than that
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 18:30
|
|
|
Thesaurus posted:it's always fascinating to hear from feds who have equipment, labs, experiments, field work, etc. Understandable. It's the exception, and your experience is the norm. My first federal job was like that. To find the opportunity that I've got, I had to explicitly seek it out, and it required no small amount of perseverance, networking, and luck to get it. And I won't say it's the best fit for just everyone either. I personally am in the uncomfortable position of being someone who enjoys tinkering with electronics...but also I like having a life outside of it too. Apparently that's not a real common combo. But in terms of compensation vs. quality of life and benefits, I like to call Federal employment "the best deal in America", but I wanted to figure out of I could have my cake and eat it too...that is to say, get that deal for myself, but also still get to get paid for playing with my toys without having to deal with the work/life dumpster fire that is being an engineer for a private company. Obviously I wouldn't say it's been just perfect, but I still think it's about the best I can do for what I want out of work. Naturally I'm still gonna bitch and moan about the imperfections. Takes constant vigilance too to keep getting what I want. People constantly trying to push me into "leadership" roles I don't want because it's the only concept they have for how to reward someone and they get silly and desperate when there are vacancies. Most recently someone a couple steps above me in the chain got this wild hair that they could move me to help pad out some contractor manhours they lost doing sys admin for a system of systems with the reasoning "Justus likes 'doing firmware' ", and I had to have an uncomfortable conversation about how actually, Justus likes Doing Firmware (digital circuit design) not "doing firmware" (ensuring some fielded routers get their monthly vulnerability patches and writing silly memos every month about why it's not a good idea to push updates to the Linux kernal every single month).
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 19:36
|
|
|
We just got the first call for volunteers to return. It's madness that SSA is dragging its feet on this
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 20:06
|
|
|
Yeah they just started bringing 15% of peeps back to our office, so like one day a week and some peeps can work 5 if they want. Because 100% of our mission can be completed remotely so need as many peeps back to the office as possible.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 20:28
|
|
|
We have received zero specifics about coming back to the office other than that long term they see a need to have some minimal staffing present in the office each day, but we've had people in the office throughout the pandemic so this isn't really a change. I think they mean it will be more organized rather than everyone randomly coming in when it's convenient for them. We also are giving up half our office space, but this was happening pre-pandemic as we've shrunk so much we literally have enough window offices for every single employee - not that they actually give everyone an office. This keeps getting pushed back so who knows when or if it will really happen. It will free up a ton of money on our budget so I have hopes they'll use this to actually hire some new employees but they'll probably give it back to congress.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 22:01
|
|
|
Justus posted:
If you're in an agency that rarely had vacancies you get this same pressure, but with the added attraction of "oh and 'leadership' comes with no additional compensation"!"
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2021 23:37
|
|
|
El Mero Mero posted:If you're in an agency that rarely had vacancies you get this same pressure, but with the added attraction of "oh and 'leadership' comes with no additional compensation"!" Frequently it has less; while you may have occasional opportunities for overtime as a contributor there are practically none for a manager. The only thing it has is the promise of a path to higher grades but if you have that as a contributor (or don't want it) there's literally no incentive to become a manager besides you just want to.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
The sweet spot (at least in the two series that I've worked in, 2210 and 201) seems to be non-supervisory 13 fully remote. Sounds like a dream, especially if you don't live in a high COL area.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 18:48
|
|
|
EconOutlines posted:The sweet spot (at least in the two series that I've worked in, 2210 and 201) seems to be non-supervisory 13 fully remote. Sounds like a dream, especially if you don't live in a high COL area. yea that’s me and it owns completely, other than the 50-80% travel
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 18:53
|
|
|
ixo posted:yea that’s me and it owns completely, other than the 50-80% travel I'm like...a year from this and I can almost taste it. It's 100% where I want to stop and live forever.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 19:06
|
|
|
EconOutlines posted:The sweet spot (at least in the two series that I've worked in, 2210 and 201) seems to be non-supervisory 13 fully remote. Sounds like a dream, especially if you don't live in a high COL area. I’d more or less agree with this for those jobs. In my work I do enjoy getting my hands on expensive hardware sometimes, so it’s nice to have a place to go and do that. Like, at some point I think I might quit the government and just do ad hoc small engineering contracts independently, but once I do, it’s not likely I’ll get to work with industrial scale FPGAs and sensors again. Basically, I’m living the dream right now already, since I’m non-supervisory 13, and only physically come in twice a week (for now anyways). There are a handful of non-supervisory 14s where I’m at, but tbh I don’t particularly envy their jobs. They tend to be more involved in going around many programs and finding better ways to six sigma things. Which is...all right I guess, but personally I’m happier sticking to one or a few programs and figuring out electronics.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 20:21
|
|
|
EconOutlines posted:The sweet spot (at least in the two series that I've worked in, 2210 and 201) seems to be non-supervisory 13 fully remote. Sounds like a dream, especially if you don't live in a high COL area. Can confirm that this does in fact own.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
My office is going back two days a week in office starting next week. People will be staggered across the week so we have enough "coverage" even though my job series was able to complete 100% of the job remotely for over a year now. End of August were all supposed to be back in the office with zero telework authorized even for extreme circumstances because management wants to ignore that the job can be done remotely and "it wouldn't be fair to the people who can't telework." I would also like to mention that my specific office had numerous COVID outbreaks among the mandatory in office employees during COVID, including as recently as the last month or so, because most people still refuse to get vaccinated, wear a mask, or even wash their hands because COVID is a hoax, 5G ,etc. I would gladly never come into the office again, even if I had to give up travel for it. I don't miss it at all. Rather do that than commute an extra hour to hour and a half each way every day just to sit next to people I work with. I'm just trying to hang in and finish my 10 to get PSLF if it even exists by then. Remote work makes it much more palatable.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2021 00:15
|
|
|
EconOutlines posted:The sweet spot (at least in the two series that I've worked in, 2210 and 201) seems to be non-supervisory 13 fully remote. Sounds like a dream, especially if you don't live in a high COL area. Can confirm that fully remote non-supervisory 14 is great. And living at the edges of the Greater DC area helps to balance cost and access to fun stuff to do.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2021 21:32
|
|
|
Midjack posted:Frequently it has less; while you may have occasional opportunities for overtime as a contributor there are practically none for a manager. The only thing it has is the promise of a path to higher grades but if you have that as a contributor (or don't want it) there's literally no incentive to become a manager besides you just want to. This is where I am, though overtime opportunities are extremely rare (I think in 13 years I've gotten like two whole hours of comp time). Zero desire to manage, so I'm just riding this out until retirement/the apocalypse I guess!
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 16:35
|
|
|
They finally posted some ISO3 jobs. Unfortunately, I will never pass a Secret clearance check.
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 16:45
|
|
|
Beerdeer posted:They finally posted some ISO3 jobs. Unfortunately, I will never pass a Secret clearance check.  Well while that sounds ominous and sad, ISO-2s certainly cap out at a pretty good salary for nearly every locality (and I do not remember exactly where you work but I do not think it was at the CSC or PSC where that might not be as true) Also the good news is in my experience USCIS just never bothers to conduct Secret clearance investigations, they just hire people on and then you just do not get to access the clearance part of the job, so go ahead and apply anyway!
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 18:18
|
|
|
I'm at NSC so my GS-12 is PHAT STACKS.
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 19:02
|
|
|
ISO3 at a service center seems pretty cushy. Hoping they post some at NBC so I can move back to KC.
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 19:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 16:07 |
|
|
Beerdeer posted:They finally posted some ISO3 jobs. Unfortunately, I will never pass a Secret clearance check. Find the old DoD adjudication descriptions and see if you can find one that is similar to your situation; they can be surprisingly tolerant sometimes. Beerdeer posted:I'm at NSC so my GS-12 is PHAT STACKS. Which NSC is this?
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2021 00:23
|
|