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Oh sweet, 8 more hours I can sell back for retirement.
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Mar 1, 2024 18:17
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Thesaurus posted:It's a remote, HR adjacent position, so Im not clear on how much I'd be summoned to the front lines in person. Definitely my worst interview to date! It wasn't the position I had thought (and had asked to confirm... which they wouldn't do??). It was similar enough and I didn't let on, but they asked about my experience with several statutes that I know little about. I was in full spin mode at a few points regarding the applicability of my experience. I'm not totally unqualified, but definitely a poo poo show compared to my last couple interviews. The good news is I don't really want the job! which means they'll probably offer it to me. At this point I'm not declining any interviews because I figure it's valuable practice and insight. I didn't know second interviews were a thing, but I had one for a potential promotion Yet it'd be in DC for a massive agency (Treasury) and probably a weak telework situation. Not sure I'm ready for that move right now anyway. I was also asked if I could provide a sample of my writing from my current job, and I had to say that I don't think I'm authorized to share that work product, even with redactions. Oh well Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Mar 2, 2024 |
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Mar 2, 2024 04:43
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Our office lost another two people this week. We are very much starting to strain under the workload. We're now almost at 50% staffing vs pre-COVID. We have fantastic management in the office (seriously, best collection of supervisors I've ever worked under) who knows the score, but tensions are already rising about timelines and workloads. I'd been idly looking for a GS-12 slot in contracting in the area, but at this point I'm looking for the door from SSA and pondering whether I'd take a lower grade job to do it.
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Mar 2, 2024 05:06
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From reddit: What is the maximum amount of time you would feel comfortable pooping at work before you fear you might be suspected of timecard fraud? I am just over 3 years into my fed career, and I have never once pooped at work. I have felt the urge to many times, but I always end up holding it in until I get home. Truth is I'm afraid that my excessively time consuming bowel movements would be viewed by some as purposely wasting time, but it legitimately takes me 40 minutes to an hour plus to do my deed. I have been perscribed extra strength stool softeners but I always have a bad reaction to them, so I no longer take them. Follow up question, has anyone ever heard of extra bathroom time being granted as a reasonable accommodation?
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Mar 2, 2024 05:47
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Tell them you have IBS and I think they have to by law.
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Mar 2, 2024 06:53
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Could someone help me understand the actual decision process, specifics and barriers to having an opening, let alone an opening available to the public? Take GD_American's post above: there's a grand total of one (1) public opening in the entire SSA right now. There's a total of nine openings.
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Mar 2, 2024 07:01
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Justus posted:advice Hey man, thanks for all of that good info. I got really lucky with the position. The job req wasn't posted on usajobs, they had direct hiring authority. My coding bootcamp is only for vets and they got us a meeting with the hiring managers which was a great opportunity. I'm excited to start my career with the feds and that's great that my mil service adds so many extra perks. I'm not sure which rank they'll give me but even if it's the lower of the two (gs9) the salary's still $66k which is totally fine. I'm also looking forward to that work life balance too. I'm not interested in overtime at all anymore. It was super weird, they scheduled me for an 'informational meeting' and that was the only interview I had. I also didn't even know what the job description or the job title was when I interviewed for it. I guess I made a good impression though so it worked out. davey4283 fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 2, 2024 07:17
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Discendo Vox posted:Could someone help me understand the actual decision process, specifics and barriers to having an opening, let alone an opening available to the public? Take GD_American's post above: there's a grand total of one (1) public opening in the entire SSA right now. There's a total of nine openings. Agency is in a hiring freeze and claims to not have the budget for any new hires. (And dipshit O'Malley is triggering another mass exodus with forced RTO)
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Mar 2, 2024 07:18
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Plus there isn't a real budget passed yet. Some agencies are hesitant to fill vacancies until the actual budget is passed. Good news is a lot of Feds are retiring....
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Mar 2, 2024 08:18
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My agency/division/section has certainly been making it known that it's gonna be a lean year budet-wise even if/when we get one, hiring is definitely gonna be difficult this FY.
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Mar 2, 2024 10:01
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The large annual raises these past few years have put most agencies in a really tough position since congress is very unlikely to increase the salaries/expenses appropriations for most agencies. So your typical agency is probably making it work through attrition.
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Mar 2, 2024 14:57
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Beerdeer posted:Secretary of Homeland Security just gave 8 more admin leave hours for “employee appreciation day” Did he really, almost sounds like an early April fools. "Employee appreciation"
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Mar 2, 2024 17:56
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Mayorkas (DHS sec) gives them out like candy. I'm not sure I've used any AL in a year or two.
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Mar 2, 2024 19:16
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I think I'm using 64 hours of his admin leave during my 2 months of pre retirement leave. Plus about 80 hours of LWOP. I'm so far over the pay cap, I can take 20 hours a pay period and my paycheck is the same. Did you know that when you sell back your annual and restored leave on retirement, the biweekly pay cap is applied? I didn't know that until one of my friends retired, sold about 5 pay periods back and lost a bunch to the cap. I think I'll be selling about 220 hours back.
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Mar 2, 2024 21:38
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Evil SpongeBob posted:I'm so far over the pay cap, I can take 20 hours a pay period and my paycheck is the same. I don’t understand what leads to this comment. you’re saying feds can take hours off without using leave and without losing money if their base pay is beyond some cap? so you could work less than 40 hours a week with no consequence and without using vacation, despite being salaried?
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Mar 2, 2024 21:47
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Yeah. I'm a 15/6 in a high cola area plus premium pay and biweekly pay capped at 191k. If there wasn't a pay cap, I'd be getting about 230k. So I could theoretically take off every Friday as leave without pay and my paycheck would not be affected. Some agencies allow their senior employees to take a day or two of LWOP off. Mine didn't allow it (my boss said I needed to consider the "needs of the agency"). But I got it approved as part of my retirement leave memorandum. E: As an added bonus, the USG will conveniently inform you how much you didn't make due to the cap on each paystub. My last one was: code:Evil SpongeBob fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Mar 2, 2024 |
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Mar 2, 2024 21:58
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pmchem posted:I don’t understand what leads to this comment. you’re saying feds can take hours off without using leave and without losing money if their base pay is beyond some cap? so you could work less than 40 hours a week with no consequence and without using vacation, despite being salaried?
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Mar 2, 2024 22:06
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ah, okay. but from evil spongebob's comment it sounds like you still need permission from your boss to take those hours off? so it's not really a free-and-clear "i can work less than 40 hours a week" thing -- because lol good luck finding a boss who's gonna grant that every month, unless feds have infinite luck i guess
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Mar 2, 2024 22:10
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Depends on the agency. Some are liberal with the LWOP. Others are strict. Mine leaves it up to the immediate supervisor and I struck out because, well, we needed to stay near the bottom of the worst places to work survey. There are some instances when an employee is entitled to LWOP such as family friendly leave. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/leave-without-pay/ But it is a way to help ease the pain of the pay cap.
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Mar 2, 2024 22:13
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Yay accruing 6h/pp now
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Mar 3, 2024 00:19
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Evil SpongeBob posted:Depends on the agency. Some are liberal with the LWOP. Others are strict. Mine leaves it up to the immediate supervisor and I struck out because, well, we needed to stay near the bottom of the worst places to work survey. I read about that strategy on Barfield's blog a while ago and plan to try it when/if I hit the point that I'm perpetually capped out. That's a ways away though, would require a combination of step increases and me getting at least one more competitive promotion.
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Mar 3, 2024 04:37
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Seamonster posted:Yay accruing 6h/pp now I didn't realize my time as a seasonal counted towards overall time in the government, so that was a very welcome surprise when it kicked in for me last year after only 8 months as a permanent.
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Mar 3, 2024 04:57
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I didn't realize my time as a seasonal counted towards overall time in the government, so that was a very welcome surprise when it kicked in for me last year after only 8 months as a permanent. I gotta see if USCIS will take my time working as a seasonal with the IRS. Probably not, but a man can dream.
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Mar 3, 2024 06:33
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Dammerung posted:I gotta see if USCIS will take my time working as a seasonal with the IRS. Probably not, but a man can dream. I don't see any reason they wouldn't. All that should matter is time in federal service.
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Mar 3, 2024 08:33
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grenada posted:The large annual raises 
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Mar 3, 2024 13:59
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Atahualpa posted:I don't see any reason they wouldn't. All that should matter is time in federal service. Yeah, creditable service doesn't depend on which agency you worked for or where you are now. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 3, 2024 16:03
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Atahualpa posted:I don't see any reason they wouldn't. All that should matter is time in federal service. Thesaurus posted:Yeah, creditable service doesn't depend on which agency you worked for or where you are now. Thank you, this is good to hear! I'm anxious about that and my time with FEMA, which I don't think I'd get away with because it was on an intermittent basis. I'll reach out to HR after I pass BASIC and find out more. (Not that I want to jinx myself, but I'm confident in myself as long as I buckle down.)
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Mar 3, 2024 16:53
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grenada posted:The large annual raises these past few years Toshimo posted:??? Yah it's worth pointing out, none of us should be satisfied with these raises the past few years, they're better than a kick in the balls but they still continued the now 2+ decade long run of federal pay not keeping up with inflation. The total raise, not counting locality adjustments, for 21-24 was 12%, for social security and pensioners that same time period saw a 19.1% increase, the actual reality is a bit worse when you consider the compounding affect. If you're still climbing the ranks and are still getting yearly step increases then on an individual level you may be keeping up with inflation but once you've reached your peak or stall out for more than a few years you will be losing ground. There's nothing any of us can individually do about that but its still worth speaking up and acknowledging, the status quo is not okay and we should not be signaling we're satisfied. Edit: Grenada is still of course right though about the affect this is having on agency budgets, even if our pay is not keeping up with inflation the fact that congress is constantly fighting over how much to cut budgets rather than keep up with inflation means agencies are getting hit from both sides. Elem7 fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 3, 2024 22:23
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Elem7 posted:Yah it's worth pointing out, none of us should be satisfied with these raises the past few years, they're better than a kick in the balls but they still continued the now 2+ decade long run of federal pay not keeping up with inflation. Preach, brother.
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Mar 3, 2024 22:37
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Elem7 posted:Yah it's worth pointing out, none of us should be satisfied with these raises the past few years, they're better than a kick in the balls but they still continued the now 2+ decade long run of federal pay not keeping up with inflation. I was hoping the previous administration would be dumb enough to forget the FEPCA wavier one year but we didn't get quite that much chaos.
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Mar 3, 2024 23:35
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Midjack posted:I was hoping the previous administration would be dumb enough to forget the FEPCA wavier one year but we didn't get quite that much chaos. There's always the next one
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Mar 4, 2024 01:45
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Endless Mike posted:There's always the next one I wish we could have that silver lining if it happens again. It was the sort of bullshit that could only ever happen at the very beginning, everyone involved has been around long enough to make it part of the routine.
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Mar 4, 2024 03:02
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Federal salary raises not keeping up with inflation OR market rates is a feature, not a bug. We tell ourselves it’s worth the sacrifice for work/life balance…but are we delulu?
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Mar 4, 2024 03:27
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Annual raises not keeping up with inflation has been partially (very partially) offset by grade inflation. Fully 67% of feds on the GS scale were GS-10 and above in 2020. For those of us jammed into larger hierarchical organizations where (at least by tradition) the supervisor has to be at a higher GS level then the supervisee, its a pretty big distortion.
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Mar 4, 2024 23:33
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sparkmaster posted:Annual raises not keeping up with inflation has been partially (very partially) offset by grade inflation. Fully 67% of feds on the GS scale were GS-10 and above in 2020. For those of us jammed into larger hierarchical organizations where (at least by tradition) the supervisor has to be at a higher GS level then the supervisee, its a pretty big distortion. I'm genuinely curious, do you know what that number was in 1990? When one of the things the Biden administration said coming in is they want to tackle federal "pay compaction" I thought it was related to the fact the first 5 levels of the GS scale have been made nearly extinct as a result of Federal pay not keeping up with inflation, and so many people get shoved into the 11-12-13 range for the last 20 or more years of their career. I think it ended up referring to all the high locality GS-15s stuck at the pay cap though.
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Mar 5, 2024 07:15
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Don't worry, some agencies are dedicated towards keeping the lower band of the payscale alive! 
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Mar 5, 2024 12:18
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I saw something like a GS-04 career seasonal position at a remote NPS site being advertised a month or so ago and my first thought was "How the hell are you supposed to stay alive"
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Mar 5, 2024 12:23
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I saw something like a GS-04 career seasonal position at a remote NPS site being advertised a month or so ago and my first thought was "How the hell are you supposed to stay alive" Tents are a helluva lot cheaper than houses and you've got all of nature's bounty to harvest. It's not homelessness, it's a lifestyle choice
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Mar 5, 2024 13:00
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I think you live in whatever quarters they provide on-site.
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Mar 5, 2024 13:05
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Star Man posted:I think you live in whatever quarters they provide on-site. Still have to pay for those! And hope the local rent isn't too high. I've heard the poor fuckers at Grand Tetons have to pay rent commiserate with Jackson, which is absolutely insane. I paid ~$400 a month to live in a two-room shack in the woods in the Sierra Nevada, and I was lucky since that was the price for shared housing and I never got a roommate - it would have been twice that if I'd had the gall to demand 250 square feet of personal space. e: could have been worse though, at least I had cell service and an actual roof. Folks in another, more remote part of the park were living in literal tent cabins. Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Mar 5, 2024 |
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Mar 5, 2024 13:20
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