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Anyone have experience or know someone in government contracting offices, preferably at the Corps of Engineers? I've been working at SSA since I got out of undergrad, currently in a GS-11 spot and this is kinda where the logjam is in this agency. A GS-11/GS-12 contracting officer spot is open at Corps here in town; my wife who works in a different division gave me the lowdown on the ancillary stuff (training requriements, OT around end of FY), but I was curious how portable the job is across federal agencies. Is a contracting officer a contracting officer all the gubment round?
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Sep 3, 2020 04:53
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I don't know that there's a single GS-10 in our agency (jobs like mine skip 9 to 11), if that counts.
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Sep 3, 2020 06:22
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Dr. Quarex posted:Sometimes I forget that 8 and 10 actually even exist, so clearly they would be incredibly uncommon too (I saw a GS-8 locksmith once!) Our service reps are a 5-8 position. Start at 5, hop a grade every year. laxbro posted:The working conditions aren't great from what I've seen at my agency but that can work in your favor by letting you climb the ranks quickly due to turnover. So its a good way to support yourself or your family if you just want to climb the GS scale quickly and are willing to put up with the BS and ladder hop by switching agencies every few years. That's good to know, thanks. I'm kind of in profit maximization mode, since I graduated college about 20 years behind normal people. If I just wanted a super-chill job, I'd stay at SSA.
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Sep 3, 2020 14:25
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Midjack posted:“Make them tell you no” works pretty well because a lot of times they won’t. I brought the whole "better to ask forgiveness than ask permission" attitude into this job from previous ones, and as it turns out when you're the only one in an office with that attitude and bosses have never dealt with it before, it's kind of a superpower. All related to "poo poo that makes our jobs easier/better", of course, I'm not using it to pad the job because jesus it's padded enough
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Sep 6, 2020 03:06
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Star Man posted:
I've rode garbage trucks, fit pipe in shipyards, worked on machines in chemical plants, deployed to Iraq to set up phone switches, and I currently sit at my kitchen table and talk to people on the phone for more money than I've ever made before. In some very important ways, my current job is the least real job I've ever had. Anybody that would GS brag is worth ignoring.
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Sep 7, 2020 04:02
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ilkhan posted:When searching on USAJobs is there a way to filter out specific agencies or DoDefense in general? There should be a checkbox for "no I don't want to enlist so quit listing loving Army Reserve jobs like they're normal jobs"
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Sep 14, 2020 22:27
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Thesaurus posted:IRS goons are the best fed goons because it's just pure, kafkaesque horror stories all the time. I mean I've got stories, but this SSA job is by far the least demanding, best paid job I've ever had. My worst day sitting at my dining table answering calls from people too dumb to formulate the question they want to ask is better than the best day I ever had crawling out of a ballast tank. I've never worked with such a broad spectrum of accomplishment in one place before either. We've got exceptional people that I try to emulate in little ways, and we've got people I think should be arrested for stealing their paycheck.
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Sep 23, 2020 14:50
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It took me 2 years to not feel weird putting in my own time. I remember I went off on a career SSA employee (he was a 30 year+ CSR, you are filling in the blanks correctly from there) who was in the break room bitching about being micromanaged. (We are not micro-managed. If anything, we're under-managed somewhat) I told him that in millions of jobs in America, they have a timeclock, a time card, and often they have a supervisor there watching you punch in, and if you punch in late (or even just on time) you get groused at, and about 5-10 minutes after work time starts they collect all the time cards so if you come in later than that you have to see your boss just to be able to start work. The concept horrified him. I remember he retired early (like, mid-50s) and last I heard he was about to go work at Amazon. lol good luck there, fucko, I'm sure that'll be an education
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Sep 24, 2020 16:58
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Thesaurus posted:while I agree entirely with your general sentiment, this made me lol because it's the exact opposite of one of my few memories from briefly working at SSA. We've got a five minute tolerance, they said if you clock a time 5 minutes outside it, enter into notes. Our laptops have slow logins all the time, so unless you're doing it every day, you could probably fudge 10-15 minutes every now and then and get away with it. I don't bother because, what's another 10-15 minutes at work? I usually erred on the cautious side just because it's the last thing on earth I wanna get hemmed up on. The first time I got chewed out over time was when I was in training (8am to 4:30pm), it was like 4:45 and someone was showing me something really interesting I was learning from, and our ADM saw me there and panicked, saying YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE AT FOUR THIRTY. I said it's ok, I'm not really a clockwatcher, and this guy was showing me something really interesting. That was when I learned that no, you don't just get to work a little longer in government over the clock if you feel like it.
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Sep 25, 2020 05:35
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EconOutlines posted:So what's the general consensus on the social security withholding? Somehow, it'll be forgiven (at least for federal employees) or "lol enjoy you're x2 withdraw' through April? Bend over and take it like every other American. I would anticipate Biden will make the IRS spread out the repayments over a wider period, but the media will fail to cover how bad of a poison pill Trump left for him and blame Biden for whatever he does.
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Nov 16, 2020 06:28
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Loucks posted:Biden would love to kill social security. There’s a very real chance that we’ll see another “Clinton doing to welfare what republicans couldn’t” moment. I'd like to think the Overton window has shifted and he recognizes it. I've no doubt how much he detests the program, but I think he realizes he can't move against it. If there's significant movement in Congress to remove some of the more odious parts of the program (2 year wait for Medicare, 5 month disability waiting period, earnings cap for early retirees) I don't even think he'd veto it. I would expect him to crank down on things within the realm of executive action, such as keeping up the war on disability recipients with 1 year reviews and ramping up SSI reviews. I doubt he even gets rid of Saul.
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Nov 17, 2020 20:59
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Toshimo posted:This is the worst part. Saul is a menace. It's a good thing he's so lazy. I don't believe absolutely everything I hear out of Baltimore but I believe that Grace Kim is more the commissioner some days than he is. I do laugh that his two signature moves (reopening field office Wednesday afternoons, destroying telework) became completely undone by COVID-19.
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Nov 17, 2020 22:59
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Thesaurus posted:Has Biden said or done something to suggest that he detests social security? This is the first time I've heard this mentioned. He had a hard-on for cutting it way back in the 90s (the crime bill got the most attention during the election season, but Biden had other odious views on the welfare state as well). Trump's people wised up to it being one of his weak points, but they cut the attack ads way too late. Part of it has to do with him being a hardcore deficit hawk long before the cat food kings made it uncool. https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/
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Nov 19, 2020 07:05
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Government was my midlife career change job, and considering the security and flexibility it offers right now, I don't think I'd leave it for six figures. poo poo's falling apart out there.
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Dec 1, 2020 23:48
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Toshimo posted:Personally, I've never given a poo poo about probationary periods, because they never cut anyone who isn't doing crimes anyway. They don't even do that where I am. One of our least dependable claims specialists apparently got arrested at work for public intoxication. The OS literally said "there's someone at the back door that wants to talk to you", and it was cops with a breathalyzer. That was a few years before I hired on. He's still there.
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Dec 3, 2020 07:05
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I have a huge pet peeve about just sending claimants to someone's voicemail instead of just trying to help that person. 9 times out of 10, it's solveable within 5 minutes of effort. 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. Someone calls and asks to speak to ________? Let me put you right through to him.
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Dec 3, 2020 08:10
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I'm extremely tolerant of mediocre, manageable employees, and extremely intolerant of irredeemable ones. To my mind, if you know they'll never amount to poo poo and will forever be a net negative no matter what level of supervision, get rid of them sooner than later. This belief is 100% opposed to the belief of our current district leadership, which is why I will never go out for OS until some people retire.
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Dec 3, 2020 21:25
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Honestly, PM is a really great fit for ex-military. The skillsets align well, and you already have the cert. I just don't know what the career ladder looks like there. The two I've ever known worked their way up the engineering ladder on the civ side.
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Dec 4, 2020 02:50
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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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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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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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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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We'll never get QSIs in our office because it's explicitly impossible to get a 5 in interpersonal communication, and you require all 5's to get one. I went to war with my OS over that one year and he basically confessed he had nothing to do with it. The DM and ADM decide how many 5's each person gets, and nobody will ever get all of them.
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Dec 11, 2020 05:39
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App13 posted:Seeing as how I built a research buoy out of literal garbage and got a 4 in “equipment maintenance” I’m hoping my center is more toward the “3.3 is good” side of things Oh man do I feel your pain. I found out they basically decide who gets how many 5's, and apparently I rated 2 5's that period. So they gave me a 3 in job knowledge. Job Knowledge. I designed half their training material. I rewrote most of the office processes for SRs to be policy compliant. Hell, I designed all the office handouts and signage. And I got a 3. I went apeshit. Emailed them to take me off all extra duties, considering I was only doing an adequate job at them and someone else could do them better..
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Dec 11, 2020 22:53
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Thesaurus posted:how did it work out? Did they remove duties or attempt to improve your rating? They gave me the 5. I've gotten three 5s ever since; I figure one of these days I'll pick the fight over the fourth one.
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Dec 12, 2020 16:09
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Goodpancakes posted:Taking my moonshot to be NPS Archaeologist at Denali national park. A boy can dream! That is an amazing dream
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Dec 15, 2020 05:03
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sullat posted:I bet you'll be auditing EITC disputes. I wish I had a direct line to somebody in their building. I could feed them soooo many fraudulent self-employment (for EITC purposes) cases
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Dec 16, 2020 03:09
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gently caress those people.
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Dec 16, 2020 03:25
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sullat posted:They no longer take those reports over the phone. There's a form you can fill out and send in. Or just write a brief statement with the necessary information and mail it into the service center. We run it up through our system and they're supposed to interact at some level way above us. I just figured if anyone at IRS needed to make cases I'd be happy to feed them, through a personal connection. It's actually all above board; I had to go through our POMS once before and build a paper trail on how we were allowed to share client information with other government employees at certain agencies for certain purposes. I had a contact in the local food stamp office, one in the local DHR, and one in AL Vital Statistics (she looked up death certificates for me). Our OIG won't care because they're so under-staffed they don't bother with those cases.
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Dec 16, 2020 03:58
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Discendo Vox posted:This is a very large noncompliance category, often driven by unscrupulous tax preparers (which IRS has been barred from regulating more closely, ofc). Yeah, it’s a problem at the state level too because besides buying a business license (which plenty of them don’t even bother with that), there is absolutely no requirements for being a tax preparer in AL. The cycle is pretty well-worn at this point; someone on disability/SSI goes to Uncle Mo’s Taxes (refund guaranteed), signs a blank form, Mo makes a return that says person cut lawns/babysat/did hair for, magically, always around 11-12k, disabled person gets refund check, IRS tells SSA, SSA cuts off disability check, person comes to us and says “what work?”, we take it off their record after signing a sworn statement. I understand people don’t understand the system and get taken advantage of; the fraud really comes from the tax preparers. But I have seen many of these people several years in a row. At THAT point, after I know it was explained to you because I’m looking at my own goddamned notes from 2019 (and 2018) saying I told you, your rear end needs to get hemmed up. quote:Individual IRS auditors don't get to pick case leads- you can imagine how that could lead to perverse incentives. I'd just be directing you to the same forms to fill out. I can see the reasoning there. I’m just used to sending the juicy cases (not these) both up the normal chain and in “hey got a good one here” emails to the OIG agent I’ve worked with before. I can see how that doesn’t scale up at all.
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Dec 16, 2020 07:00
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Hekk posted:I am pending retirement from the Marine Corps and going through the VA disabilities claim process. I am 80% complete and am absolutely certain that I will have a high enough level of disability to claim the 10 point CPS preference. However, I haven’t technically been given my disability rating yet. Every job I applied for I had to attach my rating to to claim the preference. Nothing stopping you from putting in for them without it, though.
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Dec 17, 2020 06:33
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All leave cancelled, everyone expected to work. Answering the phones all day "nope, can't do that. Nope, can't do that either."
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Dec 19, 2020 05:12
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Xelkelvos posted:Hi. I'm one of those. A good 10-20% of calls I take have stimulus questions and I invariably have to tell them, there's information on the IRS.gov website, but I can also transfer you to our dedicated line for it. No I don't know how long the wait is. Yes I know you waited almost two hours to get to me. I apologize for the inconvenience. No, you’ll have to call the IRS for that. Yes, they are handling that mission. No, the internet is wrong. I have no idea how long they take, sir
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Dec 21, 2020 14:17
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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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There are 115 announcements for SSA positions nationwide, and a dozen of those are just general submission keep-on-file poo poo for specific populations like vets or disabled. I don't think I've ever seen more than 25 openings in the Atlanta region ever, and that services 11 states. The agency's headcount is already at its lowest point this millenium. Good thing we're not facing a demographic tsunami of retirements, or a surge in disability filings in a frozen economy, huh?
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Jan 28, 2021 19:15
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Dr. Quarex posted:Huh, I did not see any of those in my search. Though I guess I have GS-9 as my low end currently, which could be why? I'm looking at their internal site: https://ssai.usajobs.gov/
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Jan 28, 2021 22:10
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Nutella posted:The training is so dismal right now, this cartoon crap. I'm a T2 TE and so burned out and am having a hard enough time sharing duties with another T2 TE during WFH. I have 3 years and 11 months left and everyday finds me praying for an early out. SSA is a dumpster fire right now. And yes, when the pandemic unemployment runs out the disability claims with skyrocket. I feel you. Retirements have devastated our T16 unit (the ones that are still here are pretty lovely too), and they've shifted a lot of responsibilities around. Our CSR unit is creaking under the workload, and in T2 we're expected to man phones and do appointments simultaneously, and the backlog is getting way worse. Thankfully we have two really excellent T2 TEs (and one sorry rear end one, but that's government).
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Jan 29, 2021 14:06
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Spacewolf posted:OK, I'm guessing T2 is Tier 2 like at a call center or helpdesk, but what's T16? Title 2 or Title 16 refer to the different programs SSA administers, each of which are vastly different and require different specialists (Claim Specialists like me, and their next step, Technical Experts). The name comes from the section of the Social Security Act that covers them. Title 2- OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance)- takes disability, retirement, and survivor claims. Earnings-based benefit based on FICA taxes paid into the system. What most people think of when they think of Social Security. Title 16- SSI (Supplemental Security Income). Needs-based benefit. Basically, welfare. Paid to either disabled kids, disabled adults, or anyone over 65+ who meets the (ridiculously draconian, not updated in 30 years) income and resource requirements. I work on the Title 2 side. I told them I'd rather stay as a service rep then take a promotion to the Title 16 side.
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Jan 29, 2021 19:00
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Thesaurus posted:it's wild how much of that information my mind just erased after leaving SSA I'm looking at GS-12 contract jobs in the Corps of Engineers, and look forward to braindumping. 80% of my job is the stupid bullshit workarounds we need to do because our IT sucks so loving bad. I'll pry the F3 and F7 keys out of the keyboard at my next job.
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Jan 30, 2021 02:32
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I essentially do COBOL programming inputs to change addresses and bank accounts of Social Security claimants. Then I pray that the input doesn't hang up, require Payment Center involvement (2-3 months), while the person's checks keep going to the old bank account. At least 40-50% of my claims can't run through the automated process which balks at such things as "wife and husband are both on Medicare and now Social Security? CANNOT COMPUTE", requiring manual involvement and computations. The saddest parody of a process is EXRs- Expedited Reinstatements. Essentially, if someone is on disability and works their way out of the program (finding a job they can hang in there at), we give them 9 free months to also draw benefits and then terminate the benefit. But, since we realize that it's hard for disabled folks to stay employed full-time, we leave the door open for them to get back onto benefits easier. Instead of 2-3 months for a yes/no decision on the medical side, we will start paying them provisional payments instantly for up to six months while a new medical decision comes down. Except it takes longer than six months plenty of times. Because it's a completely paper workload. Our systems can't handle them. So I have to print and manually fill out anywhere from 6-10 forms, over 100 pages of paperwork, put it in a paper folder, and manually mail it off to the loving place that makes medical decisions like it's 1978 and I'm still allowed to smoke at my desk. So at six months, they call saying "my check got cut off", and yep we can't pay you any more until we get a decision back. What's the status? No idea! It's a loving paper workload! I know they came to a decision when it arrives on my desk! (If it didn't get lost in the dozen or so steps from that person's desk to mine). If the bluehairs ever saw how the sausage was made, they wouldn't be storming the Capitol. They'd be assaulting SSA HQ in Baltimore.
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Jan 30, 2021 06:44
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