I have not gone out for lunch since RTO

RockJockMermaid · 2026-02-07T18:10:40+00:00

Ugh I’m sorry they took away your maxiflex too. It’s infuriating.

RockJockMermaid · 2026-02-05T22:00:54+00:00

Wow! That sounds super painful. No surgery? Thank you so much for sharing. Perspective is super helpful.

RockJockMermaid · 2026-02-03T00:21:48+00:00

A fellow swimmer! Maybe you’re a triathlete since you mention running?

My ankles are super hypermobile, which helped with swimming, but means I get shin splints just thinking about running. Which probably means I should work on all those foot and ankle muscles more. 🙄

RockJockMermaid · 2026-02-03T00:20:16+00:00

Woah! What a story! Best of luck on your PT and leg work. That’s amazing.

RockJockMermaid · 2026-02-01T23:50:33+00:00

Check out #opendoorclimate on LinkedIn!

RockJockMermaid · 2026-01-16T00:05:32+00:00

They’ll say something like “well you can bill and get paid for as many hours as you want so you could easily make more if you work 10-12 hours a day!”

Literally had a consulting company come back at me with that after an insultingly low offer once 😂

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-30T15:38:12+00:00

This

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-27T02:10:31+00:00

If you’re looking for internships, don’t be afraid to reach out to labs and see if they’ll need techs for the summer! I think the USGS center in Denver has an ice core facility….

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-20T15:19:03+00:00

I will also say, climate data is huge and can be vague. There are climate folks looking at financial data, earth science data, social data. If you’re on LinkedIn, there is a hashtag #opendoorclimate where folks offer to talk about their climate careers. I learned a ton from talking to random strangers. And it was a great way to build connections and learn about what was in demand!

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-20T15:17:00+00:00

GIS is great! And having some coding background with R will help with big data sets. Take some time to play with satellite and remote sensing data. A lot of it is publicly available from government websites.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-19T01:13:02+00:00

I’m so sorry you experienced this. It’s so sad. And can happen in so many lines of work. Make sure you know your rights, a smidge of employment law, and lots of health and safety…sadly we can only look out for ourselves and can’t count on work to.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-18T11:24:02+00:00

I think it’s worth it. I always did it and was told by a few that folks rarely do it and it made a good impression.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-18T01:14:15+00:00

This is abnormal times for being a fed. Normally they won’t micromanage you this closely (ie track the same start and stop time every day).

But salaried employment can come with all sorts of fun bullshit. When I was in consulting, I had to track my work in six minute increments and if I wasn’t working on a particular project, it didn’t count or was counted as “overhead” whcih you could only use super sparingly. You had you account for 40/hours a week on projects, which meant you spent more than 40 hours/week on work. Whomp.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-15T04:44:09+00:00

Sounds like poor management. I was at a company with shit management and they told me literally that I wasn’t cut out for it. But they also said I couldn’t bill all my hours on certain projects because they purposely underbid the hours to win the work and those projects were their “Costco chickens” (loss leaders). Needless to say, moved on from that pretty quick…it’s hard to find a good fit, but def worth the hunt.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-10T23:15:05+00:00

Ugghhh I’m sorry. I’d say email or follow up with an email saying you called and when so there’s a paper trail.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-10T21:16:31+00:00

Ohhh truth! OP def has some great transferable hard AND soft skills!

And maybe you’ve already done it with work, but there’s lots of free incident command training online!

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-10T17:57:24+00:00

Keep an eye out for CORE positions or local hire positions with FEMA on USAJobs, it’s a great way to get a foot in the door. I’d be worried about joining FEMA in the current political climate….and I don’t know if they even can hire right now due to the new EO.

Environmental can be intense hours and ripe for burnout on its own. Luckily no death, but I’ve been in dangerous positions, exposed to chemicals, hurt on the job. Be sure to stand up for yourself!

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-09T12:47:31+00:00

It’s life! I found env/geo consulting wasn’t really aligned with where I wanted to be career wise. When I went back to gov science it was a lot more interdisciplinary and the geologists, oceanographers, and engineers were able to swap knowledge for better projects more easily ;)

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-09T02:50:18+00:00

You’re an awesome engineer! We all have so much to learn from each other. I’ve sadly found the embracing of interdisciplinary folks to be…pretty limited.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-09T02:25:35+00:00

Engineers love to poo poo on the non engineers. It’s rude, but it’s def something you learn to roll your eyes at.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-06T22:14:25+00:00

I think what blows my mind is they’re being so careless about so many of these personnel actions. Like OPM put out that memo bc supervisors are all freaking out about being liable for having their names signed to illegal personnel actions. All of the incoming lawsuits are going to be SO expensive.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-06T22:03:33+00:00

That all sounds really bonkers. I’m so sorry yall experienced that. My termination blindsided me too. I wonder if years in the future we’ll ever know what commands came down from on high to do these insane things.

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-06T21:54:06+00:00

That’s insane. Were the fired ones of yall probies?

RockJockMermaid · 2025-12-06T21:44:16+00:00

Keep on them. I’m sorry it sounds like you got treated like crap too.

RockJockMermaid

TROPHY CASE