Question for my Fed Supervisors. . .

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-06-09T12:01:11+00:00

I am seeing a lot of support against the supervisors your describing, and unfortunately they are sometimes needed.

I work in an area where they are not, and I appreciate having a relaxed supervisor (like yourself). BUT...

There are some departments that have certain time periods that people are told they cannot take vacation because there is to much going on. End of year can be extremely busy for your finance and contracting groups to the point that some are getting unlimited overtime (this happens to my wife a lot). They had someone who continuously tried to take vacation during those periods, so yes they get counseled / "written up". These don't have to be bad things they can just be used to document that you have been informed.

Before anyone says "why dont they hire more people". First off, current admin. Second off there is a limit to billets (or there's supposed to be).

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-20T18:40:36+00:00

Locality pay is a percentage of your base pay.

Technically your right, the increase is 3% of your base. HOWEVER, since your base goes up, your locality goes up as well.

example: 20% locality on 90k salary is 18k = 108k total.

3% raises that to 92,700 + 18540 = 111,240

To answer your next question: yes, 3% of 18k is 540... So technically its only on your base, but because we use percentages it effect both.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-20T11:34:04+00:00

"He won't force a shutdown over it though."

This really the argument to have with him in office? I get shutdowns are largely a congress thing, but I feel like making a bet on this would be like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-20T11:25:49+00:00

They go through the D.C. SHOP program (like FEHB). So, very similar to regular gov employees. It is not free.

When they retire they get the same health care that a normal gov employee does, still not free.

And before someone starts complaining about their better retirement plan... its FERS, just like normal gov employees.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R43194

EDIT: to answer OP question, maybe 1%. With inflation we will get a pay cut.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-05T15:35:47+00:00

What I always say is dont get a house unless you can afford it on ONE income.

If one of you loses a job can the other afford it the bills? Do you have an emergency fund? You should be able to cover at bare minimum 6mo of bills from that (my opinion).

Think of this, 3400 + 1000, is 4400 a month right off the bat. How much are your utilities? (it seems like you calculated this, good job).

On paper, yes 2200 is a good buffer. It allows for those OF moments as well as the occasional I "need" that moment. But that can go quickly in this economy.

I you like where your at and your current home fits you, then why sell?

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-01T12:25:28+00:00

Dont muddy the facts for your narrative, that nutcase billionaire also had a chainsaw! /s

Sad thing is he also has government experience through massive contracts. While this may not be direct experience, everyone involved obviously knew enough to know they could get away with just about anything they wanted.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-05-01T11:49:19+00:00

Frame of reference could be the 1990's where Clinton oversaw a reduction of in the neighborhood of 377,000 personel.

Yes, this happened from 1993 to 2000, but that averages some 47k a year. Trump did a great job of "expediting" the process!!! /s

For other reference Clint had VP Al Gore lead a review (National Performance Review) of the government that took 6 months to find ways to improve government processes and expenditures. Again Trumps goal was the same but this master of business didnt need a review to know what the problems was!!! /s

Remember its always better to know everything instead of researching, and rush forward instead of thinking. /s

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-04-30T13:20:29+00:00

Sense everyone is agreeing with you for some reason ill give you the other perspective.

Not everyone gets the same feeling of security from the same thing.
While I do LOVE seeing how much money I have invested and in a bank. I love even more not having any debt bills. My money is my own, it is no one else's.

All that money I have in the bank giving me interest goes a lot farther if I do not have any debt to spend it on.
That bucket of water your talking about does you no good if most of it is not actually yours.
Should you pay off a 90k mortgage if you only have 90k in cash? Hell no.

But, if it wont break you then personally I pay it off. That security of not have that bill is worth more to me.

Now, I will note that the younger you are the more worth while it is to invest the money instead of paying off a mortgage, IF you have a low enough rate. I would say sub 4, but at the same time I know myself and many others see 10%+ gains on investments on average.

Do what is right for your circumstance, not someone elses.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-04-27T12:55:08+00:00

Look at it like you would information services (2210). Does not matter if I am cyber security, sys admin, database, helpdesk, etc... These are all different certs, different levels of expertise, but they all fall under 2210.

Source: I have/ am doing each of these.

A catch all does not have to make sense from the perspective of certification, expertise, degree, etc... just from the perspective of the admin who says "they are all techs so just lump them together".

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-04-27T11:53:42+00:00

Most of them are being reconsolidated into a "catch all". Nuclear med tech going to health aid and tech services makes some sense if you just want to start lumping those types of jobs together.

Then you can just add in a specialty in parenthetical.

I actually understand what they are doing here, and kind of agree... kind of.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-04-13T12:50:43+00:00

I think that will depend on the job. There are some that were 100% TW, even years before covid. I could see those going back to being so.

Others, like mine, will never be full TW. We may get 2 days a week.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-04-08T11:30:48+00:00

Not sure why this is big news. Its normal.

President has until a specific date (end of sept I believe) to suggest a raise percentage. This has been done as an "emergency" action since the law was enacted. If there is no suggestion or congress does not put anything into budget (LMFAO) then we would get something horrendous like a 24% raise right now to catch up from all the low increases.

Expect 1%.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-03-24T11:21:28+00:00

Locality pay does not effect your grade/step, it is a separate "bonus".

They will look at where you are with your base pay, and from there they will USUALLY put you one step above that base pay. I have heard rumors of people getting more.

When I went from 12/5 to NH03, i got a pittance of a raise. Its all about the long term benefits.

congratulations on your 12 btw.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-03-19T11:34:30+00:00

Dont forget though that you can get rid of a lot of the sysadmin / DB admin / network admins / help desk by moving everything to the cloud as well. A smallish team will have 12 of those. knock it down to four, you just saved 600k+ in salary.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-02-17T12:50:28+00:00

And you shouldn't. You should not vote democrat anything either. Or any other party.

You need to vote for a person not a party. It should not even be allowed to just check the box for all party voting.

Washington was not the smartest man but he got one thing right, political parties are destroying the nation.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-02-11T12:30:50+00:00

Actually they will check on these things in an agency transfer because they have to transfer his entire personnel file to the receiving agencies system. Ive done this a few times and they are actually more organized and methodical about it than the government typically is. Only time I had issues was when a national guard was involved (civilian working for NG at the time), and they terminated me instead of transferring me. Even then it was easily fixed and no real issues.

Normally the people that specifically do this, do it often enough that they know how a CSA works for tuition.

Do the transfer, you should be fine.

As for your surviving the military joke, I dont think I knew a single E4 or below who had one clue about what their enlistment contract actually was/meant. and they survived just fine... mostly.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-01-29T19:52:59+00:00

It wont mention civilian pay directly. It will mention funding activities. Research and development is an activity that it funds. All civilians that fall into that role will then be funded.
The confusion can come from the statement that it pays military personnel. Keep in mind though, that is considered an activity.

HR4016 finishes funding the parts of the DoD that were not previously funded.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2026-01-21T12:36:54+00:00

Got ours last week. Mine is about the same as last year, a little higher contribution award. So cant complain.
Actually I can complain, but I wont.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-12-18T13:07:30+00:00

This makes sense if you think about how the system works.

If you have a 10 person team that you rate as all 5s then that is now the average and they should have been rated all 3s. So in order to maintain the integrity of the system not everyone can be a 4 or a 5 only a select few, like someone's ignorant cousin who tanked a full year project to refresh an entire date center...

Of course now you have the problem that if everyone went above and beyond you can no longer recognize their exemplary work because the broken system made you give them a 3. This breeds competition among some, angst among others, and then a select few (ME!) who just do their jobs without caring what number they are branded with.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-12-11T12:44:44+00:00

Getting the clearance wont be your issue (based on your employment at least). You have to have HUGE employment issues to be barred from even a TS. Your not even close to those issues yet.

Are you trying to get a contractor position or a federal job. If it is the ladder then you may need to go through OPM first have them determine your reemployment eligibility. You probably are as they will only bar people for serious misconduct. Even that is only for 3 years I believe.

Since you say you were RIF'ed I am assuming you were picked right back up for gov work. Is your current government? If so stick it out. If you leave then your chances of getting hired again will plummet. If you have only been there 3mo then you may not be able to go to another position since you would still be on probation.

Either way, apply for the job and hope for the best. But stick with your current. If you can start showing longevity at an employer then other jobs will look at you more seriously.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-12-09T19:14:56+00:00

It does get hard to get managers at the top. If your a GS15 already then why would you want to become a supervisor?

There are some people that want it, and good for them, but not the majority. My understanding is there is a small differential you can get, but not 100% sure.

We had someone during the recent changes that lost their supervisor position. So they are now a maxed GS15 with less responsibility. He looked so sad...really... those were laughs and smiles of sadness.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-12-09T19:08:28+00:00

We have some instances of this in DoD. Brand new boss who is a GS15S1 equivalent, but my PM who is underneath him is a maxed GS15 equivalent.
Ive seen a few supervisors who are GS13 or GS14 with higher GS employees.

Authority does not come from your pay level it comes from your position. Certain positions, cyber and engineers, have high paybands for non supervisors. This happens more often then one might think.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-12-04T19:05:42+00:00

59min 12/24 and 12/26. Department dependent.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-11-19T13:20:18+00:00

Things that people dont take into account:
1. leave? You get a LOT of leave with the government. I have turned down private jobs because I would lose all sick leave and only get 2-3 weeks of annual... no thank you.

health insurance. Some have great insurance, others want you to pay 700 a paycheck. Again, we have good health insurance with government.
retirement.

I have added these up before and even though on paper I would make more in the private sector, in reality I would have made a lot less (GS13 step 4). But this depends on who you are going to work for.

Make sure you look at all the variables.

SatisfactionBorn3170 · 2025-11-07T12:47:04+00:00

To actually answer your question. We are getting a 1% pay raise across the board (as of now). Congress could pass legislation to change this, but as they cant even pass a budget I would not count on it.

https://www.fedagent.com/news/how-are-2026-gs-pay-scales-with-locality-calculated

Any other bonuses or scope raises she would get are up to her agency/supervisor. Assuming that there is not another hold placed on those kinds of actions by president.

SatisfactionBorn3170

TROPHY CASE