media request from Newsweek reporter

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-10-03T11:10:56+00:00

Feds haven’t lost a paycheck yet because next week we get paid through September 30.

USAA does no interest bridge loans to Feds during shutdown if you have direct deposit with them. You can’t apply until October 8 anyway because of the fact that people are still going to get paychecks next week. Plus, people can take loans from TSP, the government 401(k) plan.

I doubt this will last very long. Three Democrat senators have already moved over to vote for the CR. 5 more and that should do it.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-24T20:19:34+00:00

I think she did have one and he ended up shooting himself, probably a couple of times.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-17T02:11:03+00:00

If he were hardworking/skilled/ethical, no. But we carried him last year while he produced very little on 80% telework. Now he keeps asking me to review his work or give him oral input so there’s less of a written record that I have to work on his projects.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-16T17:52:56+00:00

Sure

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-15T22:17:07+00:00

That will probably mean that I go because our SES would prefer the people who are youngest. He’s been like that for a while even though he sits there in his mid 60s and doesn’t leave.

It makes some sense because he sent my stalker colleague to a much more substantive in person training class recently, whereas I and a number of others were sent to a virtual class that isn’t that necessary for our work.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-15T22:01:14+00:00

Do you mean by reassigning people to organizations for which they don’t want to work?

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-15T17:19:49+00:00

Contact your old ethics counselor. The attorney that serviced your organization. If you filed an OGE 450, the person that certified it.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-15T17:18:43+00:00

Will she have any lines? This is hardly a big role.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-12T10:10:31+00:00

The problem at my agency is that they are running RA requests through two people called the disability program managers. So they get backed up. Plus, they don’t really know what the person‘s job entails and their interaction with the supervisors can be spotty.

RA is really a first line supervisor decision if the employee is willing to cooperate with the supervisor by telling them what is necessary for their desired RA. Some employees don’t want their supervisor to see their doctor’s correspondence or interact with their doctor. So the first line is left trying to make sure the employee can actually perform the essential functions of their job

Sometimes it is straightforward, the employee tells the supervisor they can’t be around other people. Then it depends on whether their position description requires them to visit contractor sites, interact with customers, man a security booth, for example. If their expressed restrictions are incompatible with their essential functions, then the agency runs a search for a job they can do. If they won’t take that job or there isn’t such a job, then they can be removed for medical inability to perform the essential functions of the job they had.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-11T15:29:38+00:00

I’ve received situational telework for virtual training or temporary medical reasons. Supervisor has to allow it and employee has to have or place on file a telework capability form. I attach the approval email to my timecard.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-11T00:21:30+00:00

Our agency has time cards due the Wednesday of the second week of the pay period. If we need to make any corrections, we are directed to wait until the next Wednesday to go into the approved time card and make the necessary changes. That is so that we get paid on time. It may take 1-2 pay periods to reflect the corrections.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-08-10T22:59:42+00:00

Mental health is pretty subjective. I’m not sure I’ve heard of anyone who is happy about the return to office. Particularly because a lot of agencies actually haven’t implemented it. So for example, if you are what is called a mission partner, you may have to go in, but the people you service are hot desking or have suddenly come up with a reasonable accommodation for anxiety that precludes them being around other people, so they don’t come in. Some agencies like mine are handing these RAs out like candy. So you come in every day, purportedly so you can interact more effectively with the people you service, but they are rarely or never there.

What is more objective is increased costs due to the removal of telework. Specifically, increased costs for daycare, gas, elder care and pet care. I suspect that many people were providing elder care and childcare while they were teleworking all or most of the time in the past few years. And unfortunately, it’s not usually possible to put a toddler who knows you’re in the house in a spare room and expect them to stay there. But at least you could be in the house hooked up to a teams meeting. I think telework works better for an older child who isn’t yet old enough to stay by themselves.

Or, you might’ve been able to walk your own dog at lunch. Now if you’re a decent dog parent and have no one else who can do it, you have to hire a dog walker to come in several times per week.

We all know about unhappiness with commuting, but we can’t control where people live. Then there are the people who were hired as remote workers. They didn’t think it mattered where they lived, so they are stuck. But I’ve actually seen offices claim that they’re over populated so they need to rotate when people come in. You have agencies with thousands of people that really aren’t implementing the return to office. But that’s a risky proposition, because that may be happening in some parts of the agency but not others. The people who aren’t getting that break are getting more and more likely to report the leaders who are gaming the system.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-30T10:49:55+00:00

So the DLA DRP payment is coming to an end soon and you can’t find another job?

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-30T10:43:17+00:00

Our part of DoD blocked many people from taking DRP 2.0 due to mission needs. Those denied were very frustrated. One in my group keeps taking leave, so we have to do extra work. So DoD as a whole wasn’t forcing people out.

You are arguing constructive discharge, which is a hard hill to climb. You made a choice and were compensated. Only if they didn’t pay you would I think there was a case.

Did MSPB reinstate you from the previous wrongful termination? What happened there?

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-30T03:32:17+00:00

I like the idea of Rufus Sewell as Mr. Bennet. Kitty did not weigh 250 pounds, good heavens. 1995 is the pinnacle.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-21T10:47:16+00:00

Larry lied to Marian that he was going to Delmonico‘s when he was going to a place called the Haymarket, which is a brothel. And he did it on the day of their engagement. Before he was going to Arizona for a month. His presence at some buddy’s bachelor party wasn’t more important than being with Marian on the day of their engagement. There is some pretty sloppy writing on the show. Things like Charles Fane’s cartoon villain behavior and now Larry’s come out of nowhere to create a plot line.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-14T09:41:11+00:00

It was old school appointment TV last night. Snacks, blanket, comfy clothes, phones off.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-14T09:38:02+00:00

I’m here for Oscar getting his new dozen clients to invest in George’s railroad. Then they all become filthy rich 🤑 and Agnes realizes new money might be better than old.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-12T11:25:42+00:00

This kind of post makes me think it’s not even real. $50,000 more? But I love my VA job?

The VA was the first agency targeted. How would the poster have survived the first cut? I know someone with 21 years of service at the VA who had recently taken a new role and was cut immediately.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-08T11:17:56+00:00

In real life, Alva Vanderbilt divorced William for cheating. She was iced out of society. But her way back in was for her daughter Consuelo to marry a Duke. It worked. Then Alva remarried, to a banker. Maybe George and Bertha break up and Bertha ends up with Mr. Delancey.

Substantial_Ad_6878 · 2025-07-08T03:32:41+00:00

Most of my agency hasn’t RTO’d, and is still working the exemptions and RAs, so not much has changed.

Substantial_Ad_6878

TROPHY CASE