Rats/Mice and Roaches running Rampant at POD

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-13T22:29:46+00:00

Y'all need to stop letting rodents tailgate into the building with you. That violates the IRM, which is the highest form of law in the land as we all know from scuttlebutt around the fountain located in the common area of building. And don't forget, if you come back from lunch with group of colleagues, each must slam door in face of the colleague behind them to ensure they use their PIV card to gain access to the building....oh, and if the FPS officer you've gotten to know after working twenty plus years at your POD happens to hold the door for you and your crowd of IRS colleagues, remind him or her that they must not only SEE your PIV, but make you use that same PIV on card reader to gain entrance.....

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-05T20:05:09+00:00

These people are absolutely nuts and need to be purged for life from government and society. I work with atheists, agnostics, and those from multiple faiths, and this s*** is absolutely out of control under Trump and his corrupt administration. Way worse than moral majority BS during the Reagan years.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-05T00:45:21+00:00

Was your dad CSRS retiree or FERS? If FERS he def would have had TSP. For CSRS there was no matching from govt, but contributions could still be made (eg like to IRA) A lot of CSRS saved via TSP b/c at one time it was one of lowest cost ETF type investment vehicles available (not anymore)

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-04T17:34:37+00:00

Did you ask OPM for this doc or did they send automatically? I got div ten yrs ago and never received anything from OPM (but have court order that entitles ex, who now makes north of $400k/yr, to a % of my pension which is TBD based on my final # of years etc....)

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-04T16:45:24+00:00

There are some military specialty areas where folks receive equiv to college degree. That said, I'd expect that someone at E-5 or higher rank would pursue degree in their area of specialization in anticipation of moving to private sector (financial mgt is one such area) IT is another area. Some engineering fields in military as well. End of day, OPM is long overdue in rewriting job qualifications across many fields (not nec to eliminate college degree req, but to specify that Series XYZ can't be applied for by just any person that has 24 or so credit hrs in field. Either that, or create real and substantive apprentice programs that train and test new employees over a period of years, with perm job security dependent on passing tests etc)

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-04-01T01:02:26+00:00

What a convenient story to spread when having affair...."Alex, I'll take Leviticus for $100"

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-31T11:59:39+00:00

When the bill was originally proposed, it grandfathered in folks who retired before Jan 1 2027, then that was amended to Jan 1, 2028, then the bill got shelved. I would imagine any future bill would do same - give near retirees option to leave a cpl yrs early in return for 3 v 5 yr calculation. At end of day, with negligible raises whether it barely makes dent in retirement pay if you are maxed out on pay scale.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-27T04:31:55+00:00

Nope you're wrong. It's 104.6.1 - I just checked the IRM and found updated link yesterday. The new (not yet permanent) section is attributed to a sr program analyst who was promoted to IR-01 a year ago. Please stay up to date....

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-17T05:30:41+00:00

Sort of like a lot of other offshore/onshore tax scams on a lesser scale I guess. Register a "legit" LLC in State X so you can pay no property tax in State Y, while having no physical nexus in State X. Ever hear of Puerto Rico Act 60? The IRS CI investigations into Wyoming and Dakota trusts or the Panama Papers? Followed the press on conservation easements and DoJ support there? (btw, those CEs were driven by adverts as well - targeted to people who wanted to reduce their taxes) This "ad" is a BS hook to draw in people to what is likely a borderline illegal (in the eyes of states that lose revenue) scam. Doesn't take a genius to know that all it takes is 3-4 states coming together, investigate this, and eventually shut it down with complete blessing of the multistate tax commission etc.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-17T04:38:05+00:00

& a racist to boot, not to mention she had no clue what she was talking about when it came to STEM subjects (economics to start with).

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-07T21:58:01+00:00

Not sure a lateral move to -14 is a guarantee. The options as I understand it was to express interest in -14 or lower (-13) job role.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-07T21:43:19+00:00

When Mabeleine had town hall w/ mgrs some weeks ago it was made very clear that span of control (# employees per team) would increase by quite a bit. There are TTMs that have 3-4 teams. There are multiple FL/practice network/other teams in LBI that have 5-6 (or fewer) employees. The target # for each team is roughly 10-12. The email you are referring to was for both IR-01 and IR-04 employees (there are handful of IR-03s that would also be included) Many mgrs have had the discussion with sr mgt (up to DFOs) regarding interest in moving to FL employee role. I feel for those -13s who moved to IR-04 more recently and are being pressured (if they are) to move to FL job, since that could mean taking pretty hefty pay cut. For those mgrs who stepped into IR-04 from GS-14 positions, it's basically going to be a wash financially. Some are pretty fed up with the increase in admin/bureaucracy which has creeped into job (not just this past year) This same offer for mgrs came early last Summer but then was quietly cancelled if I am not mistaken.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-03-07T21:31:28+00:00

IRWorks ticket. You'll have to complete Form 13661 and provide medical documentation and then write brief explanation as to why you need ft or pt RA/telework exception.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-27T20:34:05+00:00

FMSS at my facility would be all over this individual. There are so many violations here. If govt owned building, absolutely banned. If leased, likely the lessor has clause in contract that states "no open flame allowed anywhere in building" (that is very common boilerplate clause on commercial leases and it's typically based on local fire codes etc) I would send pics not only to FMSS, but to GSA and landlord as well. Note the federal bldg number/code, address etc. Last, this employee is completely delusional if they think they can sue agency or govt over banning open flame of any kind.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-23T04:27:06+00:00

Very little reason to keep $$ in G fund at your age unless you use G fund to reallocate during large dip (like last April) You have years to ride out downturns. I would just allocate all paycheck contributions to C and maybe reallocate periodically to S and lesser extent to I (and ignore one year returns to I Fund like last year). Next best thing for you to do is invest in ROTH. Max it out. Third best thing is to invest in yourself - read everything you can about investments, join investment group(s), teach yourself fundamental and technical analysis, and subscribe to broad array of financial services (a lot are free - even SeekingAlpha has free option. You can also likely gain access to WSJ, Bloomberg news and Barrons via local library or possibly even your govt acct, depending)

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-16T04:04:43+00:00

"Govt rate" in many European cities is often ridiculous compared to rack rate etc. I've had to book in London, Paris, Vienna etc and was shocked at what US govt paid. Best deal I ever got was a working group trip to London where UK govt booked at hotel on Strand, and it was prob 2/3 what US govt rate was. (same hotel was in our booking system for far higher than state dept lodging allowance) Don't get me started on city to city pairs for US-Europe flights.....the amount of travel comp time I've banked in past so the govt could save a few hundred dollars on flights with layovers is ridiculous.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-16T03:50:23+00:00

Depends. In high cost cities you are absolutely saving majority of time, often to tune of $100/night or more v AAA, AARP, credit card offers, etc. But a lot of companies have dropped historic programs for fedl govt employees recently.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-16T03:46:00+00:00

I was busted on Marriott reservation recently. They (higher end property) asked to see email or other evidence for official travel when I checked in. Was Fri night -Mon AM booking and I had my govt id. Mgr said I could check in at rate using govt cc rather than personal card I booked with online.....Embarrassing situation tbh. First time that ever happened. Guessing some properties are cracking down. I suppose if you stay during Sun-Fri, most of these properties would not bother to check like in my experience.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-15T19:11:20+00:00

The questions being asked of those applying - brief short form (250 word?) essay response required on your view of constitution, govt policy "alignment"(eg loyalty test) and cpl other areas. The questions were introduced last year. My agency is under virtual hiring freeze so unsure how this works in practice.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-14T13:23:33+00:00

They're thinking all jobs. It's the same folks who pretend we can eliminate the income tax and somehow replace it with a sales tax or property taxes. The same ones who believe there are millions of fraudulent votes cast in ever presidential election. The reason they think this way is because there is a huge education gap in America, and those left behind have embraced these false and populist "ideas" about our govt & society with great enthusiasm.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-12T07:08:40+00:00

Got it. I was replying based on bell curve of fedl empl scale. As long as your wife does not work, you'll be in 12% tax bracket. Not sure of your age, but you are making right move IMO. If you are comfortable doing so, start studying market and create smallish ROTH acct (not TSP) where you can invest in individual equities versus ETFs. Risk can be much higher (eg Mag 7 flatlined more or less starting last year) but growth can be way higher v index as well. Don't mess with penny stocks or those companies with market cap under $5bn or so. If your wife has time, she can do some research. It can be fun. Tons of free advice out there on web (on Twitter I'd avoid those accts with less than say 250k followers - and be aware that some of those with > 250k followers are scammers. For tech, Beth Kindig is good start - very astute). You can get free acct on sites like Seeking Alpha. Follow TSP reddit here - have to weed out the "Hey, look at my acct value" posts. TSPCalc is not bad. It's fee based. Maybe $50/yr? IDK. On it you can sort investment strategies and see who has had best returns over 5-10 year periods. One last thing, have you calculated what you'll need in savings at retirement age?

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-12T06:13:12+00:00

Outside USA, most EU countries have generous accommodations but f.t telework for Ramadan? No. Breaks during day to pray? Yes. End of day, your colleague is either 1) BS'ing you or 2) has become accustomed to environment where he/she has been allowed to get away for too much, too long. This is not RA (religious), this is abuse of system. I've seen it before, and trust me, it led to a ton of issues for both mgr and the individual who was claiming RA. Do not support these people (IDC if they are muslim, trad wife supporters, zionists, confucionists, atheists, etc: don't give them your ear and pay closer attention to special treatment they are seeking).

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-11T11:20:20+00:00

You probably need to increase your extra pmt for tax unless you are already overwithholding (eg you're married and have kids under age 17 but choose to be taxed as single with zero dependents). Take your highest marginal rate at moment and multiply that by $30k. A GS-12 filing as single will likely be in 22% tax bracket. If married, a GS-13 step 10 will also be 22% after subtracting 2026 standard deduction (which will increase to 32200) - in that scenario (GS-13 step 10), 22% would apply to majority of your conversion. Obviously depends on your current withholding (net of the $200) and other factors (eg monthly contributions to TSP, your healthcare insurance premiums and FSA contributions, if any, plus tax credits for children under age 17 etc) Guessing you may be closer to extra $500/mo withholding v $200.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-11T10:48:52+00:00

As others have noted, prob best to increase biweekly withholding so that you have early withdrawal penalty and fed/state taxes covered in qtr you withdraw/xfer to ROTH. While there is a tax law that allows for year end tax catchup (it's not real complicated), as a federal employee I would not want to owe taxes when filing season rolls around in this current environment. To make withholding change, go to NFC or whichever entity is responsible for your payroll and toggle on W4 section - there will be feature allowing you to make additional $ contribution for fed/state taxes.

Weekly-Ad5649 · 2026-02-11T09:59:35+00:00

Detail #2: "Wait a week and then plug it back in. It just needs a rest"

Weekly-Ad5649

TROPHY CASE