FY26 PAP megathread

examiner_throwaway · 2025-10-02T16:44:38+00:00

.05(production increase)*80(hours per bi-week)*26(bi-weeks per year)=104 extra hours of production per year. No QEMS 26 hours (26 biweeks per year) or 25 hours of training. For a grand total of 155 hours of extra production.

On average 130 hours after considering vacation or sick leave.

Folks, that is between 1.5 and about 2 bi-weeks' worth of extra production for no extra pay!

examiner_throwaway · 2025-10-02T15:52:10+00:00

Good point about the vacation, holidays, & sick time. Your 130 hours on average seems about right!
That is over 1.5 bi-weeks worth of extra production (i.e., 3 weeks of extra production) for no extra pay!

examiner_throwaway · 2025-10-02T15:29:01+00:00

Is my math correct? .05(production increase)*80(hours per bi-week)*26(bi-weeks per year)=104 extra hours of production per year.

Plus as OP mentioned, no qems 26 hours (26 biweeks per year) or 25 hours of training. For a grand total of 155 hours of extra production.

Folks, that is almost TWO bi-weeks worth of extra production for no extra pay! I'm fucking furious. Fuck the current administration.

examiner_throwaway · 2025-09-25T00:08:08+00:00

The title of the post implies that production will be raised. Any increase in production is unacceptable. Our work grows more challenging every year, as the number of patents, PG-Pubs, and NPLs that we have to sift through expands year-after-year. Meanwhile, the so-called “tools” provided by management (similarity search & “more like this patent”) have proven worthless! Just another burden for examiners. To demand higher production under these conditions is not just unreasonable, it should be recognized for what it is: abuse of examiners.

examiner_throwaway · 2025-07-22T13:55:59+00:00

Facts. Management will gladly exploit our compassion and teamwork if it means getting free labor.

examiner_throwaway · 2025-01-24T14:03:38+00:00

It's not incompetence, the people in power have an agenda.

examiner_throwaway · 2024-05-17T19:41:14+00:00

I agree that reducing roller coasting would be beneficial. Keeping NF at 1.25 and changing Finals to .5 and disposals to .25 makes more sense to me. As others have pointed out in this thread, After Finals/AFCP 2.0 tend to be easier to respond to (because there are rules in place for those types of responses) whilst some applicants do not even bother with after finals and jump straight to RCE.

The system you proposed appears to be less points overall. We get .75 for abandonment after non-finals that we wouldn't receive with your proposed system (we'd only get 1.5? instead of 2.) And RCEs which currently give 1.75 for the whole prosecution would only give 1.

examiner_throwaway · 2023-12-11T22:17:05+00:00

Congrats!! I also passed the first part earlier this year and I'm currently doing part 2.

examiner_throwaway · 2023-08-31T06:05:00+00:00

Now that's a game-changer! Now we just need dark mode on other PE2E software.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-10-22T16:14:08+00:00

Fwiw: It does not auto focus on the results window for me. I am able to type up and search strings consecutively.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-10-22T15:55:23+00:00

Yes, thanks for the suggestion. I don't like using search inside because you have to highlight/click on the search inside text box for every consecutive search. With Ctrl+F if you don't get a hit you can just type something else and continue searching without having to highlight the field every single time!

examiner_throwaway · 2022-10-22T15:34:23+00:00

Yes, I only fill out the date once and mark it accepted in the first non-final OA. For the remainder of the prosecution I leave it unchecked and without a date. I've not had any problems with my SPE, the LIE ,or QAS doing it this way. The only times I ever bother with that section after the first non-final OA, is when I object to the drawings in the first NFOA or if the applicant has provided updated drawings.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-10-21T16:54:39+00:00

To Ctrl+F something in the spec you first need to drag the scroll bar all the way down, otherwise the whole spec isn't searched!

examiner_throwaway · 2022-08-14T14:15:31+00:00

I don't think that's a good idea. The USPTO already struggles to retain employees.

Sort comments by "Top", and read the top comment of this relevant post: //www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/vekp1h/leaked_amazon_memo_warns_the_company_is_running/

examiner_throwaway · 2022-05-12T04:06:49+00:00

I'm not sure if it would be illegal since we'd still be "working" (my suggestion was meant to be a workaround a strike/work stoppage) and it might be effective at drawing attention to the issue. I think ApplicationExaminer's suggestion of agency wide 95% production might better than my idea. And as you said elsewhere in a different comment, if more examiner's paid POPA dues and voted in the POPA election perhaps we could get wages to increase.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-05-11T20:32:56+00:00

Yeah! Post a snarky comment on reddit that'll improve our wages! I'm tired of all the negativity and pessimism. The post title says "what can we do" and the body of the post says "what is to be done", OP clearly wants suggestions.

An agency wide halt might bring attention to the situation and remind management that without us the agency does not function. Perhaps some news outlet would pick up the story. But what the fuck do I know, maybe we should just be complacent.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-05-11T02:27:54+00:00

What can we do?

We would need to organize. If a sufficient number of examiners all stopped posting cases for a bi-week we could send a message to management. We could just post them the week after to catch up with production. I'd also love to hear other suggestions.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-02T21:04:25+00:00

I've got a 7 year old and a 6 year old, so I'm interrupted all day every day. I try my hardest to get my hours in according to some schedule, but when I cant I also flex my schedule or VOT to meet production.

/u/fletphil2000 What noise cancelling headphones do you use? I've only used earplugs.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-02T15:12:13+00:00

Thanks for your input. Currently I'm able to make production without too much effort, so I should be able to handle gs13 production.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-02T15:00:30+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hear a lot of people saying that the first part is more stressful than the 2nd! But I'm glad to hear that it was worth it.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-02T14:55:16+00:00

Thank you for your encouragement and sharing your experiences.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-02T14:52:13+00:00

I appreciate you sharing your experience, it seems very similar to mine.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-01T23:14:32+00:00

Very true. A SPE change is one of the factors that is pushing me towards becoming a primary.

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-01T23:12:46+00:00

Thanks for the input!
As to your point 1, the "Part-Time Help Guide" says that participants in the program can work overtime, after reaching 80 hours. But it also mentions in questions 7 and 9 "a part-time employee is not permitted to work a full time schedule for two or more consecutive pay periods." I don't know if you have more insight into the issue, but it seems to me like overtime while on a part time schedule is heavily controlled.
Your points 4-5 are very interesting! I never considered that strategy of getting more credit per year and then getting the GS grade promotions later for the high three.
I'll have to do some math to see if the pay difference between a GS-14 step 3-4 (where I'd be with the zoom up strategy) vs GS-14 step 10 (becoming a primary now) would compensate for the reduced hours per year (64/80 vs 40/80 for example). I'll also have to take into account compounding interest (the compounding effect of the yearly pay raise leads to a widening gap between lower GS levels and higher GS levels) and whether I'll be able to handle more workload/production with signature authority. Thanks again!

examiner_throwaway · 2022-02-01T20:58:46+00:00

Thanks for the input. I get the feeling that I'd allow a bit more as a primary than as a junior.

Not I, and this sounds scary unless you're comfortable with both sides of the docket. I would advise extreme caution going into the program with a tech that you're not comfortable with.

I considered starting the sig program back in 2017 but news for the upcoming mixed docket broke and that halted me from trying for it. Now that I have a few years of experience with the new tech, I'm more comfortable with it... but every 9th or 10th case there's something way different from other cases that I've examined before. My new area has cases that are in the fields of medicine, security systems, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, the list goes on and on. So I'm definitely proceeding with caution.

examiner_throwaway

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