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Feb. 3rd, 2003 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzLaw school: George Mason-yes, Mich-yes, Harvard-no, NorthWestern-waiting list. No other responses to date.
My new work # is XXX, home XXX. As I said before, investigators, law enforcement officials, former co-workers with which I had good rapport, and other personnel of that nature may have my numbers at any time. Crackheads, trouble makers with whom my rapport was not the best, and their ilk may not. XXX certainly may, though if you are still in contact with him you may wish to inform him that I no longer have access to information regarding anyone’s work hours. If in doubt, send me the information to contact them and I will choose whether or not to do so (an amusing situation, since anyone with a phone book, internet connection, and/or a double-digit iq could figure out that I’m listed in most directories).
Policy and procedure guides us, yes, but the guidelines are extremely basic and you have a lot of leeway in how you conduct your work. Each case is different, and you are expected to treat it as such. In this branch of ER, we are sent investigations that have been conducted on employee misconduct by management or by certified investigators. Then we write a proposal for discipline, with the discipline usually determined by comparison to previous similar incidents, weighing in any prior service and/or discipline received. For instance, $500 or less of credit card misuse would usually get a 5-day suspension for a first-time offence. Yelling or acting disrespectful to a supervisor would yield a 1-2 pay period suspension for a first offense, depending on the severity of the situation (that’s 2-4 weeks for that nonsense that was part of the daily job in the WDO). Receiving a 1 day AWOL for failure to follow call-in procedures may result in a 1-5 day suspension as well. Repeat business in our department often results in removal from service. I love this place!
Proposing discipline requires spelling out what happened in a series of specifications. Then you give a background section, which discusses the employee’s history and the potential impact of their misdeed upon the agency’s ability to conduct its mission, and follow the whole thing up with some boiler-plate appeal rights. The management in this agency is not in the position to tell us what discipline to use, but we do keep them informed and solicit their input. When the employee receives the proposal, they then have 10 days in which to submit written responses or request an oral conference. They can then defend themselves and present any evidence, including mitigating and hardship factors. At that point a decision letter is generated, taking into account all the information in the proposal and oral conference. We also do 3rd party hearings, such as those appeals that are grieved or taken to the EEOC (I’m getting trained on that process now so I can’t elaborate too much about it). We spare no expense to shoot down these frivolous actions unless we find some merit to them – if that ever happens.
It’s a pretty steep learning curve, but I’m at a fully functioning level after 3 months – and as you know I aintz all dat bright. It does require a LOT of writing, but I’ve found the more of a sarcastic smart-ass I am, the better received my work is. I’m still a behind-the-lines employee advocate, but at the same time I get the satisfaction of removing human refuge from the Federal Service – which I have already done a few times. Some of the discipline seems harsh, but most of it meets my palate.
The office management is flexible and friendly. It seemed scary at first as we are so heavy-handed, but so long as you don’t goof off and carry your share of the work there are no problems. I found out this place HAD a bad reputation, when a non-functional staff of government deadwood was replaced by the current crew. Much grumbling was heard as people were required to actually do their jobs, resulting in a lot of people transferring out. The pace is MUCH more relaxed here, and my stress levels are not even 25% of what I was experiencing in the WDO. I’m interviewing for that GS-14 this week, but man…I couldn’t be any less interested in getting it.
My new work # is XXX, home XXX. As I said before, investigators, law enforcement officials, former co-workers with which I had good rapport, and other personnel of that nature may have my numbers at any time. Crackheads, trouble makers with whom my rapport was not the best, and their ilk may not. XXX certainly may, though if you are still in contact with him you may wish to inform him that I no longer have access to information regarding anyone’s work hours. If in doubt, send me the information to contact them and I will choose whether or not to do so (an amusing situation, since anyone with a phone book, internet connection, and/or a double-digit iq could figure out that I’m listed in most directories).
Policy and procedure guides us, yes, but the guidelines are extremely basic and you have a lot of leeway in how you conduct your work. Each case is different, and you are expected to treat it as such. In this branch of ER, we are sent investigations that have been conducted on employee misconduct by management or by certified investigators. Then we write a proposal for discipline, with the discipline usually determined by comparison to previous similar incidents, weighing in any prior service and/or discipline received. For instance, $500 or less of credit card misuse would usually get a 5-day suspension for a first-time offence. Yelling or acting disrespectful to a supervisor would yield a 1-2 pay period suspension for a first offense, depending on the severity of the situation (that’s 2-4 weeks for that nonsense that was part of the daily job in the WDO). Receiving a 1 day AWOL for failure to follow call-in procedures may result in a 1-5 day suspension as well. Repeat business in our department often results in removal from service. I love this place!
Proposing discipline requires spelling out what happened in a series of specifications. Then you give a background section, which discusses the employee’s history and the potential impact of their misdeed upon the agency’s ability to conduct its mission, and follow the whole thing up with some boiler-plate appeal rights. The management in this agency is not in the position to tell us what discipline to use, but we do keep them informed and solicit their input. When the employee receives the proposal, they then have 10 days in which to submit written responses or request an oral conference. They can then defend themselves and present any evidence, including mitigating and hardship factors. At that point a decision letter is generated, taking into account all the information in the proposal and oral conference. We also do 3rd party hearings, such as those appeals that are grieved or taken to the EEOC (I’m getting trained on that process now so I can’t elaborate too much about it). We spare no expense to shoot down these frivolous actions unless we find some merit to them – if that ever happens.
It’s a pretty steep learning curve, but I’m at a fully functioning level after 3 months – and as you know I aintz all dat bright. It does require a LOT of writing, but I’ve found the more of a sarcastic smart-ass I am, the better received my work is. I’m still a behind-the-lines employee advocate, but at the same time I get the satisfaction of removing human refuge from the Federal Service – which I have already done a few times. Some of the discipline seems harsh, but most of it meets my palate.
The office management is flexible and friendly. It seemed scary at first as we are so heavy-handed, but so long as you don’t goof off and carry your share of the work there are no problems. I found out this place HAD a bad reputation, when a non-functional staff of government deadwood was replaced by the current crew. Much grumbling was heard as people were required to actually do their jobs, resulting in a lot of people transferring out. The pace is MUCH more relaxed here, and my stress levels are not even 25% of what I was experiencing in the WDO. I’m interviewing for that GS-14 this week, but man…I couldn’t be any less interested in getting it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-03 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-03 09:03 am (UTC)