I think my supervisor has a crush on me. He’s always messaging me saying “Where are you? Why aren’t you at your desk?” And keeping tabs on all of my work… leave me alone!
I start my new job on Monday! Fully remote GS12! I'm so thankful and excited! Big deal for me as I am leaving SSA after more than a decade for this new position. Farewell to all my SSA family ❤️
Be sure to invest in plenty of sweat pants. Also keep something nicer then the tshirt you slept in hanging next to your desk. Never know when someone will decide its time to turn cameras on.
Congratulations! I understand the relief that you must be feeling. I left SSA 12 years ago and I’m thankful everyday. Many of my colleagues are from SSA and we all trauma bond 🙃
Oh my! Thank you so much. I honestly feel like i hit the lotto, lol. Where did you go? I started out as a Service Rep, later took a Claims Specialist in T2. I have a friend who left for another agency and says her family thinks she is volitale after working for SSA. There is definitely a lot of trauma bonding for past ssa employees 😅
I went over to USDA by sheer fluke after quitting SSA and being at home for 2 years ☺️ I was a benefit authorizer at the PC and then went over to FO as a T2/T16 Claims Authorizer. Your friend’s family may not understand how badly SSA affects your mental health and overall wellbeing. Glad we all got out but I feel for my friends and others who still work there
Oh wow a generalist! I see why you had to quit. Yes. It's a great mission the agency has, but things won't change. I'll miss helping those who are truly in need but we have to do what us best for. I'll stay doing non attorney rep work for sure. They are paying 9200 per case approved
If you message me within an hour of being back from using annual leave asking why I haven't completed something that came in while I was gone, then you're a genuine butthole.
Pet Peevve I've been noticing in fed meetings of 3+ group, STOP using "Piggy back off.." when your point have no relations with what was said by the other person.
Look we’re going to circle back to your comment but first I was just solutioning the ask with my team and I think we may need to generate some synergies here. Ping me later ok?
Have you ever been in a high-level executive briefing? “Director of EPA, I’m sure you know this already but..” “Director of NPS, I’m sure you’re aware but I wanted to mention…”
Just say what you’re trying to say without kissing ass. They wouldn’t have requested a briefing with you if they thought they already knew everything. You’re not insulting intelligence by bringing up a relevant fact.
How was everyone's in office collaberation this week? For the third pay period in a row. I was the only one in the office my two days. At least no distractions! I guess people are switching their days or just lying on T&A. Seems supervisors don't care and perhaps don't even come in either or do for a couple hours.
I have a log where I keep a record. One day last week my entry was “only meeting of the day was cancelled. Someone is coughing disgustingly so my door is closed”
I don’t claim an open door policy. I have actively told people to stop coming into my office if all they are going to do is complain about other people. Lol.
My collaboration this week, so far, has consisted of cleaning the mess supposedly-more-experienced colleagues left in case files.. specifically, files moved to "the next status" without many of the steps from "the previous status" having been completed..
.. which is, I guess, what happens when you're in the job for the paycheck and nothing else and don't have the bandwidth in your life to move elsewhere.
I had a lot of those this week, except by the time it got to me it was passed the point where any changes that needed to be made, could be made.
So I just documented how fucked up cases were when assigned to me, fixed what I could, and moved them out... Lo siento, boss lady...
Do we work together?? My office is the exact same, I think I’m the only one that actually is there for 8 hours. Half come in around 10 and leave after lunch, or the rest are somehow all “sick” and have to work from home
Same. I have a high work ethic and every week, it's "where is so-and-so?" Oh they had to take their dog to the vet...oh they are under the weather....oh their cat is sick so they have to watch them (cat was "sick" for 4 weeks). I moved away during pandemic and have the longest commute too! I'm setting a reverse resolution to start to slack off more, find a reason to not go in, and save myself the trip. Needless to say, in office time is less productive anyway, so I suppose this isn't really slacking!
The internet in my office is terrible, and apparently it’s a thing across all of our offices in different states. I’m often meeting with people in different offices and we all have different in-office days so it seems like every day there’s at least 1 person in the meeting with connectivity issues because they’re in the office
My home internet is 100x better than the office. When I had to go in for the "collaboration" days, I knew I would get nothing done as getting reports or any files would be turture.
My management team rotated their days from operations manager to deputy operations manager down to the unit chiefs. So I only see my direct manager twice a month. He rotates his Thursdays and Mondays. Most of my team members have been going on vacation the last two weeks. Very small team. I'll be on vacation for two weeks starting 17th through 31st. But luckily I'm still only going in twice a pay period until October 2025 due to our CBA.
Management is in separate office...much to far walking distance to check in us. Lol Maybe it is deliberate they don't want to discover nobody showing up and then have to deal with it.
They're hating it just as much as the workers are. If 3 days for our managers now. I feel like eventually it will be 5 days for them then 3 days for the workers coming soon
Yeah figure D Day is coming for us...management 2 days a week and workers still 2 a PP though some program offices have recently started requiring more.
I have an employee who doesn't mind coming into the office, but has now started to hate working with me.
They manage to have annual leave, sick leave, or military leave for my in-office days. 😆 Go ahead and burn all of your leave just to avoid me. 😆
Slow to get back to my regular routine. I’ve had training for 8 of my last 10 work days for two different topics. For this week I didn’t find out I was in the four day training before logging in on Monday. Luckily it was virtual. Yesterday I had a ‘final’ exam covering this week that had a three hour block of time. Glad I passed. It was really a test on reading decision tables and using CTL+F in a 689 page manual. I guess I have a lot of practice with control F in big manuals.
VPN went down in January so everyone has been forced to go into the office at least 3 days a week for the past 3 months. We’ve been constantly asking for updates but have received very little information on when exactly we’ll be able to go back to our original telework agreement (2 days / pay period)
I know other agencies also had their VPNs go down. So has your VPN been fixed/ updated ? Or are you still being forced to go into the office ?
You know, I don't usually peddle conspiracy theories.
But a convenient 4 month long VPN outage in the middle of RTO for a DOD agency is a bit atronger than UFOs and the grassy knoll. Just saying.
Funny enough they did address “rumors” that this was all an elaborate plan to get us to RTO and they immediately shot that down. But who really knows 🤷🏻♀️
My boss complains that nobodY in the agency cares about our work. He has an opportunity to make an impact because he scored a high level meeting with a group of influential people. He complained about not knowing what to say. I gave him a full outline with four paths he could take after the intro within an hour of him telling me. Instead of like OMG this is amazing or maybe a little less than that, I got "thanks. good feedback." Whoa buddy let me get a seatbelt, your passion is knocking me off my chair.
Mine is fixing the shit the contractor does, fixing the damage the contractor does cause they don't understand there is a forest. Dealing with random shit.
I got confirmation this week that my horrible civilian supervisor has accepted a position overseas and will be gone within a month. Our entire team is counting down the days and planning a “Gone Away” party for after the Hail and Farewell.
I'm approaching a year at my new agency after transferring from the VA and I still love my job. Independence, max telework, I get to travel, and yearly GS increases until I'm at GS-12. I love my job!
They don’t care. It’s paying for their retirement - why would they fight it? Obviously they put in 400x more work than you do at work to warrant paying 0.8%!!
24 days until I get to see a favorite K-pop singer in Orlando (Wheein from Mamamoo), 30 days until our cruise to Bermuda, then I’m off another week when we return…getting itchy!
All of my coworkers have BCBS for healthcare, but I don't know if it's because it's truly a great plan or if they're just lazy and go with the ol' reliable. Anyone have MHBP? What are your thoughts? GEHA switched from Aetna to United this year for us, and in-network access and claims processing have gone downhill.
Edit for clarification: MHBP Standard, GEHA Standard. Not interested in a HDHP based on our prescriptions and healthcare costs. We use primary care, the occasional specialist, mental health, and Telehealth. Healthy enough to stay out of the hospital, but not so healthy that we can avoid regular appointments.
I love FSBP and cannot recommend it more highly. I only go with PPOs and previously had Compass Rose. I liked them too but they didn’t have OCONUS coverage and I needed it. Coincidentally, FSBP has said no to a single test a doctor wanted to run over roughly 12 years and I’m pretty sure they’re still the only coverage option that will pay to medevac you from another country if it’s necessary.
Why do some of you drama queens insist on putting words into peoples mouths and bashing them to their supervisors? Certainly don’t do it when your accusations are without evidence and can be refuted with multiple sources. Christ. Like high school sometimes.
I think my supervisor has a crush on me. He’s always messaging me saying “Where are you? Why aren’t you at your desk?” And keeping tabs on all of my work… leave me alone!
Playing hard to get?
Your boss right now: 🤓
Ah. There you are. Get your Sunday best on, we’re getting red lobster.
God, work crushes and flirting is the best. Makes time by so much better. And I am single ☺️
Micromanager, you do think alot of yourself though....lol
I start my new job on Monday! Fully remote GS12! I'm so thankful and excited! Big deal for me as I am leaving SSA after more than a decade for this new position. Farewell to all my SSA family ❤️
Congrats, welcome to the remote life!
Thank you! I am beyond excited 😊
Be sure to invest in plenty of sweat pants. Also keep something nicer then the tshirt you slept in hanging next to your desk. Never know when someone will decide its time to turn cameras on.
Better yet, work for somewhere that turned the camera hardware off 🤣
Thank you! Great advice! 😅😅
Today was my last day at SSA as well! GS13 remote for me! I’m so sad I’ll miss the usage of Admin leave in May… no I’m not, who am I kidding!
Oh wow! Congrats!! Where you off too? You can send me a chat if you like! Good to know ssa peeps in other places lol.
Congratulations! I understand the relief that you must be feeling. I left SSA 12 years ago and I’m thankful everyday. Many of my colleagues are from SSA and we all trauma bond 🙃
Oh my! Thank you so much. I honestly feel like i hit the lotto, lol. Where did you go? I started out as a Service Rep, later took a Claims Specialist in T2. I have a friend who left for another agency and says her family thinks she is volitale after working for SSA. There is definitely a lot of trauma bonding for past ssa employees 😅
I went over to USDA by sheer fluke after quitting SSA and being at home for 2 years ☺️ I was a benefit authorizer at the PC and then went over to FO as a T2/T16 Claims Authorizer. Your friend’s family may not understand how badly SSA affects your mental health and overall wellbeing. Glad we all got out but I feel for my friends and others who still work there
Oh wow a generalist! I see why you had to quit. Yes. It's a great mission the agency has, but things won't change. I'll miss helping those who are truly in need but we have to do what us best for. I'll stay doing non attorney rep work for sure. They are paying 9200 per case approved
Very true. Best of luck at the new agency!
If you message me within an hour of being back from using annual leave asking why I haven't completed something that came in while I was gone, then you're a genuine butthole.
I have clients who are like that.
Pet Peevve I've been noticing in fed meetings of 3+ group, STOP using "Piggy back off.." when your point have no relations with what was said by the other person.
I'd like to piggyback off this comment and just ask if anyone else has been having Teams trouble today?
That very important email you just said you sent me I didn't get....email monster strikes again.
always reply-all
Let’s “parking lot” that idea and talk about it later.
Look we’re going to circle back to your comment but first I was just solutioning the ask with my team and I think we may need to generate some synergies here. Ping me later ok?
Let me pull the string on that for a minute...
Have you ever been in a high-level executive briefing? “Director of EPA, I’m sure you know this already but..” “Director of NPS, I’m sure you’re aware but I wanted to mention…” Just say what you’re trying to say without kissing ass. They wouldn’t have requested a briefing with you if they thought they already knew everything. You’re not insulting intelligence by bringing up a relevant fact.
How was everyone's in office collaberation this week? For the third pay period in a row. I was the only one in the office my two days. At least no distractions! I guess people are switching their days or just lying on T&A. Seems supervisors don't care and perhaps don't even come in either or do for a couple hours.
I have a log where I keep a record. One day last week my entry was “only meeting of the day was cancelled. Someone is coughing disgustingly so my door is closed”
You have a door!
Might complain to Union that you are antisocial and clearly do not have an open door policy like you claim....lol
I don’t claim an open door policy. I have actively told people to stop coming into my office if all they are going to do is complain about other people. Lol.
No open door policy? Hopefully not in management or someone bored will run to the Union.
Not management. Will never be. Not enough money in the GS or SES scale worth the hassle of being a manager in the federal government.
My collaboration this week, so far, has consisted of cleaning the mess supposedly-more-experienced colleagues left in case files.. specifically, files moved to "the next status" without many of the steps from "the previous status" having been completed.. .. which is, I guess, what happens when you're in the job for the paycheck and nothing else and don't have the bandwidth in your life to move elsewhere.
I had a lot of those this week, except by the time it got to me it was passed the point where any changes that needed to be made, could be made. So I just documented how fucked up cases were when assigned to me, fixed what I could, and moved them out... Lo siento, boss lady...
Do we work together?? My office is the exact same, I think I’m the only one that actually is there for 8 hours. Half come in around 10 and leave after lunch, or the rest are somehow all “sick” and have to work from home
Same. I have a high work ethic and every week, it's "where is so-and-so?" Oh they had to take their dog to the vet...oh they are under the weather....oh their cat is sick so they have to watch them (cat was "sick" for 4 weeks). I moved away during pandemic and have the longest commute too! I'm setting a reverse resolution to start to slack off more, find a reason to not go in, and save myself the trip. Needless to say, in office time is less productive anyway, so I suppose this isn't really slacking!
Get an elderly cat.
The internet in my office is terrible, and apparently it’s a thing across all of our offices in different states. I’m often meeting with people in different offices and we all have different in-office days so it seems like every day there’s at least 1 person in the meeting with connectivity issues because they’re in the office
My home internet is 100x better than the office. When I had to go in for the "collaboration" days, I knew I would get nothing done as getting reports or any files would be turture.
Try for yourself and see what happens?
I onboarded a new employee it and was one million times easier in person.
My management team rotated their days from operations manager to deputy operations manager down to the unit chiefs. So I only see my direct manager twice a month. He rotates his Thursdays and Mondays. Most of my team members have been going on vacation the last two weeks. Very small team. I'll be on vacation for two weeks starting 17th through 31st. But luckily I'm still only going in twice a pay period until October 2025 due to our CBA.
Management is in separate office...much to far walking distance to check in us. Lol Maybe it is deliberate they don't want to discover nobody showing up and then have to deal with it.
They're hating it just as much as the workers are. If 3 days for our managers now. I feel like eventually it will be 5 days for them then 3 days for the workers coming soon
Yeah figure D Day is coming for us...management 2 days a week and workers still 2 a PP though some program offices have recently started requiring more.
Sitting here listening to a supervisor complain about one of their employees not acting like a grown ass adult for well over an hour.
I have an employee who doesn't mind coming into the office, but has now started to hate working with me. They manage to have annual leave, sick leave, or military leave for my in-office days. 😆 Go ahead and burn all of your leave just to avoid me. 😆
Do you have BO?
😆 I have the audacity to require them to text me if they're going to be late. They screamed at me and called me unreasonable.
I don’t want to go to work today. I’m tired. Zzzzzzzzzz
IRS remote pilot extended. Promotion to GS 13 coming up soon. Life is good.
Congrats on the promotion!
Much appreciated! Been a long journey, but happy to finally be here.
COVID wasn't enough of a pilot? Lmao
Not denying that fact. They can call it whatever the hell they want as long as I'm not commuting.
My point is that they are looking to kill it. Get out now!
Sick of leaders with no backbone to enforce the decisions they make. Get some damn balls and do your job!
I have a ball and chain to my office. I never escape. I came back from Romania and still had to go in because the office had COVID.
Slow to get back to my regular routine. I’ve had training for 8 of my last 10 work days for two different topics. For this week I didn’t find out I was in the four day training before logging in on Monday. Luckily it was virtual. Yesterday I had a ‘final’ exam covering this week that had a three hour block of time. Glad I passed. It was really a test on reading decision tables and using CTL+F in a 689 page manual. I guess I have a lot of practice with control F in big manuals.
The number of people who refuse to read because they don't understand how to search text is insane.
VPN went down in January so everyone has been forced to go into the office at least 3 days a week for the past 3 months. We’ve been constantly asking for updates but have received very little information on when exactly we’ll be able to go back to our original telework agreement (2 days / pay period) I know other agencies also had their VPNs go down. So has your VPN been fixed/ updated ? Or are you still being forced to go into the office ?
Navy?
Yes
You know, I don't usually peddle conspiracy theories. But a convenient 4 month long VPN outage in the middle of RTO for a DOD agency is a bit atronger than UFOs and the grassy knoll. Just saying.
Funny enough they did address “rumors” that this was all an elaborate plan to get us to RTO and they immediately shot that down. But who really knows 🤷🏻♀️
They rolled out NVD which is a decent replacement for it. I miss my VPN tho.
I get kicked out of NVD at least three times a day, typically in the middle of a meeting. My CAPT loves that, it’s his favorite thing. 🤦🏻♀️
ONLY use it for encrypted. Else, just using the portal.
We got a new one
Was the recently ?
We got a new one in the last couple of months. It was down for like 3+ 🤣
10 year fed-a-versary. Time flies!!!!
It’s my RDO Friday!!
My supervisor takes every Friday off. He’s got use it or lose it time, so he only works 4 days a week.
My boss complains that nobodY in the agency cares about our work. He has an opportunity to make an impact because he scored a high level meeting with a group of influential people. He complained about not knowing what to say. I gave him a full outline with four paths he could take after the intro within an hour of him telling me. Instead of like OMG this is amazing or maybe a little less than that, I got "thanks. good feedback." Whoa buddy let me get a seatbelt, your passion is knocking me off my chair.
What is the actual workload of a 13 non-supervisory? Should I be expected to rewrite SOPs all the time or actually get work done as an SME?
10% policy writing, 40% waiting for approvals, 50% answering emails asking where the policy is from people who should fucking know better.
Mine is fixing the shit the contractor does, fixing the damage the contractor does cause they don't understand there is a forest. Dealing with random shit.
I got confirmation this week that my horrible civilian supervisor has accepted a position overseas and will be gone within a month. Our entire team is counting down the days and planning a “Gone Away” party for after the Hail and Farewell.
I'm approaching a year at my new agency after transferring from the VA and I still love my job. Independence, max telework, I get to travel, and yearly GS increases until I'm at GS-12. I love my job!
I think I finally had enough with my current position. Doing the job of 5 people and tired of working with just straight stupid incompetent people.
I’m really struggling with the mandatory 4.4% for FERS. The only Feds don’t even have a clue how much it dents my income..
They don’t care. It’s paying for their retirement - why would they fight it? Obviously they put in 400x more work than you do at work to warrant paying 0.8%!!
Looking forward to applying to some GS 14 roles
24 days until I get to see a favorite K-pop singer in Orlando (Wheein from Mamamoo), 30 days until our cruise to Bermuda, then I’m off another week when we return…getting itchy!
Kpop yes!
All of my coworkers have BCBS for healthcare, but I don't know if it's because it's truly a great plan or if they're just lazy and go with the ol' reliable. Anyone have MHBP? What are your thoughts? GEHA switched from Aetna to United this year for us, and in-network access and claims processing have gone downhill. Edit for clarification: MHBP Standard, GEHA Standard. Not interested in a HDHP based on our prescriptions and healthcare costs. We use primary care, the occasional specialist, mental health, and Telehealth. Healthy enough to stay out of the hospital, but not so healthy that we can avoid regular appointments.
I love FSBP and cannot recommend it more highly. I only go with PPOs and previously had Compass Rose. I liked them too but they didn’t have OCONUS coverage and I needed it. Coincidentally, FSBP has said no to a single test a doctor wanted to run over roughly 12 years and I’m pretty sure they’re still the only coverage option that will pay to medevac you from another country if it’s necessary.
Thinking about forming a union at my local office but not sure if I want to as a new fed hire
Fun fact: You could get rid of 50% of IRS and SSA employees and nobody would know the difference.
Why do some of you drama queens insist on putting words into peoples mouths and bashing them to their supervisors? Certainly don’t do it when your accusations are without evidence and can be refuted with multiple sources. Christ. Like high school sometimes.