u/Less_Towel_3619

I’m mostly wondering if anyone knows when a decision is expected.

Look. We don’t need to strike. We literally hold the keys to the system in our hands: allowance.

Just turn off the tap, friends. We were all juniors once, where we went to the nth degree to reject until we were blue in the face. We can do it again.

Collectively, if we all just choose to allow 10% less than what we’re used to, management would take a huge hit, and the outside would react.

We literally have all the power. We decide a subjective measure of preponderance of evidence. If we all chose to just chose to move the bar, to issue more 103’s and borderline hindsight combinations, pressure would accumulate on management.

I don’t care how angry Julie Burke will be. We’re not FAA traffic controllers. There’s no military examiner corps to replace us, and no patent agents or attys will work this job for this pay.

We have all the power. Lean towards not allowing.

On average, you lose 1% a year of buying power as a patent examiner.

The social security cap moves faster than inflation, taking more of your income each year.

Health insurance premiums have also gone up about 10% a year.

You can’t afford to spend a career here—30 years of employment will mean you will lose 30% of your buying power. Your pension will also therefore have a reduced payout.

You will also be pegged into this career once you’ve been doing it a while, and management knows this. The majority will be trapped by the career, and management has no incentive to make sure your wages keep up.

On the other hand, patent agent and patent atty salaries historically have kept up with inflation. If you want to do IP, you’re more likely to have wage growth in the private sector.

My Spe basically said outstanding was likely not gonna happen. There goes my star.

I will have done 750 extra count hours by years end. Paid at about $20 an hour.

I don’t do gainsharing for the money I do it for the kudos.

Im gonna have so much free time next fiscal year when I stop doing SSA and gainsharing.

It’s as if management has never taken a psychology class before.

Inflation in 2025 was about 2.5%. We got a 1% COLA. 2026 inflation is projected to be about 3.5%. 0% proposed COLA.

At this rate, my pension will be trash by the time I retire. Social Security goes bankrupt in 7 years.

I‘d take that SEC pay table if everyone’s base could go up 40-50k. Is there a downside to that pay table? Can the director just implement a new table, or does a law need to be passed?

If they actually want to traumatize us, they should just force an actual curve. Give a Z-score for production and timeliness. Above 2, outstanding. Below -2, unsatisfactory. Fully successful -1 to 1. Do away with production all together and force a strict bell curve by pitting the examination corps against each other.

Can anyone in 1600 answer this question?

I’m getting tired of my current examination area after a decade of doing it. I’m also currently back in school working on a post-bac in biochem.

I’m interested in disease treatment methods. My understanding is these are in A61P, which I believe maps to either uspc 424 or 514. Is this true? what else does 424 or 514 examine?

I’m considering switching my PBA class to one of these to try these out. I also heard that these cases come with a ton of restrictions—how bad is that?

ChatGPT says 1600 is one of the hardest examination areas because of 101’s and the vast amount of NPL. What’s the truth here?

Is even considering 1600 a dumb idea? I’m just so bored in 2800, but I’m also really really good at my 2800 art. I figured PBA would at least be a safe space to try out cases in that area to see if it’s worth the squeeze.

The seemingly impossible happened. I got an OPQA concern for a missing 103. They propose three modifications to a single reference, with loose motivation. Complete stretch of the prior art. What is going on in OPQA that I’m getting this?

Do I get any other time to rebut this garbage?

I know it’s a paper weight, but how does an examiner actually get a bronze medal? wtf do you actually need to do?