r/VHA_Human_Resources

WLB is Worklife Benefits, not Workload Balance. JFC, could you have found a clearer way to show you dont give a crap about the limbo WLB Specialists find themselves in?

Also, we didnt ask about people detailed to WLB, no one is detailed to WLB in most VISNs at this point.

We asked about the specialists who were working Leave and Benefits and have now watched Benefits be handed to people who are overwhelmed with the 30 day hire process and dont have time to pay attention in the Benefit training we are trying to provide.

Our unit requested the pink "Limb Alert" armbands to put on patients. We were told that it is a, "National Policy" that under no circumstances can any of the VA hospitals use "colored armbands" for any reason. Right now we are hanging up laminated pink limb alert signs above pt beds, but that doesn't work when patients are transferred throughout the hospital for procedures.

Are there any VA hospitals out there that use the colored bands for limb alert, allergies, DNR, etc??

I’m hoping to get information on the experiences of working for or with the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL).
What is the overall morale?

Thanks in advance!

Curious to know is it bad in all federal HR now or just the VA.

C’mon folks, don’t eat a bowl of cereal during a teams call.

Yesterday morning when I joined a call, what do I see? Dude that looked like he just woke up, sitting at home in barely lit room, wearing a graphic tee, holding a bowl of cereal in front of his face and clanking the spoon while talking. Seriously, wtf?

Last week, joined the same call, someone else is chilling in a tank top in what looked like a messy room in their house.

Sure, you already know I’m going to loop RTO into this. Hell yeah! I’m mad like all the other folks RTO’d and because some of us who’ve been forced (back?) to an office actually took working from home professionally.

Don’t be a slob. If you’re wearing something you can’t or wouldn’t wear working in an office…. If you wouldn’t slurp your cereal in a cubicle around others…. put a background on if your home office is a mess.

We all know none of this should need to be said and sadly we’ve all probably encountered something similar that’s made us think wtf. I really hope our customers aren’t making the same observations.

This isn’t a mind your own business kind of thing. Some of us really want to have telework back, but seeing stuff like this only adds fuel to fire for telework stereotypes and worsens our probability.

If you take offense to this post, let’s be real, you’re probably a part of the problem.

Now the agency must rely on private contractors, who are more expensive. Redcap logic at its finest.

GS7 HR Navs, previously HRAs, that have been waiting for their HRS GS9 positions for 2+ years— how are you? Are you preserving and hoping for brighter days ahead? Or are you checked out and looking for other jobs within or outside the VA?

I need someone to square me away. Gray area retiree, 21 yrs but 15 is consider active (12 years AD and 3 years various after I joined the Guard.) I came to the VA about 2 weeks ago, getting everything straightened out and I noticed my leave accrual was set to 4 hours, I submit a ticket with every DD214 I have, plus my NGB-22 reflecting gray area retirement, and what was sent back was HR only counts my deployed time. I’m not understanding this at all, I thought annual leave accrual was based off total federal service not certain parts of federal service. I asked for clarification and that was sent back was a bullet point about service during war time (which my entire time was, 2002 - 2023.) I’m so confused!

Am I wrong or is HR wrong, where can I find in the OPM what right looks like?

Hi! Is anyone here a clinical laboratory scientist? I recently got to the referred stage of the application process and I am so excited. I am a former fed but for NRCS and untenured so I was encouraged to take the DRP and have really missed it. I’ve been working as a chemist in a laboratory setting since then. Any idea what to prepare for in the interview? Tell me about a day in the life for the position? I’m very hopeful about the prospect of getting to be a fed again in a more stable position.

I told this story while we were having drinks a while ago, and someone told me it belongs here.

This happened 17 years ago when I was working at Northern Trust with one of the most miserable people I've ever met, named Denise. I'll use real names and places because it doesn't matter. If you're in Chicago and thinking about working there, think twice. It was a very difficult place to spend your day. Anyway, here's what happened.

I was just starting to work with Denise. The job was marketed as a small group solving complex financial operations problems with a lot of attention from senior management. The reality? It was like a mushroom farm; Denise kept everything hidden from everyone and just threw scraps at us. Most of my day consisted of compiling reports and chasing data from other departments that treated my team like we had the plague. I quickly realized I had been duped by the job description and had been trying to leave since the moment I arrived. Denise also had a lovely habit of tearing apart anyone's work over the pettiest details possible.

One of the reports I was responsible for was a regular update on copper options for a South American account. For those who don't know, an option is simply your right to buy something at a fixed price, even if the market price increases significantly. In this case, there was a right to buy at $42 per unit while the market price had reached $115. We didn't know if the account holder knew what they had, but the potential loss was so large that we had to keep monitoring it and filing reports.

So every two weeks, like clockwork, Denise would review the report and wipe the floor with me over the formatting, wording, spacing, cover note, headings - anything she could find. The numbers themselves were correct. The problem was always minor preferences that she treated like a federal crime.

One afternoon, I was poking around the shared drive and found an archived folder for an old project similar to the one I was working on. It was all Denise's work from back when she didn't have anyone working under her yet. Same type of reporting package, same audience, and same objective. So I thought, okay, if I can't do anything right, I'll use her version. I took her format, rearranged my report to look like hers, and used the exact same language from her cover letter almost word-for-word, just changing the current numbers and details.

I went into her office for her to review and sign, and suddenly she got very angry. She asked why I changed the old format? I told her that since she clearly had issues with my way, I decided to try another approach. She told me this version was worse, and might be the worst thing I had ever submitted to her. She went on and on about how weird the language was, how bad the layout looked, and how the structure made no sense. I sat there with a straight face and let her talk.

Finally, she asked me what I was thinking when I made these changes. I told her that I used the formatting and wording she had used when she was handling a similar report a few years ago. I told her I found the archive folder on the shared drive and copied her old work exactly, except for the account-specific numbers and data. Then I gave her printed copies of her old reports and cover notes to compare.

She just stared at me... In total shock. I asked her if it was that bad, should I go back to my old format? She signed the report and told me to send it as is. I asked her again to be sure, because just 45 seconds ago she was saying it was unreadable. She said it was fine and we didn't have time to redo it. So I sent it.

Fortunately, I had saved copies of all her old work to use as examples. After that meeting, I noticed she went in and deleted or moved several folders from the archive, which was exactly what I expected from her.

This game continued for the rest of my time there. I would use her templates and her old wording, and wait for her to tear them apart. After this happened a few times, she realized I had saved everything. She asked me, and I told her I had created SOPs from her old work and kept them because it was the logical thing to do.

I managed to resign about four months later.

I recently moved from a GS-9 Step 4 position to a GS-11 Step 1 position. I've been a GS11 for 3 months.

I’m now considering returning to my previous agency in a GS-9 position. I understand I don’t qualify for grade retention because I haven’t served 52 consecutive weeks at the higher grade.

My question is: Can my current GS-11 Step 1 salary still be used as my Highest Previous Rate under the Maximum Payable Rate rule when HR sets my GS-9 salary? Or would I automatically return to GS-9 Step 4?

Has anyone gone through something similar or know how 5 CFR 531.221–531.223 would apply here? Thank you in advance.

I was supposed to get my Gs 13/step 10 on August 9, but I haven’t gotten it and HR isn’t responding to my emails. I’ve heard a rumor around the office that salary increases are delayed until the holidays and will be applied retroactively. Is anyone in a similar position or have information?

Total chaos. Veterans Affairs Human Resource Department right this very moment. Interesting how leadership went to secret meetings where they were told to sign NDA’s…. And now it’s pure chaos with leadership creating it but blaming the subordinates for the problem. Especially for the Texas region. Especially for the Dallas VA HR team. Lots of admonishing from the HRO but no accountability on his part for the lack of clear and concise guidance. It’s all done in an effort to purposely disparage the employees and cause them to quit or get terminated. It’s blatantly obvious that the leaders for Texas VA HR is doing this. That or they’re that ignorant and disconnected. Or they only care about their career. Sadly the supervisors under the upper regional leadership think because they follow along that their job is safe. Just like Hitlers henchmen said they were “just following orders”. But in the end, they’re not protected. They’re just tools for a means to an end. And LP will read this in her monthly meeting and scoff and laugh at it instead of taking it to heart and as a sign that this is all going to implode and she’ll be on the chopping block first.

My supervisor is denying me advanced sick because I have some AL hours. However I don’t have enough AL and would like to save it for vacation. He’s saying I have to use all my AL first before he will approve my advance sick. I’m requesting like 8 days so it’s not a lot. Is he allowed to deny me for this reason? If not what do I do?

Do we get sick leave on our pay days?