Sorry to bag on the feds. But I do know most in my area as some are previous co-workers, friends from the various vendors I have worked for and some just are on the same turf. Here’s what I know. They pick cases and leave bad ones for us contractors. They focus on “quality” with a third of production expectations. You are right about the “overworking” of cases by the contractors but IT IS driven by the “customer”. I know that because I have had the “customer” re-opens for minutiae, non-adjudicative reporting. The feds pay a fraction of what contractors pay in health benefits. Have pensions, TSP, raises, and don’t have to drive their cars into the ground. Yes you have pressures and expectations but no where near the vendors. You must have forgotten the USIS days! We have constant “integrity” checks (don’t miss checking a box). Constant reminders of the “expectations” (or get demoted, fired…). Yeah enjoy your “Fed Life”. The contractors will be as always here to clean up the backlog mess.
I’d love to know who does the picking and choosing of the ‘bad’ cases left for the contractors as well as the criteria used to determine exactly which ones are ‘bad.’
Are agents assigned work by another person or do they go into a system and assign themselves work?? If they go into a system and click on which cases they want to work then that’s how they pick and choose which cases they want to work. A very good agent friend verbally told me agents pick their own cases in a system and are never assigned cases by another person. Maybe that agent has special access? I myself was sent TDY to clean up a large number of really, really bad cases in an area with 4 local agents and those agents were sent TDY to an area known for pr’s. There are reasons people think things.
The cases are not reviewed before they are split between contractor or federal workers. Once they are assigned, they don’t bounce back and forth except for rare instances, unless a company drops from the contract - then we have to clear off or clean up the cases.
I do remember my USIS days very well and turned down two chances to go Federal before 8/14. Keypoint, now Perspecta, is the reason I halved my pay and went federal. The team and the supervisors make everything in this career field.
BTW, if you jump from contractor to federal, you have to start as a GG7, step 1. No one knows how the new pay system works except we don’t have annual step raises or automatic grade increases anymore.
How can they not offer step increases? I can understand the end to automatic grade increases, which seem to be extremely rare in DoD anymore, but no step increases?
You mean GS, as in General Schedule.
OPM pay chart still shows steps within each grade.
Exactly. Just like Background Investigator said, cases are split between contractor and fed before they even hit the field.
Don’t believe everything you hear.
And yes, under DoD, we are now GG, not GS, we have been removed from the Competitve service.
Some field supervisors allow agents to self assign out of the queue that has been assigned to the local office. Has nothing to do with cases being split between contractors and feds.
They DO? I’m sure they take the most obviously complicated cases. The complicated cases are the ones with several issues in case someone asks. Not the tidy periodic reviews. Boy, I wish I could pick my cases out. My numbers would be AMAZING!
That privilege is saved for senior agents who are trusted not to abuse it.
It’s not a free for all.
DCSA falls under a different pay plan than NBIB/OPM (general service). The steps disappeared into pay bands. Like my contractor days, any pay raise (other than general pay raise) comes from a “shared pool”.
The unassigned lists are cases assigned to DCSA from the general case pool. I can ask for a case for an area I am going to visit, but I can’t assign a case.
Sounds like sour grapes to me. Your “friends” didn’t bring you over to the fed side? No wants to vouch for you?
Not surprising as you already admitted to your lack of integrity and work ethic.
My reply was “flagged” by someone in the “community”. Just can’t take can they.
Yours wasn’t the only one.
Oh well.
I’m not sure what was flagged but I’ve watched this thread and wondered if this dirty laundry should be aired in a forum for those seeking clearances . . .
Hello all, I want to correct some of the information posted above regarding the DoD DCSA pay schedule. Yes, we are under the pay banding system; however, our pay as GG employees is identical to GS. We receive our step increase and grade promotions exactly the same as GS as long as the employee is rated fully successful. Grade progression is as follows: 7, 9, 11, 12.
As far as operational differences between contractors and Feds, well let me just say, I don’t work like a contractor and will not apologize for it! Contract companies are in the business to make money plain and simple.
Your honesty and cutting through the crap is appreciated.
I was told otherwise about the Step increases. I will find out next month as I am/was due for my next step increase.
If only it were so easy! There still hasn’t been a single investigator position announced since DCSA was formed, at least from what I’ve seen fromchecking USAjobs daily.