Chances for passing e-qip for USMMA contract - 1 misconduct

Hey there,

Im currently in the middle of completing the E-QIP process for a contracted position at the USMMA - environmental stuff. I have no idea what level of security it will be for so i dont know how much scrutiny there will be or if its just a formality. (let me know if the security level would make a difference and what level you think it might be)

So i have 1 case of being let go for misconduct in the last 5 years from the most recent position i held. I had a supervisor that didint like me and basically they instituted new cost cutting measured which infringed upon hiring agreements and things we were guaranteed upon hiring. They were asking us to report less hours on the timesheet when we were clearly entitled to do so, this was due ultimately due to mismanagement of the budget by this supervisor - but thats another story. So this was obviously a point of dismay for myself and my team that was conducting the day to day work on this project. Most of which were younger and not comfortable with asking question/challenging anything. I chose to advocate for myself and my team and sent an email asking for a further explanation on why this was happening and that to my knowledge we were clearly entitled to account for these hours associated with the work we were performing. Keep in mind this was a team working 55+ to 65 hours consistently for a year straight.

A week went by and i never received any response from the supervisor whatsoever. The week after was a “work from home week” which we rotated to every 3rd week and youre responsible for filling your own hours. Luckily i had a lot of Osha related and other training to get done to renew certifications for which kept me busy. Mid week i had scheduled a very important DMV appoint where i needed to get my title transferred (time sensitive) and let the project manager know i was stepping out for 1-2 hrs on that day to get it done and that i would work later to make up the lost time. He checked to make sure nothing urgent needed to be done and gave me the okay. At the end of the day prior i missed an email from my office manager who wanted to me to come into the office on that same day to speak with me. Keep in mind absolutely everything we do at this company is schedules via calendars on teams and outlook so there are always multiple points of notification/reminders. He did not schedule anything of the sort and i did not see this email until after my DMV appointment. I immediately send him an email and a teams message explaining everything - why i didnt come in. I never received any response on these. The next day i messaged the supervisor i hadnt heard about from the initial email asking for further explanation for my team and i about something un related via teams- and she got back to me saying didnt you hear- im not your supervisor anymore- its now this other person. So i was assuming thats what the meeting was about. I took this as a good thing since the supervisor was always mean and condescending for no reason towards me.

Friday comes around and the office manager gives me a call and briefly asked why i wasnt there to see him. I explained everything i already sent in my message/email and he brushes it off quickly. Then states that he things we need to part ways and after talking to some people he stated i was late on a number of occasions and one instance where i wasnt where i should have been on a particular day on site (the work truck had a slow leak in one tire so i was offsite filling the tire so the truck wasnt flat on the floor and scheduling maintenance at a shop) - he quickly said “look i dont want to argue” and that it was final. The odd part was that the issue with timeliness was brought up a few months back and was since addressed and corrected. (i even took on the project managers role in the morning meeting when they were late on a few occasions within my last month of employment, so the reasoning really didint make sense to me.

Anyway i only found out the put down “misconduct” as the reasoning after trying to apply for unemployment…

Given the circumstances i wanted to get some advise and feedback as to what you think my chances are on getting through this process. Its definitely not for secret level security clearance or anything like that. I also wanted to know if there is always a poly test for this process and do you think id be subject to one.

Thanks in advance