The Vendors will say how important you are so you will stay and stay credentialed and ready for cases all the while you are not being paid. They encourage you to seek a part time job until things straighten up but when you do get a few random cases they will shove timeliness and quality down your throat and fully expect you to drop the part time job, which is your lifeline, to complete these few cases and then it’s back to nothing. Every other week for the all call, it’s the same thing, “ 2020 is bright but it’s going to be a few months”. That is repeated every other week since September. The Vendors need you only because you are current and ready to work, that is all! When you reach the point where you can’t keep waiting and find another job, they drop you like the plague and don’t even have the courtesy to say “Thanks! We understand.” ISN, CACI, Perspecta, SCIS care NOTHING about YOU, just your badge number and their ability to count you in their books. START LOOKING FOR THAT NEW JOB! DCSA is going to shock the industry when all the Vendor prime contracts come due later this year. Don’t be fooled or you’ll be looking for a job in October regardless…
Or any other . . . I have about 35 years in IT and I have seen the same thing over and over there as well. “The company is doing great!” . . . “We have no plans to sell!” . . . “We just sold the company to a competitor but all of you will be fine!” . . . “We really sorry but your position is overstaffed because of the acquisition and we have to let you go . . .”
Sounds about right Ed.
In Northern Texas, there is very little to no work for Contract and “full time” employee investigators eg; Perspecta, CACI and the other contractors. There is one to two items for alternate or other contracts (not DCSA). Reading the DCSA website shows that they are implementing a continuous process at the end of January 2020, meaning only when there is “an issue” will an investigation be done. Looks like investigators that do not work directly for DCSA (federal investigators) will not be getting any work. I had steady work until January 2020.
Yep…the classic NBIB overworking cases in the past. Now the ones who actually PAY for these investigations are questioning the reason why they are paying for an Investigator to visit their office and conduct a TWO HOUR interview (Re-Investigation T5R )(including Sources) and question why the Subject did not list a home phone…when they don’t have a home phone, or why they did not list prior investigations from the 1990s, or what County they were married in…or how they can attend an online college while working full time… Then do full issue resolution on a $16 parking ticket from 4 years ago that Subject listed on the form or a verbal counseling for being 5 min late 6 years ago. Most of these re-investigations are a total waste of time. If there were problems with an employee, the the Sources interviewed would have already notified their Security Office. Unfortunately, someone finally figure this out and now we are out of work.
While the Directors of the contract and the CEOs are still paid a salary; a salary that WE were able to provide them, Investigators are laid off or required to take paid (if you have the time left) or unpaid leave. Again, I wonder if TOP leadership (I am not talking about the TLs) I am talking about the overabundance of every director in every department AND the CEO had to take unpaid leave?
DSCA does not care about the Contractors/Investigators who are NOT federal employees. They know how the companies treat their investigators through the years: unrealistic expectations, unrealistic metrics; multiple T5’s with multiple items with only a couple of weeks to complete with 1 or more hours of drive time each way, 3 hour Subject interviews with 4 hours to type a report which is mostly filled with non adjudicative information due to the fact that the Subject’s don’t know what to list or what not to list, forgetting to list residence, education and employments, listing tickets that are not required to be listed or financial accounts not required to be listed (on the SF85 that we need to confront anyway). Not changing ACDs even if missing the deadline is beyond your control, but you have to answer for it later. It’s an abusive environment. Your TL asking you 3 days in a row about why your cases are late on the same case she has been asking about for 3 days straight, having to provide the same reason 3 days in a row. Although some investigators do not have work in some areas, some areas are overworked “still”. I don’t mean to be callous (for those who don’t have work), I am talking about the passed as well. My advice to all is to broaden your skills, take a few classes (in IT), get certifications and get out of this blood sucking industry. Yes, we all got pigeon-holed into this job because we hate the go to the office jobs from 9 to 6, stuck at a cubicle, I get it. But all of the companies that employee us are blood sucking, suck the life right out of you. TLs are nothing but baby-sitters as they have no autonomy do make many decisions. They have to follow the guidance. Don’t get me wrong, I am not disgruntled, I am just stating facts and I am sure most investigators will agree with what I am saying. It’s not the job that is the issue, the job itself is important. It’s the companies we have all worked for through the years that are abusive due to the fact that they enter into unrealistic contracts with the fed gov and expect us to work miracles and get a priority T5 case completed in 1 week. Rushing cases is not in the best interest of National Security, it is only a matter of time someone will slip through the cracks because your company doesn’t want you to wait that extra day for a Source for sake of “metrics”. This industry should NEVER have been handled by the private sector in the first place, for CEOs and shareholders it’s about PROFIT-Profit and National Security do NOT go together. My idea was that DCSA should appoint Contractor Liaison’s that deal with the Contract investigators directly. DCSA pays the Contractors a fee and we answer directly to DCSA. DCSA/fed gov would save millions and would still get quality investigations from all of us that work extremely hard!
Excellent analysis, truly on point!
I heard a rumor about cutting out the middle man (contract company management) and having Investigators deal directly with DCSA but nothing has come of it.
HI RB22, I heard the same thing not too long ago. I believe that will be more cost effective for DCSA (which in retrospect, American tax dollars).
IC in San Antonio near 3 bases. Of 3 other ICs I spoke to last month m, 2 hanging on w no work and third out of field. I have no work here in 4 months
Over the last few years at the companies I’m a 10-99 with, have had us field investigators do more of what the management used to do, ie: assign out additional leads. This used to be done by the managers. So I see how they have less to do which might mean they are on the way out and field investigators will be doing all that next. Who knows.
Many companies (not in BI’s) no longer have immediate supervisors but instead have 1-800 numbers for employees to call if they need anything. People in the field DO NOT need Field Managers. Stats are computer generated and can be discussed by someone at a call center who can also terminate an employee. OH WAIT, never mind, we do need Field Managers to have telecom twice a month, to pick up equipment from employees who leave the company, and to approve vacation time that belongs to the employee after they give you a lecture. If you’re a Field Manager don’t waste your time replying about how much you do…you’re not fooling anyone. Yea good use of money there.
If you’re referring to all TLs for W-2 BIs, and not purely on the IC side, then this is a laughably ignorant response, but you’ve made it clear that you don’t care about hearing any viewpoints that don’t align with your narrative, so I’ll spare us both the time.
If someone can get ahold of the task order, we would know for certain. It has to be listed on what used to be: FedBizOps/FBO, but that changed to Sam.Gov and I don’t have access anymore. At one time, someone correct me if I’m wrong, these BI contracts were an IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity) which basically means forever. My spidie senses tells me though, that the contracts are still valid (which they have to be or there would have been notice and creds confiscated) but, the rules of the game changed to requiring less field work and that’s been trickling down to us in the field for some time.
Fortunately or unfortunately depends on how you see it we really don’t need a TL. RB22 is right. Some companies have their TLs covering many states. They don’t assign work. Some companies do have more TLs. They approve timesheets and make themselves relevant by sending constant emails about stats and to work harder. In this workforce reduction era they WILL become less relevant. Timesheets, work assignments, questions about cases are handled by a Help Desk and can all be done in a central location. If a company needs babysitters it is becoming a high price to pay.
There is a huge space in between the positions of “all field managers are useless” and “in certain situations field managers are useless.”
The former is demonstrably false and warrants no further discussion; the latter, I’ll be the first to agree with.
How their role will evolve with workforce reductions is not for me to say and frankly I don’t care as I’ve left the industry.
But the fact remains that a major subset of the BI workforce NEEDS babysitting. Hopefully they’re the first to go with the reductions so that the competent, seasoned BIs can stay employed.
The problem is the work from home set up. There’s no accountability like there is going to a dedicated office each and everyday. It’s much easier to abuse a work from home setup than a dedicated office; especially one with feds and contractors in the same building. You badge in, you badge out. No question about attendance.
I disagree, it’s easy to see when someone is online or not online. Just because you’re physically in an office doesn’t necessarily mean that you are working. Most people are more productive at home than in an office, especially when results are expected.
The BI babysitter consists of computer generated stats monitored on a weekly basis which can be done by anyone with a computer. Someone on the other side of the country can instantly tell who is and isn’t working with one mouse click.