Disposable Rant (Nicely) Room

INVESTIGATORS
281

I agree with double 07. Im extremely frustrated. Ive been talking with CACI since early August. My start date keeps getting pushed out for reasons unknown. Im starting to wonder if I should move on to something else.

On a different note, I was so happy when I thought I was getting away from the pretentious coworkers I had at USIS. Looks like that’s not the case. Some of these TLs SUCK and dont know how to manage anything. I really don’t want to work for USIS all over again just in a different setting.

Can someone please give us some REAL answers?

282

@truthseeker

 

thanks for the breakdown, it reinforces even more why I think keypoint was the way to go. I had no idea about the level 4 or 5 investigator at Caci, as I was told I was being offered a level 3 position and that was the highest and they could not go higher than 27.00 an hour. 7 WTpd or 8 WTpd seems unreasonable,

283

 

@ANDYBUTLER

 

Come on dude! Saying caci only interested in hiring high performance team members? Most of us at this Thread not born yesterday.

Let us all be honest. CACI will hire any, and i mean any, FI WITH a pulse and OPM creds. Past performance is secondary, bordering on non-factor. And then caci hiring any TL from usis, as long as geography aligned. So plz dont talk about all these high-performance teams. Ur dreaming.

USIS hoodwinked most of us for years, so please don’t start now. It is much too early in the game.

284

@andybutler: I am sure you are a very well meaning individual. However, please don’t insult our intelligence or your own by stating you are hiring any high performance team leaders from USIS. Sir, there were only 2 groups of employees at USIS that ever performed or produced anything and that was the investigators and reviewers. Sure there were some TL’s who were nice people but nothing they did improved morale or stats or affected the company’s bottom line. Heck, half of them had their investigators conducting their team’s check rides. And while we were furloughed, they were busy conducting applicant interviews. Ha. Very productive and honest pool of candidates you have there. If you are hiring USIS TL’s let me be the first (or hundredth) to tell you that you got a lemon. And thank you for reinforcing my decision to join Keypoint.

(Whoever posted about Sterling Phillips getting recruited, thank you for the LOL)

285

I wholeheartedly agree with bringingthegame. Very well put!

286

USIS had both good and bad TL’s, but I think a good majority were pretty poor and were a complete waste of company resources. They should’ve been in the field earning a real “keep” like was suggested before. The rah-rah-rah cheerleader B.S. was mostly a daily bain of existence on most of the good INV’s I’ve known. INV’s would have been more productive at USIS if the company hadn’t gotten in the way of itself when it instituted the TL position to begin with! Micro management accomplished nothing. Many of the ones I saw promoted were never respected by their former co-workers, so why in the world would they have ever made a good manager of anything?

@CACI - if you think you’re getting such a bargain with poaching USIS TL’s, you’re making a big mistake! Many were the biggest cheats and con artists, whose only talent was tricking management into thinking they were a lot better than they really were! If anyone should have been investigated for real integrity and falsifying concerns, TL’s are the perfect candidates! No really good workers I knew ever took such a person seriously, and this is the trophy of “motivation” you want to trumpet before us? We’re investigators, we can sniff out a fake a mile away! LOL!

TL’s going to CACI without proper vetting to prove themselves, is the only justification I need, to know that KGS was the right decision! I’ve known a lot of good INV’s in the past that USIS allowed to be ran off because of terrible TL’s and the good majority of them went to KGS and are still there! I think KGS has benefitted because of this and got the truly good talent USIS had to offer over the years! I just hope it is not taken for granted, as I already know one poor soul that has been through a “demotion” and it crushed them! Now tell me, does anybody really think the average person responds well to such an insult to their human decency? If you’re going to be that strict, you might as well fire them, because you’re certainly not helping productivity when fostering long remembered, demotivating, bitterness, because of such a short-sighted and misguided action! Takes a long time to build trust and seconds to destroy it!

287

@investigator123

“I’ve never had problems with due dates, can manage my workload and I was a top performer at USIS for several years. Oh, and I did it on an honest 40 by working smart, not letting myself get distracted, and zoning my work. I also know the handbook inside and out. Some people just can’t figure it out…”

Sounds like you’re the model contract investigator. So, in this business the ideal thing is to zone your Sources, knock them out, and thoroughly know and follow the handbook? And one wonders how the DoD commission reviewing the security clearance investigation process could ever say the contractor side has reduced it to “investigation by checklist”?

288

@toby

Sounds like you’re the model angry Investigator who needs to get out of the industry all together. I do this job as OPM expects me to do it. When they change the way something is done I follow. That’s what you’re suppose to do. If you don’t like rules and regulations or the way OPM wants stuff done, once again, maybe you should leave the industry.

 

I don’t ignore issues, sources that are needed, and I haven’t seen a checklist in years. I just do this job. It’s not that hard if you just use your time right. I don’t try to do 40 hours worth of work in 20 hours just because I work from home and that’s what keeps me happy in this industry.

289

 

@ANDYBUTLER

 

I simply love your phrase, “high-performance” teams and TL. CACI is not just accepting any old schmuck for these high powered teams, rather a select few. And you are a CACI manager, so you are in the know, right?

WRONG! CACI recently hired existing TL from west TX. OMG. Enlighten me, please. Is this person an example of CACI’s hiring strategy? Good luck to all who are on this team. But wait, CACI sends tl through their own high performance training. Oh my.

Let’s just cut the b.s. CACI hiring anyone with creds and a faint pulse, as already stated. And u know it, Andybutler. There were no tl metrics at USIS, so how can you know caci hired the best and brightest? Just all lipstick on pig.

 

290

@investigstor123 and toby

 

No need to argue, folks. Keep it civil, please. Otherwise i am reporting you two to andybutler, caci manager. And you know what that entails, right? Both of you will be sent to high-performance training at CACI’s leadership academy.

And if that is ineffective, i’m telling ceo sterling phillips on you. And that may result in a spanking or a reduction in your severence package from USIS or both.

Both of you have been warned. Now go play nice.

291

starting to regret accepting offer from CACI after reading these last posts.

 

TL from my region, apparently, has been “recruited” as well

 

time to put that masters degree to use again, make sure time sheets are being submitted

 

once again, so sad. Talking to my TL is like talking to Siri from the iPhone, half the time it just doesn’t make sense

292

@cold-hard-truth

 

Thank you for literally the best laugh I’ve had since August 6th.

 

@toby

 

I apologize. I got heated earlier. I guess the threats of no bonuses, heavy workload, and short ACD’s is upsetting when I’ve had no paycheck for 2 months. Nothing’s worse than not knowing when you’re going back to work or if you are. Maybe seeing my Spouse have that same worry everyday was worse, but I guarantee it’s worse than crappy bonuses and short due dates.

293

@investigator123

No, you’re right, that’s how OPM wants it done. That’s the way the company wants it done. So that’s the way it’s done. That’s the way I do it. I get good stats, high performance ratings, and gosh darn it, management likes me. I just wanted to give a more realistic assessment of the company and/or the job.

294

 

 

At some point, after we alk 100% back to work, i hoping this thread can evolve into a “memory lane for usus” type thing.

For example, remember that nationwide telecon with ceo sharon rowlands when she stated most fi with high leave balances were treating their earned leave like a personal retirement account? She said in the UK employees are encouraged to use their leave, as we should be doing. WTF?

 

I GUESS she was right. PTO was eventually stolen from us, except for RD AND TL, of course. They were allowed to exhaust their PTO. Naive me was wondering why my local TL was suddenly taking 4-day weekends for weeks! Boy that was a good one–hoodwinked again! He kept it a guarded

secret, not alerting team so we would not follow suit.

 

 

295

@investigator123 @9:47am

Agreed. As the old saying goes, “I complained about my shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”

Heck, and even at its worst this job is better than 95% of all other jobs I see. Sometimes I leave job locations thinking, “So, if I had busted my butt, gotten a 3.85 in CS/EE from a good school, worked at nights to get my MSCE, I could’ve ended up like this cubicle STEM rat working 80 hours a week?!” No, I have no complaints about my job, thank you very much.

296

 

 

***** WELL WELL WELL So What’s the Moral of the Story… Mr Eric Hess and all the CACI people out there might want to take some notes…

 

Treat your employees with respect.

Don’t take away their paid time off/vacations,especially since they earned it!

Don’t make them pay a ridiculous amount of money for health insurance.

Don’t DEMOTE your employees (put yourself in our shoes could you realistically get all that work done in 40 hours).

Compensate people for their hard work.

Don’t add unnecessary stress and pressure on people that are just simply trying to do their job.

Give people enough time to conduct a thorough investigation. 3 to 5 days is not enough time to anything done…3 to 5 weeks is more like it…

Don’t set unrealistic due dates/expectations.

Don’t be so number driven because at the end of the day we are conducting investigations for National Security not to meet quotas…

REMEMBER that every investigation is different and CANNOT be measured on the same level…

 

WORDS FROM FEDERAL OPM AGENT…

Feds TPD have no impact on their annual evaluations. Although the SACs still track the metric to make sure that the agents are staying productive, it is not a critical element for evals.

Instead, a larger emphasis is placed on the quality rating, % of ACDs met and overall professionalism. The SACs have a lot of say in the final rating given.

It was recognized a long time ago that TPD and MOC are misleading and unreliable stats to compare agent with because of the innate differences in the different geographic areas.

Basically, how can you hold an agent in Crystal City, VA to the same standards that you would an agent working rural Kansas…

So why do Contractors doing the same exact job have different expectations/quotas to meet???

Please some answer that question for me. This theory above that came from a Federal Agent should be used all across the board… We as contractor should not have unrealistic metric and be threatened with demotions… We ALL have bills to pay and families to feed… Taking away someones salary is NOT the answer…

So Mr. Hess, Keypoint, Caci and whoever else is still in the game please do us all a favor and change the way that stats are measured…

Working off the clock is a big NO NO so why do you set unrealistic stats??

 

KEYPOINT and CACI please do not make the same mistakes as USIS. Remember that your investigators are the most important part of your business… One of the main reasons USIS came crashing done was because all of their employees were not happy and treated like Dirt… Don’t make the same mistakes… Read all of these posts and improve your weaknesses… Remember the root of a success is happy employees.

 

If anyone else has something to add please do…

 

I have been reading all of these posts and it’s amazing how people are looking out for each other… I have been an Investigator for over 8 years and take pride in what I do… Thank you to all that have contributed…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

297

@toby

 

Couldn’t agree with you more about the 95%. My spouse is an engineer. Fancy degree, small cubicle, boss breathing down his throat non-stop all day every day, long commute, long days, etc. I have a useless 4 year CJ degree from a mediocre university. Yeah, my husbands salary is a little more than mine, but not that much…

Now let’s all go with @cold-hard-truth’s idea and share our “favorite” USIS memories one day soon.

298

I started USIS in 2006 and have lived felt some of the frustrations you have all experienced. My name is Kevin M. Thomas and I left USIS because I wanted to grow in my career and get away from a 10 day ACD - all production push - environment.

I was the first Team Lead in the field with CACI when we started to work with full-time investigators. Was I perfect right from the start and did everything go without any issue of any kind? NO. Everyone and I mean everyone in addition to every company needs time to properly adapt and develop a culture. I can tell you that I have worked very hard with the help of my staff and superiors over the years to continue to strive to do better. Are we perfect? NO. Do SOME people feel frustrated here at CACI? YES. The question you have to ask yourself is, do we admit mistakes and work with our staff to make it a better place to work? YES.

I only ask one thing from each of you and one thing only. Give us a chance to work with the new investigators coming on-board and a chance to learn from them and for them to learn from us as they integrate into our culture.

Give us at least a year before making statements like, “CACI will be USIS 2.0”. That is not fair nor realistic to say at this stage.

I know you are all frustrated but you have to give us a chance before judgement can be made. Can I count on you to give us that time to show you what we can do and keep the conversation civil?

299

CACI must not get it, they keep calling me after I’ve told them no now three times.

300

@deedisdone81

 

Ha Ha! They keep calling me and I already said yes.

USIS left a bitter taste in my mouth about the management within the OPM contract. I don’t expect miracles at my new employer, after all we are still contractors, but hope they can learn from mistakes made in the past. I really like what I do, especially after the last 8 years, but now I find myself doubting a lot of what is being said by both companies. I tried not to use emotions to make my decision, but only time will tell.

As far as all these "rep"s that have joined this forum, please pay attention to those of us that endured the last few years at USIS, and the reasons why some left and others stayed. Don’t repeat those mistakes and maybe be a little more transparent than our old management was. You’re dealing with people that know the business and have valuable opinions.