DoE Q Clearance Questions

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I received a job offer that involves significant relocation. My job is contingent on getting and maintaining a Q clearance. The process starts after I accept and start working there. I have no moral issues, no drug usage (ever), no mental health problems, no foreign involvement (I have worked with foreigners in a professional setting over the years, but nothing personal), no financial problems (only a mortgage and good credit score), and plenty of good references over the years.

Smaller questions I have:

  1. Does DoE use SF86 for the clearance process? I figure they do, as a standard form, but can’t seem to find a clear answer on this. Most advice is either CIA, FBI, or military clearances related.
  2. Will there be a polygraph test involved? I’ve seen if for the likes of CIA, FBI, etc. Has anyone had to do this for a DoE laboratory? I’ve heard these can get very rough and harsh.
  3. There’s a psychological evaluation involved. I looked at SF86, I can say no to all the questions about being declared mentally compromised by a court. I have no issues in this area.
  4. How long does a Q clearance usually take to be granted these days? I’m seeing 6-12 months for TS clearances, the closest equivalent.

OK, brace yourself…

That said and asked, my biggest concern is a former employer. I resigned there just over 2 years ago (June 2024). I worked there 5.5 years total. My last 6 months there were a nightmare. After 5 good years (including 5 years of good performance reviews), trouble started, and not by me. The funding was drying up; the company relied on getting lots of small business research contracts. I and all the engineers had access to the project budgets for our research groups and salary information for when we had to make budget estimates in proposals. It was clear we were running out of funds for the staff we had. The prior 3 years, other engineers had left and not been replaced, suggesting a long-term slow decline. Other projects and a major piece of equipment were basically scrapped, exacerbating the problem. I also had an expensive medical crisis in the family in Nov. 2023, which I suspect may have contributed to what followed. A small business can suffer a lot if one employee has a very high health insurance claim. Can’t prove this, but it makes me wonder.

Jan-Feb. 2024, it became clearer my coworkers and manager were becoming more cold and hostile. March 1, 2024, I get called into my managers office and many “findings” thrown in my face as “poor performance.” I knew it was a sham show trial from the start and started looking for other jobs immediately. I especially knew since I was reassigned to a project utterly outside my background of what I was hired to do. They never said money was tight, but I could tell this was a setup. I was put on a PIP in May, citing poor communication (after 5 years of no problems and numerous, clearly-written proposals) and not understanding after “repeated explanation” (lie; they withheld information). I resigned early June 2024, so they can’t say I was fired.

Everything I read here and elsewhere says total honesty is key. I know I have to put this in my employment history, where I have to respond about being written up. I assume investigators will go through my old companies personnel files on me. I don’t have a photo or proof of my signed resignation letter. They ought to have it, and there’s no notice of termination because I left on good terms. I worked out my 2 weeks notice, I was not cut off immediately, I was not ushered out the door, and I was trusted enough to work alone. I have screenshots of emails with absolutely no confidential information, from 2 of my tormentors (1 of which was my manager) wishing me well on my future endeavors, for which I thanked them. I remained professional to the very end.

My questions regarding this tale of woe (if you read this far, thank you):

  1. What do I do if my former employer lies? The one-man HR dept. confirmed on my last day they only give names, dates of employment, and title. Anyone contacted inside the organization forwards all things back to him. Still, I can’t be sure I’ll get a fair hearing.
  2. My former manager has long since moved on to another role. I have a cell number, and I can’t be sure that’s accurate anymore. I have no email. What should I put in those fields?
  3. For that matter, I highly expect he’ll badmouth me. He’s the only really horrible manager I’ve ever had. I know PIPs and performance problems are not a problem for adjudication, but will that get back to my manager?
  4. What proof should I bring in case he lies? How can I prove my side? I don’t have access to my evidence, and it’d be proprietary even if I did.
  5. I left because of the toxicity, but also because the work had hit a dead end. All of those can be true at once. I’ve used the latter reason during the job interviews, never going into the drama. Will putting this on the pre-background check form cause problems? I filled this out prior to getting the offer, before I knew the clearance process.
  6. How do I pare down the above? I had to give context, but I have to be brief on the form, especially since renewals will look at this initial form. I have to get the story very accurate but not overshare or overcomplicate things. Would just keeping the lines to “funding was drying up, I was stagnating skills-wise, it was time to move on” fly with a BI?
  7. Is it worth getting a lawyer to help navigate this quagmire?

This whole process has me on edge. Waiting 6-12 months for something so critical to my livelihood and providing for my family is already a torment. Should I be worried?

2

Can you keep your questions under 300 characters? Holy Moses!

3

I will try to answer your questions:

  1. You should have saved your resignation letter. This way in the event that your former employer lies about you, you have documentation showing that you voluntarily resigned.

  2. Put HR’s number on the form. It is okay if you do not know your supervisor’s information, as long as you make a honest attempt to provide them accurate information, you should be fine.

  3. You cannot control what someone else says about you.

  4. You should have your resignation letter and your previous outstanding performance reviews, if you have them

  5. For the section explaining why you left, put something generic such as “I found another job.” You do not and should not go into details of all the problems you had at this employment.

  6. See point 5

  7. You do not need a lawyer for this step. Lawyers are useful for LOI’s and SOR’s

If this is your only issue, I would say you have a good chance of getting a Q clearance, especially if you can prove that you voluntarily quit from your past employers

4

List the employment as required. Stay away from the comments section on the SF86. The comments usually make things more confusing and often contradict the entries. You will have an interview with an investigator where you will have the opportunity to explain all of this and get it on the record. Also during this interview, you should also provide the cell phone number you have for the supervisor, explaining that you do not know if it is still valid. If no employees are able to talk about you due to HR policy, that isn’t on you. This happens on some occasions. You don’t need proof of your resignation. In most cases, documents are not collected. Information from your investigation will not get back to your manager. They are not permitted to get the details of your investigation. Lawyer is not needed.

Again, all this is best explained during you interview. The investigator will be able to ask the right questions, and also obtain mitigating information. Please do not try to explain all of this in the comments section.

5

Good advice on keeping resignation letter. I am having my resignations accused of being fired. The adjudicators are not acting in good faith. Unfortunately, i dont have the resignation letters to prove i resigned rather than was fired. The problem also is that in the HR world, the word terminated means the same thing. It just meas that you no longer work there. So the only way to prove is with that letter. I learned the hard way that the agency security ppl are not your friends and will use your honesty against you.

6

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I feel a good deal better, although the risk is still not zero.

I do have the resignation letter on my computer, so the text will match. HR saying fired when I resigned is a set up for a defamation claim, they could not produce e a notice of termination but they’d have to produce the resignation letter, in case things came to a lawsuit. I think they’re too lawsuit-adverse to risk that.

I agree about bad faith adjudicators and investigations. That’s a roll of the dice, some are probably fair, others are not. Still, a long pattern of good behavior has to count for something.

7

You can still do something about it. Get into contact with HR at your previous employers. Emails from HR affirming you voluntarily resigned should be good enough. If it was federal employment, then your SF50 showing why you left is also viable proof. If you can get those, then those are acceptable proof that you quit instead of got fired

8

I did but all they show is “terminated” and a word, i forget what it was, that meant they wanted to keep me and that i am rehireable. It’s almost like these HR dept want as little info as possible.

9

HR departments tend to do that in order to avoid a lawsuit. If you are rehireable, that strongly points to that you voluntarily quit. Did you get a SF50?

10

Yup Agreed. This was for contracting jobs so no SF50