I hope this is in the correct section.
I have had issues with a particular agency that wants me to sit to be fully cleared to work with them. They won’t accept my crossover from anyone else in the IC, even at the SCI level. I’m fine with that, but my program manager said he was told that I “pissed off” someone at that agency by failing to show for a scheduled polygraph. As you can guess, I have a few issues with this:
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I have never failed to show for anything. Period. Ever. Doesn’t matter what it is.
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My PM has no legal right to know anything about my clearance. This is supposed to be privileged information known only to the customer and my corporate or program FSO’s.
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My PM has no right or permission to tell anyone on the project this.
I was let go from the company on 2/28 because it would take 12-14 months for the customer to clear me from ground one. Topping it all off, my last agency had started a BI on me that was still ongoing even after I was debriefed to take my last job. Now I’m screwed because of the BI and it’s taking forever for me to start a job.
Do I have any legal recourse with my former company for allowing this rumor to spread and for my PM to be spreading it? Are there clearance-specific lawyers out there? Thanks.
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Are you employed in an At-Will state like VA?
Yes, but the question isn’t about my dismissal, it’s about the PM allowing the rumor mill to flourish surrounding my clearance.
He shouldn’t be privy to that information to begin with, much less passing it along to whomever.
So just get a regular lawyer. You dont need a clearance lawyer to deal with the this situation, it has nothing to do with a clearance.
Understood, thanks. I wasn’t sure if it would be better to have someone who understood clearance issues and what individuals were permitted to know what details.
The PM will be privy to that info. Now, I have had Poly get confused and say we are waiting for this guy to come back and take a second poly…but nobody reached out to the guy. Could be your situation and the poly team scheduled one, said you were a no show so they could close out your file. I’ve seen that at least 3 times. But working closely with the client I was able to rectify the situation. In one case they kept saying the person to be Poly’d was TDY. No, he was unwitting and needed to wait for a TDY Poly team to return for a poly. If the PM felt you were qualified and wanted you, but they could not cross you over and the CSO was told “he was a no show,” that info will go to the PM. The PM is charged with putting qualified butts in the seat. So if you are a no go for whatever reason…they need move on to the next available person.
@velcroTech Wouldn’t it be preferred to go with an employment attorney? Now that I ask this–maybe not–because employment attorneys are usually narrowly focused on “right to work” or “discrimination”, but this situation falls outside that scope.
Maybe. But I dont think there is any reason to consult a clearance attorney.
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There are personal reasons the PM didn’t want to retain me. He was a bully, used his size to bully people and I didn’t take that well. The government client liked me, wanted me and actually did offer to clear me from stage 1, but it would have taken too long for the company. Like I said, I’m not arguing my dismissal. My argument is him spreading my clearance information to anyone on the program with a pair of ears. I’ve heard this progressively more from former coworkers of mine. If he’s privy, so be it, but he still doesn’t have the permission to spread that kind of information. It wasn’t even accurate information.
I signed no layoff agreement with them and wasn’t given severance of any kind, continuing to work up until my last day knowing it was merely a matter of time.
Update to this groundhog thread
The customer is still clearing me (independent of another BI I have ongoing) and the former employer is still sponsoring me at their instruction, even though they have no actual job for me.