Has anyone heard any rumor from KGS today that all of the background investigations are going federal now and contractors will be no longer used?
Evidently the CEO of Keypoint sent out an email to all the F/T’ers that OPM is not using contractors anymore and will go federal only.
Anybody have any insights into this or that is a F/T employee with KGS?
I meant to say at the end of the prior message…anyone at KGS that is a full time employee get this email about the use of OPM no longer using contractors or know what this is about?
I didn’t hear this, but I’m not a FTE. I did hear something pertinent to this a couple of weeks ago. A high-placed source in the OPM-FIS told me, off-handedly, that there is a rumor that the federal side will be taking on a lot of the work and will take back “ALL of the work for a while”. Don’t know what this means.
But if what you say is true, Joe Hackett, why was there the charade of bidding for the new contract? And if this is true, why have they not ramped up the federal side hiring before doing this?? I haven’t seen open hiring for any fed investigator jobs on USAJobs. The only way the federal side could do all of the work is if they streamline the process to an extreme degree and they prescribe Modafinil for the federal investigators. The best of info here about future changes comes from Fed Investigator and we didn’t hear anything from him. May he’s too busy trying to complete all of his assigned work?
Just the opposite. I was told the email was sent to dispel the rumors that OPM is not going to use contractors. It went on to mention the RFP and that OPM will award the contract to 4 companies.
If the job is going totally Federal, it will take years to hire & train the thousands of FI and reviewers needed unless they offer the jobs to the current employees of KGS & CACI.
The Feds are definitely beefing up their hiring but I don’t think there is any intention of pulling all the work back. Or at least I haven’t heard any rumors of that sort.
They have been posting tons of positions online but from what I can tell their geared toward current feds.
Thanks for the vote of confidence dcinv!
I’ve not heard anything about going fed only. In fact, the opposite. We have been told that the contractor side will be beefing up, along with the federal side and that all new hire cases, contractor and fed are to be prioritized for completion.
There are several current federal openings throughout the country but only open to vets and former feds. There may be upcoming direct hiring authority, which means will be open to all, so keep an eye on it.
And yes, my work load is ridiculous right now, it’s like the transition all over again.
After we are all burned out, management will be talking about ‘work-life balance’ all over again, circa 2007.
Is it me, or does this job seems to be getting more tedious? It seems like I spend most of my time confronting Subjects over minor discrepancies which resulted from him/her being sloppy in filling out prior SF86s. Or pages of discrepancies from the military record or prior investigations which require tedious resolution.
“You guys don’t have record of this stuff? I was supposed to list all my military locations with the Guard? I can get you a copy of my record for all of this information.”
“No, that won’t be necessary, it’s much more fun when you just give me quesstimate dates and locations and I later spend hours in a report trying to make a sensible timeline of this information. And it gives the reviewers the excitement of finding minor conflicting bits of information which allows me to recontact you later to get further ballpark estimates and vague recollections.”
No dcinv, it’s not you.
Very, very tedious. It’s nuts.
Fed Investigator, how in God’s name can they expect to bring in a bunch of new people, bring them up to speed, and set them loose doing this work. I’ve been doing this work a long time and still I spend a lot of wasted time trying to make real-world square pegs fit into OPM case requirement round holes. When I started this job it was much easier but still there was a steep learning curve and lots of stress. Now it is insanely bureaucratic and orders of magnitude more tedious. I really do wonder who could take this job and last 6 months. For those of us having done it for so long we’re like the proverbial frog in boiling water.
The contract could use a mini review staff to confirm the paperwork at least made sense before releasing it to the field. I know individual security offices are supposed to be responsible for this (hahahaha). If the paperwork was found to be incorrect (overlapping dates, different states at the same time, missing required information) it shouldn’t be processed. It should be rejected and sent back for corrections. Honestly I think it would save a ton of money and time in the long run.
No idea dcinv, now add the new flag requirements to the entire mess and it becomes almost laughable.
Thanks for all the responses. The rumor I heard was untrue from another Keypoint contractor that heard it from a F/T Keypoint employee. My apologies…these rumors just seem to swirl all the time in this industry.
Apparently, the rumor was created because the CEO of Keypoint was refuting in an email to employees what a Senator said that OPM will not be using or should not be using contractors to do this background work in the future. Apparently, the stupid F/T investigator didn’t read the email thoroughly and indicated that OPM would not be using Keypoint to do the work in the future.
Lesson learned…don’t put any truth in these rumors until they can be confirmed and substantiated.
The rhetoric coming from OPM is that contractors will play an integral role in this work moving forward to NBIB and into the future.
I think the atmosphere at KGS may have led the F/T to misread the email and assume the worst. Everyone is stressed to the max with overwork, no raises and the continual moving of the goalposts regarding bonus metrics. Who knows where the rumor started but it looks like the CEO’s email was misconstrued and backfired generating even more anxiety.
They’re pushing production more than I’ve ever seen and that’s on the fed side. I can’t imagine what is being pushed onto the contractors.
What a shame.
@Fed Investigator
Private side is dump, dump, and DUMP more work. Shorten deadlines. Be subtle and yet keep an atmosphere of fear of termination. We’ve all seen hard-working investigators bite the dust. It’s management by chairman Mao. Shoot ten and teach a thousand. Those on the private side who’ve lasted for at 2 years are the kind of people who work their ass off and think being fired is worse than death. So, you’ve got a choice. You can either do the best job possible and feel good about yourself and face the firing squad with a clear conscience, or you can do it the way your contractor expects and never face the firing squad. You can’t do both.
At least the federal side has legit overtime. The private side has 20 hours OT each week w/o compensation (unless you consider not being fired as compensation).
There needs to be real change at the ground level, the field level. I wish someone in a position of power would listen to William Henderson’s excellent suggestions.
I stopped taking the overtime because of all the additional scrutiny you’re under if you work it. The money would be nice but in the current environmemt, I would rather just work and not be on the radar.
Love this post! Yes, I wish I was on federal side now.