@fedagent. I completely agree with you in a lot if what you say buti have come across numerous lazy OPM agents in my time doing this job, and I think to myself how valuable to OPM I would be if they would just hire me. My due diligence has single handedly led to counter intelligence investigations and I ask pertinent questions, open ended, and I pay strong attention to detail. You should see if you can put in a word for me, haha, I am cleared at the level of TS clearance with SCI and a CI poly for a certain contract, anyone know of if either CACI or Keypoint can utilize me being cleared to that level?
fedagent, I somewhat agree with luckyisyou1, I have not been impressed with the OPM agent that has conducted my last two PR’s and have heard many similar stories from others about the OPM agents that did theirs as well. How their ESI interviews were rushed through and not anywhere near as thorough as the nit-picky demands that have been placed on us!
Is a pretty unfair disparity when you all enjoy better pay, better benefits, better job security, creds that afford you better “respect” and (by what I have heard multiple times) doing only about half the amount of work that’s slaved out of us contractors with no decent compensation in return!
Anytime I see an OPM agent conveniently speaking against contractors in response to news articles or on forums like this, I about want to hurl, because the higher-than-thou claims from your co-workers could not be further from the truth!
Yeah, the contractors (especially USIS) may have a bad track record, but us lowly INV’s can’t help what our management is doing. I’ve been honored to work with some of the most professional people I’ve ever met, who took their jobs very seriously, regardless of how much of a mockery our management has made of it! Some real salt-of-the-earth people who really did want to make a difference for our national security and have not gotten near the recognition/compensation they should for it!
I take my job very seriously. While I value and respect your opinion, I do not need a lecture. I am sorry if my posting led you to believe that I didn’t care. And you addressed my very thoughts later on in your response.
I meant what I said about “investigators” and I will stand by that. I do not say that because of a lack of character, integrity or effort on behalf of OPM/USIS/CACI or KPG investigators. I can assure you that I have gone above and beyond the call of duty when conducting investigations as have the majority of my colleagues.
My comments regarding Snowden and Alexis were not intended to discredit investigators such as yourself or other Special Agents or contractors, but was instead intended to fend off our critics who think that a background investigation, such as a PPR or SSBI-PR will or should automatically result in the determination that an individual is a threat to our national security. Perhaps it was a poor choice of words on my part. My point about “investigators” was very simple; the government simply is afraid that we will offend someone during an interview. I have seen it time and time again. What are your choices when you have no doubt that a Subject or Source is being untruthful? My definition of “confronting” someone differs greatly from that of OPM. And admittedly, it was a major adjustment I had to make while transitioning to this job.
I would like to compliment you on your response. It was extremely well written and very much to the point. But the fact that you are a former DEA Agent doesn’t necessarily impress me. I worked with hundreds of DEA/FBI Agents from coast to coast. Most were good investigators but many were not. I find it amusing that you consider what we do to be equal to the duties of a a homicide investigator for example. While we should put forth the same effort, they are two totally different worlds. Perhaps some of us are posting out of frustration and emotions.
In closing, I agree with you 100% that if you are a checklist investigator then you are doing everyone a disservice. OPM is a giant bureaucracy and with that comes often frustrating and ridiculous guidelines. But, it is what it is. We are not law enforcement officers so I suppose I should not hold us to that standard. Thanks again for your response and I hope everyone reads it.
fedagent,
I wanted to take a moment to apologize to you. It was not my intention to be so sarcastic. That’s really not who I am. I do admire your service with DEA. For about 15 years I spent more time with DEA agents than I did my own family. I admire the fact that you were willing to give that up for your family. Those of us who currently work for USIS are under tremendous pressure. I for one feel that I am on a sinking ship. We do not enjoy the same job security that you do. And rightly so as you are a Special Agent and we are not.
In some ways I wish this forum was not anonymous. You and I probably have a lot in common and have probably shared a lot of the same experiences in our previous jobs. I could probably learn a lot from someone like you. I feel that we never stop learning and when someone reaches the point where they feel they have nothing else to learn, well then, it’s probably time for them to move on. If there is someway we could link up personally and privately, such as email or phone I would very much like to talk with you sometime. Again, I apologize if anything I said in my post was offensive. That was not my intent. Take care, stay safe and God Bless.
I think a few of you may have missed the intent behind my previous message.
Did I ever say that the fed agents are better at their jobs than the contractors? Absolutely not. There are great, mediocre and poor feds just as there are great, mediocre, and poor contractors. Some of my closest friends (and a few of the best investigators I know) are contractors. I have had discussions on this nature with these friends and they all share the same viewpoint at me. I am not talking down to or preaching towards anyone. I am just trying to remind everyone that what we do is important and that despite the roadblocks that this job often times places in front of us, you are in control of your investigations and you don’t need to simply paint by numbers.
Yes. The feds are better compensated than the contractors who do the same job. And yes, we do get shown more respect (despite the best efforts of many feds to urge cooperation across the board). That is not something I have control over and will not apologize for. However, I don’t think how much one is being paid has anything to do with my arguments. If you have an issue with your level of compensation then that is a discussion you need to have with your employer.
Finally, I am not clear what one of you was trying to imply by saying that the contractors do twice as much work. If you meant as a whole then yes, that is correct. The contractors far outnumbers the feds and therefore get a larger percentage of the work. If you are talking about production when it comes to fed agent vs a contractor then I think that is a completely false statement. I have seen the statistics from both sides of the house and the productivity levels are relatively comparabale. The differences come from the fact that quality is our greatest concern on the fed side of the house while quantity is what is usually most important to the contractor leadership. Understand that I am not faulting any contractor investigators for this. The push for quantity over quality was the primary reason I left USIS to join the feds about 9 years ago. This is just one of the inherent problems with using a fee for service structure when it comes to national security. But that is a conversation for another day.
My respect to you all for the tough times you are going through right now. I am hopeful that in the end, this program and those of us that support it will be better off in the long run.
Good point fedagent. I personally have never taken the time to compare myself to a federal agent. For the most part, all of us, federal and contractor do the best job we can. Some are better than others. In my AO we don’t interact very often.
My concern with contractors has always been our national security being driven by profits. Perhaps that is where the problems began with USIS and our senior leadership. Profits should NEVER determine performance, sadly though that is exactly what happens.
As far as the cyber attack, who knows. Communication from USIS senior management has been virtually nonexistent since we were placed on furlough a month ago. Why was USIS hacked but not CACI, MSM, Metroplex, KPGS? Perhaps it was because of the amount of work completed by USIS. Perhaps it was because our IT system was vulnerable. I do not foresee USIS ever recovering from this. If they do, they only be a shell of what the were before. Too many experienced investigators are jumping ship. I sincerely hope they do recover because overall they have been good to me. Having said that, I am one of those jumping ship. Hopefully I will have made the right decision.
Luckyisyou
In order to prevent this thread from being shut down, this will be my final post. Apparently you are a very immature and ignorant person who is unable to see the bigger picture.
I am not the one who brought up about receiving more respect. It was another poster. I was simply replying to this. However, it is true. I have seen it from both sides.
And yes, I chose to leave the DEA because I cared more about being a good husband and father than I did about making a few more dollars. That is something I take great pride in. And not that I really need to justify myself or my decisions to you, but that move paid off greatly. The amount of money that I received for my USIS employee stock when the company went private allowed me to pay for my house and my children’s college education in cash. And now that I am back with the government I have my pension back.
You have a good day LuckyisYou and continue to be miserable in your job…I love what I do 
Good luck all…especially if this guy happens to be your co-worker.
First of all the computer breach is not a problem isolated to USIS. It is a rapidly escalating nationwide problem. OPM was hacked, many major companies, stores and banks have been hacked …Apple, for God’s sake was hacked. I know the technology must exist to stop it and suspect the core problem is too much profit going into CEO pockets instead of back into the company . This is also the root of compensation inadeqacies. As the economy rebounds salaries remain stagnant except for top layer. Secondly individuals are not being held accountable. Why are former execs of USIS who mandated misdeeds allowed to happily sail off into the sunset ? Why do other companies hire them? I have enjoyed my career at USIS and am very depressed over this situation. I also think they are being crucified as scapegoats.
Sorry to see you go Fedagent. I completely understand the points you were making. I was a part of the ESOP as well and when USIS went private I made a decent amount of money. I did use it for a few things and still have some left in a rainy day fund. I know many others who were able to do a lot with the money they got from the ESOP. I think when USIS went private is when the the downturn happened with the company. I too was in a federal law enforcement position prior to joining USIS back in 2002. I left that position to join USIS just like you left the DEA, so I could be with my family more and so they would not worry about me every time I went to work. USIS got too stressful for me so I moved on to Security Management.
In the 11 years I was with USIS I met and worked with great USIS investigators and crappy ones. I met with great OPM agents and crappy ones. I met and interviewed great federal law enforcement agents from various three letter agencies and I met and interviewed ones I felt probably should not be in the position they were in. There are good and bad employees in the government sector and good and bad employees in the private sector. It is just the way it is.
One last thing, I hope I am not attacked on here for expressing my opinion.
Why is it that OPM was hacked yet they returned to work very quickly, but usis is hacked and we are going on 5 weeks now with no news. That right there should be telling there is more to this we are not being told .
Well said formerinv. Some seem intent on launching personal attacks. I too am bowing out of the forum. For those of you who are still USIS employees, I wish you the best. I hope things work out for you. I harbor no ill feelings towards fedagent just because he works on the federal side of the house. I think that our frustrations are boiling over at this point. Each of us will have to make a decision that we feel is best for us. None of us can predict the future. Again, I wish you all the best.
I am sorry to see you go too Fedagent and wish others could take their bitterness elsewhere,
OK gang - lets try to get back on track.
Don’t know how many out there have gotten offers by CACI or KGS but in my area they are making offers that vary greatly. Some low paid USIS Associate Invs are getting offers for maybe $3k a year more while high paid Sr Inv with lousy stats are getting matching offers but told their work area maybe 2 hrs away into a major metro area that USIS would never send them to. Some Investigators are only being offered $4k less a year by CACI or matching by KGS. Looks like both have realized that they have plenty of candidates as this stop work order lingers.
One of my concerns - what kind of work is CACI and KGS assigning compared to the work that USIS was assigned by OPM? Is seems that USIS got the bulk of SSBI, SSBI-PR, PPR and SPINS while CACI & KGS got the BI & MBI work. Does anyone know if CACI & KGS get the SSBI etc work. These would greatly impact the potential of better stats for bonus/promotions.
I know it’s a very stressful time in many of your lives right now. I know it’s easy to become extremely cynical about the industry and about the future. However, as we stated in the forum rules, personal attacks will not be tolerated. We have made some modifications to the offending parties access and will continue to monitor. Honestly, I’d rather not have to do this. As always, feel free to point out any issues or suggestions. Thanks. - Eric
Thanks for following up Eric.
New press release:
Good to see a response and attempt to clear up the confusion/slander/fabrications/lies/recruiting bait
Not sure what region you guys from USIS work in but I was told by my TL today that the SES Region has lost a total of 40 Investigators. Thats a quarter of the total investigators that were assigned to the region. I wonder what the national headcount is?
However with that “press release”, still no end in sight for the stop work order. That press release comes off desperate. I’m sure OPM is not very happy about that.