Terminating investigators due to lack of productivity

If you move from FTE to contractor you will have less work-production stress. But here’s the catch. KGS no longer allows contractors to pick their own work, it’s assigned to them. And a lot of it can and is crap work. And they will harrass you unmercifully about ACD’s and RZ’s, even when you told them ahead of time you were taking off a few days/week. The only thing you control is the amount of work given, but they will sneak work onto you (even when taking off a few days) and they will never remove from your workload. So it’s like being a full-time employee without any benefits and for less pay.

I think maybe the thing to do is look into the other companies (ISN or SCIS).

RZzzz, just talked to a contractor friend of mine a week ago that confirmed everything you just said.

I don’t think what RZzzz said is entirely accurate. I’m not one to defend a contractor really ever but if any contractor is getting assigned work automatically (which I admit KGS has done to all contractors) than it is incumbent on the contractor to tell KGS to take the work away if they don’t want the work. It is a violation and breach of the independent contractor agreement for the contractor to work cases without his approval. A contractor is under no obligation to take cases from KGS. You are right that KGS will try to sneak you cases without your approval, however, they will remove these from your workload if you request to have these cases removed. They try to throw out big policies like 4 week average workloads, etc., but if they assign work without your approval of this four week average workload, then they are in breach of their contract and a simple…“No Thank You”…“I won’t be participating in this assignment strategy” is all that should be needed. If you get any pushback form a contractor liaison or a logistics analyst, then go up and above to the Deputy Program Manager of KGS or the National Independent Contractor Director of Keypoint and voice your concern.

The problem is that Independent Contractors are allowing KGS to assign cases without any push back. Shame on the contractors for allowing this to happen. The more this happens and contractors stay quiet and don’t say anything than KGS has all the power and they continue to play their dirty tactics. I don’t know why contractors whom do work for KGS allow KGS to take advantage of them. All you have to do is tell your liaison that you are not going to accept routine and automatic assignments if you don’t want them. They simply have to take those cases back. As much as they may want to treat all contractors like full-time employees, it’s up to the contractor to push back and not allow them to play games.

It’s obviously to early to tell if CSRA/ISN or SCIS are going to play these games. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do down the road and into the future. It’s simply the games that every OPM contractor plays. They try to test the waters and push the limits. They do this though intimidation and bully tactics.

I’ll give you my suggestion on what to do if you really want to become an independent contractor…diversify yourself. Don’t put your eggs all in one basket with KGS. Get on with other contracts at Omnisec/Omniplex, MSM Security Service, ADC LTD, and any other contracts that are non-OPM related so you are not totally reliant upon OPM work. Depending upon where your area is located, there is a lot of other work out there that is non-OPM related work.

So in summary, don’t allow yourself to be played by any OPM contractor. Stand up for yourself or get out of the profession. Don’t EVER work over 40 hours or give away free hours to meet stats if you are a F/T employee. That’s absurd. Be firm in your communications with your managers on what can be reasonably expected in a 40 hour work week. If you still get nowhere after that, move away from full-time employment and become a contractor and take ownership of your work/life balance.

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This is what KGS is doing, and continues to do. This is how they make themselves money, and money for the Government. Just about every FI I’ve talked to at KSG has dealt with the integrity dept. and they are not your friends. The end result is usually termination and/or prosecution, or some type of civil action, in which you will pay a lot of money back to the company. It may sound funny, but if you plan to work there and can afford it, put a lawyer on retainer. If you are contacted by the Integrity dept. they have already investigated the issue and have done field work on it, and will let you hang yourself, you have no protection. Reviewers are not your friends, and you are re-open and sent back for more personal things, nothing related to any regulations or standards. Just to be fair, some of them will actually work with you. Most people I talked to that were contacted were stand up investigators and did things by the book, they went above and beyond, it doesn’t matter how hard you work. When they re-contact someone the story will always change, always, some people don’t remember conversations from two days ago. If you are going to work for KSG watch your back and be careful. If you are terminated from KSG they will report this on your security file, yeah they mark you and make you unemployable by any other contracting companies or the Government, it’s an honesty issue on your file forever. Again, if contacted by this department be prepared to lawyer up, record and write down everything, and follow the paper trail on whatever the issue is. Trust me, if they have one issue, they are already investigating your other cases looking for anything to take you down.

From what I understand you can still pull your own work at KGS, but it’s garbage cases. And yeah, they will sneak cases in on you.

RZzzz, you are absolutely correct, as I can personally vouch.

For all the investigators, would you say that you have great ability to influence a favorable adjudication result for the subject/employee, by the way you write your individual reports? And after you submit your paperwork, do you have the ability to see further updates on the subject’s background process, or are your hands wiped clean after that, and you just typically move on?

Thanks for all your hard work.

It boils down to all information collected. The quality control is such that all pertinent information available is reported.

We observe and report for our portion of the case, then we move on.

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Maybe there is some clause for VETO which you may be able to implement in this scenario or an official senior to him you can approach.

Investigator’s have nothing to do with adjudication.

After traveling over 100 miles to get a college transcript(worth basically nothing), I got a nasty gram from AI for writing down the name displayed next the record clerk who provided it to me. Unfortunately ‘Angelica’ (name displayed & reported) had taken a lunch break and ‘Marcia’ was filling in when I obtained the record. AI wanted a written explanation and assurance that I would never EVER do something like this again. Seriously?! I drove out to HELL to get an unofficial transcript that I could have gotten by fax (efficiency? what backlog?), my report was fine/accurate & they even verified that I was, IN FACT, physically PRESENT OUT THERE IN HELL. Nevertheless, I get slapped for providing the name of the paper pusher AKA Marcia who tossed me the transcript instead of Angelica who usually occupies the window??? Terrible. Ridiculous & Terrible. And yes, AI is a whole department in and of itself whose daily mission is to find dirt on investigators and create a file of ‘misdeeds’ sufficient enough to justify firing you whenever they see fit.

Sounds like a terrible place to work. You should seek out other employment.

I already resigned - It doesn’t matter how carefully and honestly I handle myself. If they’re looking for issues all the time, they will find them. My motivations, work ethic and integrity won’t matter a lick. It’s too risky to work where I’m not trusted to do my job.
As an aside, my first assignment in the field was a TESI- The Subject had traveled to over 30 countries in the last 5 years, had foreign contacts out the ying yang and he owned a house in Italy. To boot, he was a guest lecturer for several foreign universities and companies where he promoted his books & sold hundreds of copies. I had only shadowed another investigator for 5 days and had no prior BI experience before I was turned loose on this case. Doesn’t matter how smart I think I am or how much time and effort I spent on this; I simply could not have handled it as carefully & as thoroughly as a seasoned investigator with an eye for issues. Despite my best efforts, I’m sure I made mistakes. And if I did screw something up, in the end no one will care how much or little training I had. The blame will be placed squarely on me. . .
Not to mention I never got paid/there was no proper offset for windshield time. I was told that if I drive 4 hours, I should only put 2 when filling out my timecard. Too many things…