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Howard Phillips posted:So what are the secrets to helping my dad get SSA disability? Being old. (Literally not even joking, over 55 the allowance rate is far higher because it's considered impractical to re-train for a different job if your disability prevents you from doing your current job). fe: another tidbit that I looked up while I was at a state DDS is that cases that were represented by an attorney both took longer and had lower allowance rates, so, can't say if that's correlation (People who know they have more marginal cases get lawyers) or causation (Lawyers piss off examiners and drag things out to get a larger back dated payday), but don't necessarily head straight for an attorney maybe? I was not an examiner, just a systems database nerd. Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 00:28
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Don’t halfass the paperwork. Be prepared for the interview with the names and dates for every medical provider. Most of the denied claims that should have been approved were due to the claimant basically shrugging their way thru the interview. Sometimes you get a garbage claims taker. They’re supposed to send you a copy of the claim- read it and check for omissions or errors. Answer the drat phone and don’t ignore the mail. Edit- also, don’t get an attorney at the initial or reconsideration level. You’re giving away backpay for them to maybe do a status check or two.
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Jan 19, 2022 00:39
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Yeah, all of that. We also saw people that I guess true to put a good face on what they could do when interviewing or filling out activity of daily living forms. Like. Don't overstate what you can do! That's the reason you're here, is because you can't do stuff, and if you say you can do all (these things), well, you can get a job that requires (these things)
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Jan 19, 2022 00:49
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GD_American posted:I very carefully meant it when pointing out that I’d have never pulled it off somewhere else. Not saying someone else couldn’t. Lol I was at a WSU. It was a strange place, but definitely nice they you don't have to personally meet with the public.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:24
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Loucks posted:I do not believe there is a worse place to work in the federal government than TSA, and that’s all I’m willing to say about it. I think the only good things about the TSA revolved around training at FLETC. And all the good things at FLETC got cancelled because of covid, so. Speaking of, condolences to the USPS who is about to have to deliver millions of free covid tests.
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Jan 19, 2022 21:07
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Thesaurus posted:Lol I was at a WSU. It was a strange place, but definitely nice they you don't have to personally meet with the public. God they make so many issues for us. C34 can just eat a giant Hefty bag of dicks.
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Jan 20, 2022 05:14
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Loucks posted:I do not believe there is a worse place to work in the federal government than TSA, and that’s all I’m willing to say about it. My favorite TSA "How in the gently caress did you get three stripes" moment came from a supervisor who tried to send folks down to a flooded basement to screen bags. Working CTX/Baggage was a trip and a vacation. Not as hellish as checkpoint was. Thank gently caress I'm long gone from there. Now, even in my new position, it's still weird to hear my current supervisor say things like "Your mental health comes first" and "It's your leave, take it."
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Jan 20, 2022 07:20
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Goddamnit https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/01/federal-court-issues-nationwide-pause-bidens-federal-employee-vaccine-mandate/361010/
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Jan 21, 2022 18:57
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It is not a drinking game per se but every time I see a headline "federal judge [objectively makes world worse]" I say to myself "TEXAS!" and am always right
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Jan 21, 2022 19:35
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Lady Bureaucrazy posted:Goddamnit Lame as hell. And always extra maddening to see a judicial opinion in which the author doesn't understand what a "Hobson's choice" means.
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Jan 21, 2022 20:03
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Lady Bureaucrazy posted:Goddamnit  cool coolIt's not just Texas. The courts are just completely hosed. I no longer care about antivaxer deaths and don't give a poo poo if that's a bad look. I've been wearing a drat respirator every time I leave home since mid 2020 and at this rate will never be able to stop. Let 'em choke to death on their own lung fluids for all I care.
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Jan 21, 2022 20:14
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SSA just came to an agreement with their unions. AFGE sold us the gently caress out. gently caress Ralph de Juliis.quote:We anticipate that field offices will restore increased in-person service to the public, without an appointment, in early April. No phased in reentry, full walk-in.
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Jan 21, 2022 21:57
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Yikes.  Guessing you can't just do what I do when I have to go into the office for some unavoidable reason (e.g., equipment issues) and wear a full face respirator with P100 filters both to remain uninfected and also to make all the disease enthusiasts with cloth masks on their chins really uncomfortable.
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Jan 21, 2022 22:04
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That doesn't affect uniformed service rrrrright?
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Jan 21, 2022 23:03
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Loucks posted:
I think the polite term for it is "compassion fatigue" and it gets called "bloodlust" around these parts but either way yeah.
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Jan 22, 2022 03:22
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Midjack posted:I think the polite term for it is "compassion fatigue" and it gets called "bloodlust" around these parts but either way yeah. Sounds right. I don’t want anyone to die but I’m so tired of caring about people determined to do their best to kill themselves short of actually stepping off a bridge. e: really not the thread for it, but seemed reasonable to clarify I’m not actually a corpse enthusiast.
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Jan 22, 2022 03:27
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I understand feeling like there is nothing you can do, and it helps that it is probably true. Only close family and friends can possibly have any hope of convincing a reluctant anti-vaccine person (and nobody can convince the militant ones), and even my token right-wing friends are not of the "I want to die of COVID-19 to own the libs" variety so there is no convincing to do there
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Jan 22, 2022 04:08
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Loucks posted:Sounds right. I don’t want anyone to die but I’m so tired of caring about people determined to do their best to kill themselves short of actually stepping off a bridge. I’m not sure we have a right forum for corpse enthusiasts. 
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Jan 22, 2022 04:34
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GD_American posted:SSA just came to an agreement with their unions. AFGE sold us the gently caress out. gently caress Ralph de Juliis. gently caress. At least you should miss the worst of the omicron surge by April
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Jan 22, 2022 05:38
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GD_American posted:SSA just came to an agreement with their unions. AFGE sold us the gently caress out. gently caress Ralph de Juliis. We got so hosed! I work on the 5th floor and I don't see any funding for a 2nd guard, we have no metal detector and it sounds like the guard alone can't kick people out and that a member of management has to go out in the lobby. I"m really disappointed but should have known something was up when the RO begged the people taking the early out to stay until the next early out. It's the most cryptic MOU I've ever seen in 33 years. Oh but there will be parking subsidies to attract and retain. I"m going to buy parking and then sell it to a coworker for 1/2 price. Oh yeah I have tons of war stories I can share, floods, furloughs, been held hostage (in a building not individually), coworker threatened to kill management and then we found ammo and porn in his desk. Thanks GD for understanding how bad this MOU is. Some of my coworkers don't get it.
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Jan 22, 2022 19:24
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Loucks posted:I do not believe there is a worse place to work in the federal government than TSA, and that’s all I’m willing to say about it. Customer side clerk work with USPS >>>> TSA >>>>>>>>> Feeding mail into the sorters every day with mandatory overtime I say as I drag my rear end to the airport at 4 AM praying life gets better because I can't escape
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Jan 24, 2022 22:26
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Speaking of the living hell that is the United States Postal Service... One of the septuagenarian clerks is finally retiring after being a postal clerk for almost forty years. The PSE senior to me is quitting to go work at an office that's closer to where she lives. She doesn't want to convert to full-time, is old enough to collect social security, and just wants a part-time job (lol). So even if she were to stay, she'd refuse the promotion, get fired and immediately re-hired to kick her to the bottom of the seniority list, and put me on top. My postmaster last week told me totally unprompted and without explicitly saying that a full-time bid was going to be available soon that it is not eligible for transfer. So, I'm promoting to full-time. The clerk that's retiring is riding out another couple of months to get one more cost of living adjustment, which makes way too much sense to do, and I'm going to convert either right before or right after my mandatory break in service in April after the other full-timers finish shuffling around their bids. I turn thirty-five next month and I'm going to have a full-time job for the first time in my life. Which says a lot about how much of a loser I am than I probably realize.
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Jan 24, 2022 22:41
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Star Man posted:Speaking of the living hell that is the United States Postal Service... Congrats on moving to full time. And bro, don't be hard on yourself. We all have our own paths in life. One is not better than the others.
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Jan 24, 2022 23:43
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I was 33 before I had a real job, and it's the one that'll carry me to retirement. Just keep on, man.
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Jan 24, 2022 23:56
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Anyone here have experience with 18F, USDS, Lab@OPM, or PIF? I'm trying to pivot from municipal physical architecture to federal service/CX design and could use some insight into the inner workings.
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Jan 24, 2022 23:56
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I'm 36 and I have to change my underwear after I fart more frequently than I want to admit.
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Jan 24, 2022 23:57
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I'm glad the full time position is finally coming through for you, Star Man!
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Jan 25, 2022 04:18
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Leon Sumbitches posted:Anyone here have experience with 18F, USDS, Lab@OPM, or PIF? I'm trying to pivot from municipal physical architecture to federal service/CX design and could use some insight into the inner workings. I've spent some time adjacent to 18f and used to go to their San Francisco potlucks. It's a pretty fantastic set of people there from my experience, with the caveat that they get unrealistic expectations put on them all the time and that in recent years have lost some folks who did an amazing job insulating them from politicization. They build a lot of very good things though. 18f, from my experience is a bit tough from a hiring perspective in that almost all of the positions are term-limited iirc. They are also self funded via consulting fees and interagency agreements so I've heard that that can sometimes be rough. PIF in my experience is a bit of a weird program. It's short term and the folks in those spots bounce all over the place and are often seem more connected to the political appointee cycles and projects. It"s not explicitly technical in anyway and there's not a uniform structure. The main thing is to try and leverage it because it's not hard to transition/get hired via PIF into a career position. Lab@opm I've had a couple of interactions with and I'm not sure still what to think of them. I think their focus is more training regular government folks on agile/design thinking projects. I don't think they build much themselves, but i could be mistaken.
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Jan 25, 2022 21:01
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I was pulling out the garbage cans last night around 10pm and I bumped into a mail carrier with a headlamp bundled up with like 4 layers. She told me she was just starting our route because so many people were out sick. All y'all mail carriers have my permission to go ahead and lose my mail. It's not worth it.
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Jan 26, 2022 00:22
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I'm in the USPS Discord on Reddit and the situation in a lot of offices is real fuckin dire. Carriers are quitting left and right because the loads have not lightened up since the onset of the pandemic and are taking cuts or entire extra routes to cover for sick carriers or vacant routes.
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Jan 26, 2022 05:19
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At my agency, we have non-GS pay bands. I started near the middle of the 12 and my 13 ladder came with a 6% raise. However, if I apply for and get a 14, I believe I still only get a 6% raise, which puts me at the lowest possible end of the band. Is this the intended effect? Why would anyone go through the trouble of applying against external applicants for a mere 6% promotion? In the private sector, this situation is usually a 10-20% raise and probably 30%+ in my industry. It’s almost like they WANT me to leave.
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Jan 26, 2022 10:01
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Josh Lyman posted:At my agency, we have non-GS pay bands. I started near the middle of the 12 and my 13 ladder came with a 6% raise. However, if I apply for and get a 14, I believe I still only get a 6% raise, which puts me at the lowest possible end of the band. Is this the intended effect? Why would anyone go through the trouble of applying against external applicants for a mere 6% promotion? In the private sector, this situation is usually a 10-20% raise and probably 30%+ in my industry. It’s almost like they WANT me to leave. Typical in these band systems like ACQDEMO etc. In theory, strong performers are supposed to be able to get better than one step raises every year. I left ACQDEMO for GS. I know I'm going to make non-supervisory promotions much faster as an excepted GS than a competitive ACQDEMO.
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Jan 26, 2022 13:22
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Josh Lyman posted:At my agency, we have non-GS pay bands. I started near the middle of the 12 and my 13 ladder came with a 6% raise. However, if I apply for and get a 14, I believe I still only get a 6% raise, which puts me at the lowest possible end of the band. Is this the intended effect? Why would anyone go through the trouble of applying against external applicants for a mere 6% promotion? In the private sector, this situation is usually a 10-20% raise and probably 30%+ in my industry. It’s almost like they WANT me to leave. So leave. If all you're concerned about is money, leave.
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Jan 26, 2022 15:36
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Star Man posted:I'm in the USPS Discord on Reddit and the situation in a lot of offices is real fuckin dire. Carriers are quitting left and right because the loads have not lightened up since the onset of the pandemic and are taking cuts or entire extra routes to cover for sick carriers or vacant routes. Hey, you know anything about the situation with USPS truck drivers? My uncle recently quit OTR trucking and applied for USPS in DC just so he can be home at night.
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Jan 26, 2022 16:55
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El Mero Mero posted:I've spent some time adjacent to 18f and used to go to their San Francisco potlucks. It's a pretty fantastic set of people there from my experience, with the caveat that they get unrealistic expectations put on them all the time and that in recent years have lost some folks who did an amazing job insulating them from politicization. They build a lot of very good things though. Thanks, this is super helpful and adds a lot of info to what I already knew. Are there any other groups/agencies/?? that I might have missed I'm not actually opposed to the idea of a term-limited position if I'm able to work from home or PT in-office in NYC. I'm pragmatically working public service for loan forgiveness reasons, and only have a few more years left, so some gov't experience in a new field would hopefully be a good resume booster. I have an information interview set up with a staff member at Lab@opm, trying to figure out how to best work that into steps towards a job, if you have any insight. I guess, looking back at the last 6 years, I should be expecting the potential for a Republican administration and the attendant shut-down/slow-down/gutting of services. For those who have lived that reality, would you join federal service right now? I've certainly enjoyed the job security of public sector work starting March of 2020, but hate the administrative bullshit that comes at the municipal level with new bosses. I don't know if that's somewhat softened by the scale at the fed. level.
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Jan 26, 2022 17:27
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Endless Mike posted:So leave. If all you're concerned about is money, leave. Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Jan 26, 2022 |
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Jan 26, 2022 17:45
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Delorence Fickle posted:Hey, you know anything about the situation with USPS truck drivers? My uncle recently quit OTR trucking and applied for USPS in DC just so he can be home at night. All I know is that we're in the same union. I don't know poo poo about the other crafts.
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Jan 26, 2022 18:30
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Awwww, it's so sweet to see an employee who hasn't gotten the "but why would they do that?" beaten out of them.
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Jan 26, 2022 23:25
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Josh Lyman posted:It’s more that if I had joined as a 14, I might’ve been able to start in the middle of the band or at least higher than the very bottom. It doesn’t make much sense that someone who’s been with the organization and familiar with the work would be worse off than a new hire, something something attracting and retaining talent. If they hired you as a 12 on a 12/13 posting then presumably you weren’t qualified for the 13. That being the case why would you think that enough experience in the role at 13 to get a promotion to 14 would land you in the middle of the 14 band? “If I had joined at 14” doesn’t make any sense. If you’re qualified for 14 you’re certainly qualified for 13, which you don’t appear to have been. If you want your paycheck to have a bigger number on it go private sector. e: there’s a lot of dumb and pointless stuff in Federal HR, but this complaint just seems silly. Loucks fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Jan 27, 2022 01:04
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Loucks posted:If they hired you as a 12 on a 12/13 posting then presumably you weren’t qualified for the 13. That being the case why would you think that enough experience in the role at 13 to get a promotion to 14 would land you in the middle of the 14 band?
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Jan 27, 2022 05:05
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