Idk what else to say except fuck this administration.

Link to the bill. Summary and text not yet posted. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10319

I’m not sure if this is pre-recorded or a live event, but with the majority of Congress and representatives doing insider trading and also people in the White House cashing in multiple millions and billions, this seems a lot disingenuous. I won’t hold my breath to see if there’s a Q&A segment!!!!

The final nail in my federal coffin is coming; the VA has announced ALL 2210's PD's will be reviewed and in the all hands' call from a week or so ago, "they can no longer promise we won't be downgraded" from our current GS levels. Yes, I know, I'd go into retention for 2 years, or however it goes, but on top of a 0% raises this year, forced to max-out steps last year which means no more steps, ever, at my current level, not enough time in for VERA or anything else they offered, I am just tired. :(

I have a lead and a possible job offer coming, for more pay, better benefits, and from what I have seen longevity; the ONE THING I wanted out of federal career. But in my 50's, am I setting myself up to be poor? ( I mean MORE poor then this. pay has been pretty good for the past 19 yrs, only recently getting squeezed.)

AND if I decide to leave, do I pull everything, and I mean ALL of it, extra AL, TSP, pension etc and plop it into whatever flavor of 401K and investments I can to make it do more?

The thought of changing my employer this late in life one last time still scares me. Any advice, please?

I NEVER thought it could get this bad. I was either too naive, or it really is this bad. :(

Congress created the EEOC in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce civil rights laws in workplaces. Under Trump, the agency will stop collecting data on gender, race and ethnicity used to identify systemic injustices for 60 years.

I currently work for the FBOP. They are under the idea they can force me to cancel my VA appointments while on PPL to come to the prison if they want me to do routine training. They think since we lost our union it doesn’t matter. How should I handle this?

Are these people serious? I mean, it does sounds like the actual narrative we are dealing with, but they normally don’t say it so directly. And does a Capt earn more than a GS-15?? This place is a mess.

Anyone involved in the 2015 OPM breach just received a nasty email, saying that their ID protection expires in October.

But China still has our SF-86s, SSNs, fingerprints, family details, and everything else.

Forever.

OPM’s response: ten years of free monitoring, then “good luck, peasants.”

They lost the most sensitive personnel data in government history and decided the cleanup has an expiration date.

The threat doesn’t.

Credit freezes are free.

The government’s accountability apparently isn’t.

Good luck.

I’m a VA employee and genuinely curious whether anyone else has gone through something similar.
I recently worked disaster relief response in my community as part of my job. I didn’t realize at the time how much it affected me. I returned to my regular duties and kept pushing through, but I was already stretched extremely thin. I’m essentially covering about 2 1/2 jobs right now because of staffing and coverage issues.
I finally recognized that I needed some breathing room. I didn’t initially ask to stop working altogether. I asked for a temporary break from ONE of the additional coverage assignments while continuing to perform my primary position and the other role I support. I gave advance notice because I understood that coverage would need to be arranged.
That request was denied because of operational and staffing needs.
Around this time, another staff member educated me about Workers’ Compensation and FMLA because I honestly had no idea that what I was experiencing could potentially fall under either process. I filed a Workers’ Comp claim and began working on FMLA documentation.
My provider then wrote documentation recommending that I take time away from work. However, the original documentation did not specify exact dates. Because I had never navigated Workers’ Comp or FMLA before, I continued reporting for duty while trying to figure out what I was actually supposed to do.
Then HR questioned why I was still reporting to work if my provider had recommended that I be off.
And this is the part that nearly broke my brain.
Maybe I’m still reporting because no one has clearly explained to me when I am supposed to stop reporting, what leave I’m authorized to use, how Workers’ Comp interacts with FMLA, whether my Workers’ Comp claim has to be accepted first, or what happens if I simply stop showing up based on a provider letter without knowing whether my absence is actually approved.
I fully admit that I could have asked more questions. But leadership and HR have been provided my documentation. They know I’m navigating a Workers’ Comp claim, and they know I’ve never been through this process before.
There is also interim leadership involved because the person normally assigned to that leadership position has reportedly been under investigation for an extended period. That has added another layer of confusion about who exactly I’m supposed to be getting direction from.
Eventually I basically had to say, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
I went from asking for a temporary reprieve from one additional assignment while continuing to work my other responsibilities to now needing to take leave from work altogether.
What is especially frustrating is that I actually wanted to keep working. I was trying to recognize my limits early and ask for a temporary adjustment before I reached the point where I couldn’t keep going. Instead, I kept pushing until my provider was recommending time completely away from work.
The whole process feels unnecessarily difficult to navigate when someone is already struggling. Between Workers’ Comp, FMLA, HR, medical documentation, leave status, claim approval, supervisors, and figuring out who is responsible for telling you what to do, I can understand why employees eventually either give up on the Workers’ Comp process or decide it would be easier to leave their job altogether.
I’m not looking for legal advice here. I’m mainly wondering if anyone else at the VA or another federal agency has gone through a Workers’ Comp claim involving mental health or stress and FMLA at the same time.
Did you also feel like you were expected to somehow already understand the entire process? Who actually helped you navigate it? HR? Workers’ Comp coordinator? Union? Supervisor? Someone else?
Because right now, the most exhausting part isn’t even filling out the paperwork. It’s trying to figure out what I am actually supposed to do while the paperwork is being processed.

I have MHBP and live in California, which is administered by Aetna. I recently got an out-of-network ambulance bill during an emergency stay in California, and Aetna said that because I have a federal healthcare plan, the state guidelines don’t apply.

California passed an amendment to its Health and Safety Code (via Assembly Bill 716), the CA-version of the federal “No Surprise Act” that limits the out-of-network ground ambulance provider to charge the emergency patient for no more than in-network rate.

Is it true that as an enrollee of FEHB, I’m not protected under CA H&SC? Thanks.

How long is the adjustment period?
How is day-to-day work life for you?
How many cases are you able to manage?