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Well...at least some are. I'm having a rough time dealing with a civilian at work and was hoping someone could inflect some insight.
I'm active duty, but we have civilians in our office. They were able to finagle the schedule to where they work half the time for about twice the pay.
The one civilian is pretty cool about it. He just comes in, does his job, goes home and is real quiet about it. No muss, no fuss. Conversely, I have to listen to this other civilian loudly brag about how great his hours are. (that is...when he's not bragging about his VA disability benefits or how great he is at his job) Our caseload is such (as in low) that he'll explode angrily if anything interrupts his Netflix/Joe Rogan sessions. I'm of the mindset that if you're truly a master and really love your job, there's no reason to growl like DMX and scream, "I WORK WITH A BUNCH OF &*(#$& !" when something minuscule was botched that can easily be corrected. I'd like to think this type of behavior would not be tolerated at literally any other duty station in the military. But...I still have to find a way to put up with it for at least two more years, because guess what? As he also reminds me on a daily basis, you practically cannot fire GS civilians.
I joined the military and picked my particular job to help people...but it's pretty evident that the schedule is tantamount...at least where I'm stationed. Putting in for leave is dependent upon our personnel rotation and is more often than not unavailable throughout most of the year without it negatively affecting my co-workers.
What would you do in this situation?
Last edited by Oldhag1; 11-03-2018 at 04:40 AM..
Reason: Language
File a complaint about his behavior with the reporting authority for his position.
When I was on active duty and worked with civilians they all reported to the same Executive Officer (XO) that I did. A simple discussion XO and he/she would have squared the civilians away. I was lucky that our CO/XO looked at civilians as support personnel and the active duty folks were the warfighters. They were treated as such.
File a complaint about his behavior with the reporting authority for his position.
When I was on active duty and worked with civilians they all reported to the same Executive Officer (XO) that I did. A simple discussion XO and he/she would have squared the civilians away. I was lucky that our CO/XO looked at civilians as support personnel and the active duty folks were the warfighters. They were treated as such.
Thanks for your response. That's interesting you say that, because the XO is his direct supervisor. The only catch is, this guy has been through enough XO's that he knows the intricacies of grievances pretty darn well, and is quick to threaten one if anything were to inconvenience HIM.
It'd be great if a sit down would make all the problems go away, but this guy is way too boisterous for that.
I also put in for a transfer request (largely because of this guy) and if anything, it only further solidified the concrete around my feet for staying at this unit for the next couple of years.
Have you tried telling him directly that you don't like his behavior?
I, as well as several higher ups have. He'll adjust his 'tude for a few days (i.e. brag about how "calm" he is. One time he actually asked me, "I bet you wonder how I'm so calm all the time, don't you?") only to revert back to his old ways shortly thereafter.
Well thanks, since I'm a GS.
I was also military and currently work in a mixed environment.
With this new evaluation process in place since April, hopefully his supervisor will use it to improve the air breather's performance. People like that can be aggravating if you let it. Don't. Smile and wave.
Well thanks, since I'm a GS.
I was also military and currently work in a mixed environment.
With this new evaluation process in place since April, hopefully his supervisor will use it to improve the air breather's performance. People like that can be aggravating if you let it. Don't. Smile and wave.
I too am a GS now, retired military now working for a military organization. The new DPMAP is supposed to drain the swamp, so to speak. In practice these programs don't perform as advertised, there is still inflation of evals. I once wrote an honest EPR for a SSgt who was truly a waste of skin, but was admonished by HHQ to re-write it. I did, but it was still a sub-par rating for her and she was not allowed to reenlist.
I worked here with another GS who recently retired; lazy, uninvolved, he had marginalized himself from the crew. Lots of Facebook time on his phone; the Army's Gold Master and IA programs for our desktops is quite good at keeping people from surfing the web in lieu of doing their jobs, at least here. Supervisory documentation may be what caused him to early-retire. That's the key, it takes a lot of documentation and a performance improvement plan (PIP) in effect for an appraisal cycle before personnel actions can be taken. Did I mention documentation? And not just documenting it and putting it in a folder, it's documenting substandard performance and providing written feedback, signed by the individual, before taking action. I have known throughout my military and civilian career commanders, NCOICs and supervisors who didn't adequately document performance shortfalls and ended up looking really bad when they presented it to Personnel. It's up to the supervisor to follow the rules to the letter and be proactive. I suspect that a lot of military personnel in charge of civilians simply say "Well, 15 months and I'm outta here, someone else's problem."
Civilian employees can be fired but it requires proper paperwork and someone dedicated to going through the proper steps to do it. One of the first recommendations when a civilian employee in a military setting needs to be “fixed” is to place someone in their rating chain who is a constant - in other words a fellow GS supervisor who understands civilian emoployment rules. One of the things many less than stellar GS employees count on is the transfer of a military boss that is on to them before they can accumulate enough counseling reports and/or bad ratings.
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