VA reform at it’s best
The Arizona Republic reports that two of the chiefs at the Phoenix VA hospital that triggered a nationwide investigation into the VA healthcare system will return to work on Monday after 19 months on paid suspension;
Lance Robinson, associate director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, will be assigned as a strategic planner at the VA’s southwest regional office in Gilbert, known as VISN 18, according to spokeswoman Jean Schaefer. Brad Curry, the system’s chief of Health Administration Services, will serve as a health systems specialist.
The two men have been focal points in a controversy over the VA’s perceived failure to hold leaders accountable for mismanagement and misconduct that caused a breakdown in care for veterans in Arizona and nationwide.
[…]
Under questioning from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., [Undersecretary David Shulkin] testified that the VA has been unable to complete internal investigations of the two men because the U.S. Attorney’s Office prevented interviews with key witnesses amid a criminal investigation.
I know that’s been brutal for the pair, being on 19 months paid vacation, and now they have to go back to work. Poor guys.
Thanks to Brown Neck Gaiter for the link, but I’m out. I’m speechless, type-less, I got nuthin’.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Jesus H. Christ.
This is a freaking travesty.
This happens all the time in fed govt.
It is near impossible to fire a fed govt for performance issues.
Bad behavior is how to be fired.
I guess these two VA employees did not behave VERY badly.
Very true. It can be done but the supervisors have to have the balls to write it up in the performance evals instead of giving them sustained superior performance awards. My GO boss got tired of hearing an O6 bitch about a GS. Pulled the GS’s file and it had several SSP’s signed by that very COL.
Evidently the word “manager” or “director” in your title at the VA means your are tenured.
Couldn’t they just put “for life” at the end so the vets know the score?
I had a non-nurse VA employee who told me last year that the only reason he doesn’t retire from the VA is that he can’t afford to right now. His work reflects that mindset. Very poor.
Brown Neck Gaitor…Thank you, you wrote an important term…”tenured”.
It should not apply to any job outside of academia but when it comes to federal and state employees it is all too often the truth.
My wife works for the state. It takes years for a manager with the guts and a director with the balls to support them, writing poor evaluations to go into a person’s file before they can even broach the subject of disciplinary actions. Which is then a multi-step process of first, just forgive and forget the problem, then pleading with the worker to change, then short term paid time off, then short term non paid time off, then a longer suspension with pay, then a longer suspension without pay. Finally an “all hands on deck” meeting, with state HQ Human Resources personnel in attendance to even begin a discussion about termination. At that point it is still merely a discussion only and only to be sure there will be no repercussions from the union, if it is a union worker or if a management employee, any cause for wrongful termination action. It is such a brutal process, that most always and I mean always, they just park the problem child in a place of least ability to further cause damage or morale issues, which is often their main malfunction, being “bad apple” malcontents, and leave them there to retire with full benefits.
In truth it is just like the VA…it sucks and the taxpayers pay for it and the clients suffer for it.
I was a state employee for 10 years, and even though our state employees were not unionized at the time, it took us a year of documentation to fire an employee who was an alcoholic, drunk and drinking on the job, and asleep in his office more often than not. A nice guy who needed help, but a waste of our limited resources. It’s ridiculous.
However, even he didn’t get 19 months paid vacation during that time. Outrageous really.
19-months paid vacation? Nice….. If I had vacation like that, I would spend more time at my local VA Hospital as a volunteer.
Maybe some of these VA executives should spend time in the hospital wards, seeing what I see every weekend. Our paralyzed veterans, our veterans in extended care, our veterans in the VA Hospice, our veterans in Polytrama. It’s pretty heavy stuff for this 63-year-old retired Army MSG to see, but I “suck it up” and do what I can.
YGBFSM!!! So after a 19 month paid vacation, they’re going back to work, probably with a raise. Sons of bitches anyway! And…AND with their service retirement counter intact.
The VA is terrible. Can’t believe veterans such as myself and my brothers are suffering. I went to the VA and they turned me away recently. It’s despicable.
You, a vet? That’s a laugh. Washing out of basic training with an uncharacterized discharge doesn’t make you a vet. If you actually went to the VA (which I doubt), that’s why you were turned away – you don’t qualify.
Where’s that DD214, fefe-forker? Did you send Jonn a copy yet? No? Why the hell not?
Now, go home and get your (fluffy) shine box!
Turned you away? How could that be? I thought you had an all new, updated, hero version of a DD214 to show the world just how much of a badass you really are.
Speaking of that DD214, have you mailed it out yet?
We’re still waiting.
SHUT UP, BUNNY-FART!! You did how many DAYS in Reception Battalion before you PUSSED OUT? You’re SO stupid you even move your lips while watching TV you candyassed bunny butt-sniffing nutsack-ogling WUSS! Now go back to your spot behind The Blue Oyster.
I thought he moved his lips when he came upon a Stop Sign.
The only thing you’re a vet of is taking it up the two-hole at the nearest gay bar, Dickless Cockholster!
BUNNI the offer is still up !!!!!
Dally, I can come to you. I can meet with you and we can a copy of your DD-214 and I post it for you. Also I can get a copy of the rodeos you are going to be in. Joe
You went to the VA for care? I didn’t know that they were into removing small furry creatures from gayboy rump riding rodeo stars rectums…
Rumor has it that you’re auditioning for the cowboy role in the village people
So-called “Veterans” such as you and your brothers are turned away because none of you actually SERVED in the military. Same for walking past a septic tank does not make you a potential member of “Deadliest Catch” simply because you dived in and caught a brown trout.
Our tax dollars at work… It SO obvious that once someone has time in as a Federal Government Employee they can be as incompetent as they want to and still keep their jobs! A 19 month paid vacation, OH THE HORROR!!
Fuck ’em all sideways with asbestos-wrapped concertina wire!
Then you have the two VA officials who pushed people out of their jobs only to take them themselves.
They were initially sent to another area with a “demotion” only to be given the same job elsewhere after an administrative review.
The VA now says they have been demoted for good.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/08/va-execs-finally-demoted-for-scamming-system-but-lawmaker-wants-charges-brought.html
While this travesty applies to the VS, it is also clear that firing any Federal employee is dang near impossible.
That has got to change.
I have only disgust.
I live here in Arizona, and I have a few folks up in Phoenix that have said.. that absolutely nothing has changed. NOTHING !!!!!!!
Amazing isn’t it
“U.S. Attorney’s Office prevented interviews with key witnesses amid a criminal investigation.”
And here is the crux of the problem.
Secretary Bob is a clown. And either he is incompetent or reluctant to push discipline through.
All the while these turds are raking in six-figure salaries (in many cases) while service members with legitimate issues are getting shafted and underrated.
I would not be surprised if salaries and bonuses were tied to lower ratings. And all the while the VA continues to hire attorneys, not MD’s of PhD’s, but attorneys.
Shitbags.
Jonn: May want to change the “it’s” to “its” in the title.
PAID suspension??? WTF?????