“Veterans have fulfilled their duty to this nation and now, we must fulfill our duty to them.”
Working at the Veteran’s Affairs agency is permanently etched into my brain with flames of indelible fire. It was simply the most maddening thing that I had ever done in my life. I remember having to come into the office every day for two months and sit in a crowded mailroom while waiting to be trained to do the job I was hired to do. I was told I could not work, nor pay attention to those that worked, because they did not want me to learn any bad habits. So, I earned four tax funded pay checks for literally coming into the office and playing on my phone for eight hours.
Then the big day came, we were finally going to get our two weeks of training. I was called into my managers office for some sage advice. “Matt, [the trainer] is not the type of person that can accept honest feedback, so just sit there and don’t say anything.” Oh, if only that were possible. It was awful. Poorly planned and even worse in execution, the training was actually detrimental to conducting the job we were supposed to do. The instructor was late to our classes, I believe, a total of three hours the first week alone. At least a quarter of the time she was preparing the classes as we sat there. The real issue came when she asked for our feedback, which I felt obligated to give honestly. Needless to say she was not appreciative.
When we were finally finished with our classes, we were supposed to write up an assessment, also known as an after-action review, on the course and the instructor. The computer program that we used to write up this review only allowed approximate a page of notes, so after I completed writing my notes on the computer, I typed up three pages of unadulterated and honest feedback. It was a very sincere reflection of the complete and total disaster that the training had been. It highlighted the lack of planning and ability of the trainer. It spoke very clearly towards the complete disregard of professionalism and respect that is apparent when your instructor shows up late and ill prepared. It expressed my shock as to the complete lack of oversight from any mangers, especially since the class before us had highlighted the same issues.
After printing it off, I walked into the director of the Indianapolis Veterans Affairs office and handed it to him (essentially the CEO for the Indy VA). Why did I jump to his level? Because not a single one of the four managers between the training department and the director even cared enough to look at the evaluations that we were required to write up. It was simply an exercise to check the block (a military term meaning to go through the motions to validate a requirement without actually accomplishing anything of value).
Thinking back now the entire event was comical. It took the director about two weeks to read and then action anything from my memo but once he did the change was palatable. First, we had the assistant director come and sit down with our section to discuss the problems with training and the mismanagement of the building. See the reason that I sat in a crowded mailroom for two months was because we didn’t have enough seats for our section. In fact, we had approximately one and a half people per desk. What made this infuriating wasn’t simply the lack of foresight in the hiring, it was the fact that the floor above us had over fifty empty desks daily because they had converted to a work from home program. However, even though the desks were empty four days a week (they worked four days from home, and one day from the office), the VA was still required to maintain their own personal workspace.
It was a horrible time for me. I was angry all the time. At one point my manager, who truly did care about the veteran’s we were supposed to be servicing, called me into his office. He knew from where my frustration and anger came. Every day I came in and saw mediocracy in work effort. I saw mistakes that affected pay and benefits of veterans made out of laziness and disregard. Worse yet, I saw managers who were beyond worthless promoted simply because it was easier to promote out of a section than it was to fire them, thus increasing their sphere of chaos.
He told me one of the truest statements about government service I had ever heard. He explained that in the military you could control and mold your sphere of influence and as you increased in rank, so too did the radius of your sphere. That was one of the things I loved most about being an executive officer. Even though my Battalion Commander was in charge, I was the one that molded the battalion into his vision. He told me what he wanted to have done, and I turned it into a reality for him.
In the government, that does not exist in any form. You simply have to learn to accept the fact that it is horribly run by incompetent people who simply don’t care. Once you do that, then you can find some peace.
The day before I quit, I was called into the manager of the training sections office. She waited until that day to call me because she knew my manager was on vacation and figured she would be able to power me into submission. She asked me about the memo I typed and turned into the director and asked why I didn’t come to her first. I told her more than once that she wouldn’t want to hear the answer but she insisted. So I very clearly explained to her that I didn’t come to her because she was the failure and why would I want to waste my time dealing with an incompetent leader who had been clearly promoted far beyond her potential or ability.
At one point she tried to shut me off, but I told her that she didn’t have to like what I said, she didn’t have to agree with what I said, but she wanted me to explain to her why I did what I did so she was going to sit there and listen to me.
After I got done expressing my distaste for her and her managerial abilities I went back to my seat and continued working. After a few hours I finished my day and packed up to go home. I walked by her office and even her boss’s office on the way out the door. When I got home I sat down with my wife and told her I was quitting. I told her about my day and explained that even though I was on probation for my first year, I had just gotten away with telling a senior manager at the VA that she was essentially worthless and still had a job. There was simply no way I could have any respect for her or anyone else there. There were no standards or repercussions. People slept at their desks during the day, managers completely failed in their ability to manage or produce results, and employees could show complete disrespect (whether or not justified) with completely impunity.
President Trump stated, “Veterans have fulfilled their duty to this nation and now, we must fulfill our duty to them.” You are correct Mr. President, and the only way to accomplish this is to gut the VA of the horrid and cancerous leadership that infests it at all levels. Managers should be fearful of losing their jobs if they fail to produce adequate results.
In a bipartisan vote of 365-55 in the House and unanimous approval in the Senate, the congress has finally passed a law that not only increases whistleblower protections, but allows for substandard managers to be fired. With this law, maybe we can start actually fulfilling Presidents Lincoln’s promise to the veterans of the United States.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
