No One Really Understands How Vets’ Preference Works in Federal Hiring

In my 30 plus years of pursuing government employment as a veteran, I have found that it only helps those who don't need it. In the early 90's, as an officer who had recently been involuntarily separated under RIF, I pursued multiple state and federal positions, taking civil service exams and claiming veteran status. However, not once was I interviewed or hired for any position.

This process has been the same over the past 20 years, despite claims by the state and federal government of a 'veteran preference.' What I have learned over the years through personal experience and personal relationships is that DoD, VA and many other state and federal agencies promote 'veteran preference' yet prefer not to hire veterans. Worse, these agencies are routinely identified as violators of the USERRA protections Reserve Component employees are supposed to enjoy. In informal discussions, I have been informed that when given a choice between a female minority with children and a qualified disabled female minority veteran, the veteran will get passed over. The logic is that the veteran has retention protections during force reduction. So, hiring managers and federal unions avoid veterans to protect their own career path.

The US Post Office is an outlier in this regard because it is a private-government organization. Plus, military carriers tend to perform consistently better than non-veterans. But, pension issues persist for this agency. As I approach retirement/pension, I accept that I will never be a federal employee, despite my experience in military healthcare delivery and planning.

COL Mikel J. Burroughs COL (Join to see) Maj Marty Hogan I have sooooooooo much to say about this subject! But, here are three stories! Three and perhaps 100s that follow the same pattern. People ready willing able to engage and to be retrained to take on a greater service roll, but were not given the time of day by the VA!

So, let me share three quick stories about how two willing mental health specialist and a veteran couple were treated by the Veterans Administration that said they needed help.

Story 1: About 10-years ago I met a former US Navy Psych-Tech. Her husband was a teacher and they had two children. To take better care of her children she left the Navy after 12-years of honorable service and two tours in Iraq. My grandson and her son attended the same grade school and the boys played chess in the same after school club I had volunteered to run. My wife, also a Navy veteran, often took our grandson to their home so the boys could play together. Once, I asked her how things were going in her post Navy life. I could tell she was distressed. She said, “You know I have the skills and experience as a military trained psych-tech and I have a degree in social work and have tried to get on with the VA so I can help vets, but it is impossible.” At the time she was working in a nursing home as a “nursing aid” despite applying for every potential social work / counselor position she could locate on USAJOBS with the VA. She had been trying for about 7-years and finally gave up and obtained employment below her skill and experience level just to help make ends meet.

Story 2: A couple of years ago I was chatting with a friend. The gentleman is a social worker / mental health counselor at a Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). He is also prior service US Army. Thinking about what I learned in Story 1, I asked a simple question: “So, how long did it take you to get on with the VA?” To my shock he said , “It took me four-years from the time I applied to the time I was hired and onboarded.” I said, “Four Years – Really!?!?!” So, that begs the question: How can any company, especially the VA, take four years to publish a need on USAJOBS and then finally hire someone, in this case a mental health professional, four years later when the need is immediate?
 
Story 3: Two US Navy Hospital Corpsman wanted to give back to their fellow veterans. Iin the mid-90’s when they retired from the US Navy the couple was in their mid-40’s and 50’s respectively. The female veteran was even an LPN. They both tried for nearly 15 years to get on with the VA. At one point the retired Navy couple lived in Greenville, NC. As an LPN this female veteran wanted to work at the new veteran’s clinic that was opening soon. She asked about applying for a position at the new clinic. The obviously non-veteran female she spoke to told her “Well, we are contractors and we don’t hire veterans anyway.” When she returned home to her husband and fellow Navy retiree, she was steamed. Her father was career Navy. He was a Chief on submariners that served in both WWII in the Pacific on submarines and again in Korea, when he was recalled to active duty to push new recruits through boot camp. Her husband’s father was a Holocaust survivor who later immigrated to the USA and served in Korea in the new US Air Force during the Korean War. Her husband’s father became 100% Service-Connected Disabled (SCD). Like him she applied for positions with the VA only to never be called, despite the VA saying they were looking for nurses. She was even 50% SCD. She had also served nearly 3-years at the Navy’s largest Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in Norfolk, Virginia as a medical intake specialist. During his career he helped to save many lives when he was a US Navy Hospital Corpsman, but in his post military career when he wanted to engage with commercial and VA healthcare it seemed they did not think him qualified. These “civilians” had no idea the lives he had quietly saved. So, this honorably retired veteran started to feel like he had failed because both commercial and VA healthcare lacked insight about his experience. It wasn’t, until he became engaged with a purpose bigger than himself that he was able to restore his sense of purpose.

After all, had these four veterans (e.g. 2 females, 2 males; 2 Caucasians, 1 Hispanic, 1 African-American) been hired within 90-days of applying with the VA in the late 1990s and early 2000’s do you think, with additional training, they could have successfully lead peer support groups and at least made an impact on the veteran suicide rate, by being part of a more hands on outreach to veterans in need?

That is all I have to say! Four people with operational healthcare skills, that could have been brought into the VA, been retrained and repurposed to help their fellow vets and were willing to do so. It amazes me how much human talent is wasted as COL (Join to see) said "...So, hiring managers and federal unions (can) avoid veterans to protect their own career path..." The waste of human talent is both morally and ethically wrong!

COL Mikel J. Burroughs thanks for the read, how humbling of an experience when it comes to federal hiring and Veterans Preference. Great importance here!