Originally Posted by
erthboundmisfit
I work for the Dept of Veterans Affairs currently, and of all the gov't depts (other than DoD) that you'd think would be supportive, I ran into a middle-manager who suddenly decided that she alone would be deciding when I would be 'released' to perform IDT, deciding how often/how much Reserve work I would do each year, and what constituted 'proof'. As a recruiter, my duty involves quite a bit of alone time- driving, phone work, email, etc., and she tried to tell my commander that he needed to be with me in order to sign off on my duty.
One issue was that we started off by trying to play 'nice', not fully realizing how malicious she was going to get. Every piece of information we provided was twisted around and used against me (though ineffective).
USERRA was pretty useless. Their quote, "Does she listen to you? 'Cause she's not listening to me."
Though I couldn't get her to put the guidance in an email (believe me, I asked repeatedly), she did repeat it in front of our Union rep and to others in the section. Grievance was settled by mortified higher-ups with an apology.
The law is like a car's drivetrain- it matters most when the rubber meets the road.
I had a similar occurrence during the early stages on my NG career.
A crew scheduler called my supervisor stating "orders" were required for me to get removed from any trips conflicting with drill weekends. I was a flight attendant at the time in the mid 1980s.
I was called in to discuss how I would comply with the scheduler's request. It went something like this...
Sup(-ervisor): Crew scheduling sent me a message saying you will be removed from your trip this time but must provide orders for upcoming drill weekends.
ME: Drill weekends are inactive duty for training. Orders are not cut for IDT periods. I can't give you something which doesn't exist.
Sup: Well, they need something from your unit.
ME: Our contract doesn't require such notification (I quoted section and paragraph). Company regulations don't require such notification (quoted administrative section and payroll section). Federal law doesn't require such notification.
Sup: Can your commander write a note for you?
ME: My commander is responsible for 1,000 soldiers in his brigade...no, he cannot write me a note and I won't ask him.
Sup: The next time scheduling requests orders, you will comply.
ME: Once again...I can't give them something which doesn't exist. They have a copy of my yearly training schedule which shows scheduled drill weekends.
That was the end of the conversation. I didn't have problems with her again or the company until I left several years later.