VA Work Force Cuts

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Nancy Anthracite

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May 7, 2025, 7:33:47 AM5/7/25
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James Yaple

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May 8, 2025, 8:00:51 AM5/8/25
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(Long story incoming)

 I wanted to share some good news that may not filter down to this group.  I retired from VA in 2023.  One of my colleagues was a VA IT contractor (100% remote/northern Virginia).  He asked me about my experience because he was considering to VA FTE.  I told him my experience (mostly positive) but I’m sure he made his own decision and converted in May 2024.  Needless to say, he ended up being caught in the mass termination of probationary employees in 2025.  He was notified by email that due to his status and unsatisfactory performance he was being separated.

 $#*I!

 I called him after this happened to provide a small amount of support.  He told me his former supervisor had called him at home about a month after it happened and asked him if he had returned his VA laptop.  “Not yet.”  Supervisor says, “You should hang onto it until specifically directed.”

 About a month goes by.  Lo and behold, he was reinstated!

 Victory #1

 He was notified his reinstatement included a return to office RTO requirement.  Based on calculations, this meant a three-hour daily commute added onto his workday. 

 $#*I!

Leveraging his own connections, he found a government worksite less than 30 minutes from home and worked with VA HR to coordinate!

 Victory #2

 He again contacted VA HR asking if anything could be done about his separation for “poor performance.”  VA HR emailed an explanation that VA never noted or documented any performance issue.

 Victory #3

 VA has re-enabled his access and everything seems to be back to previous state. He has returned to work.

 I talked with him this week. told him I was sorry he had to go through this; several months of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, followed by TRIUMPH and VICTORY! We prayed together several times during this sequence of events. 

My take on this episode is that people were unjustifiably harmed in the pursuit of expedience.  The organizational components: HR, managers, supervisors and co-workers are doing what they can to make things right. 

I wish all hope and suggest exercising any and all avenues to restore things to the way they should have been.

Love and Blessings to all affected,

James

Margaret Heinikel

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May 8, 2025, 2:59:12 PM5/8/25
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I worked at Buffalo, VA in the Cancer Registry  for 32 years. Never had I ever experienced such nonsense. I lived through 2 RIFs, which were difficult, but not like this BS.  I currently do cancer registry work at VA's across the country.  DOGE has terminated 1/2 of the contracts that I've been working on for the past 15 years.  I expect they will probably terminate the rest at some point.  So much for supporting veterans with cancer.

K.S. Bhaskar

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May 9, 2025, 1:52:21 PM5/9/25
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This feels to me like one of those "buy shoes two sizes too small because you'll feel so good when you take them off" narratives. There's irreparable harm, and likely lives lost courtesy the slash-and-burn cuts.

Regards
– Bhaskar

Kevin Toppenberg

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May 12, 2025, 8:00:28 AM5/12/25
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This was in the news:  Apparently a judge has put a 2 week (or so) temporary stay on some of the firings.  Probably won't change things in the long run.

Linish Daniel

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May 21, 2025, 8:24:41 PM5/21/25
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Hi Team,

My Name is Linish Daniel, Tulsa

I wanted to create a website and app with:-
 
Backend on 

  • MUMPS 

  • APIs: Build RESTful APIs in MUMPS (via WebLink, ewd.js, or Node.js wrappers)


Front End:

  • React Native (Cross-platform mobile) or Flutter

    • Looks great and supports iOS + Android from one codebase

  • Progressive Web App (PWA) version (optional)

If someone interested kindly let me know. 

Thanks and Regards,

Linish Daniel



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Madhav Bihari

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May 22, 2025, 6:01:09 AM5/22/25
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Hi Linish Daniel, Tulsa

We will like to discuss the opportunity as we are working on same


Regards 


To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hardhats/CACuzx7f_uF%2Bh6prqw2teXZAGu_e0Hnr6eMzi_ocJ7jXb0Lzp9w%40mail.gmail.com.

chris....@gmail.com

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May 22, 2025, 6:22:32 AM5/22/25
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I see that you have the InterSystems deprecated product WebLink in your list of candidate technologies.  The open source mg_web product will provide all the functionality that WebLink gives (and more) for all InterSystems products and YottaDB.

 

https://github.com/chrisemunt/mg_web

 

And if you’re building a REST based application then sitting on top of mg_web is our mg-web-server technology that gives you all you need to start building JSON based REST services.

 

https://github.com/robtweed/mgweb-server

 

Chris.

OldMster

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May 22, 2025, 1:07:10 PM5/22/25
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I can attest that the mg_web product from Chris is excellent, I use it to handle all the REST calls from our web front end (Vuejs based) to our YottaDB back end.  We've never had an issue that can be attributed to mg_web over the last several years.

don6...@gmail.com

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May 22, 2025, 4:34:37 PM5/22/25
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I just received this newsletter from the VA saying how well they're doing processing claims.  There's no mention of what percentage are being denied.  I'm very skeptical that reducing the numbers is helping veterans in any way.

David Whitten

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May 22, 2025, 4:53:15 PM5/22/25
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It doesn’t say in the article but I expect this is about the Veterans Benefit Administration 


From: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-processes-one-million-disability-claims-faster-than-ever-before/

Department claims-processing productivity is at record levels

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today it has processed more than a million disability claims in Fiscal Year 2025, reaching the milestone nearly two weeks faster than it did in FY24.

Despite receiving 15.6% more claims than last year, the department completed its one millionth FY25 claim Feb. 20 — faster than at any point in the department’s history.

In fact, the 10 highest claims processing days in VA’s history occurred within the last month, and the department’s highest claims processing day ever was Feb. 12, when VA processed more than 12,000 claims.

Of the more than one million claims VA has processed in FY25, over 60% were granted.

Through January, VA has provided $62 billion in compensation and pension benefit payments to 6.9 million Veterans and survivors. VA’s claims accuracy rate has risen to more than 92%. To date, VA has completed 375,961 PACT claims in FY25.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, we are strengthening the department so it works better for Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “VA’s claims processing productivity is the highest it has ever been, and we look forward to continuing to provide record levels of service to Veterans and VA beneficiaries.”

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Kimball Bighorse

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May 22, 2025, 7:24:17 PM5/22/25
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Linish Daniel, Madhav Bihari, Chris,

Please include me in your correspondence, we are just starting on a similar path and would love to collaborate.

warmly,

Kimball Bighorse

Greg Kreis

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May 23, 2025, 10:31:52 AM5/23/25
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Hope the team can keep this list informed of progress and provides links to github to monitor it. This interesting!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hardhats/c0c358ba-db53-49cb-b3ad-d20f71e40724n%40googlegroups.com.
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Pioneer Data Systems, Inc
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