Good for nothing TSA employee - anyone have experience calling TSA OIG?

[Anonymous]

I work for TSA (at HQ, not at an airport) and I'm part of a small team of 5. I'm considering calling TSA's Office of inspector general on a coworker. He's the type of person who gives Feds a bad name. Maybe I'm being petty but I work so hard and am jDONE with this guy. He is utterly useless and my boss doesn't seem to see it (which is a whole other issue) I need advice.

" John" starts later than the rest of us - most mornings he comes in around 10:15 - 10:30. He sits at his desk doing literally nothing for an hour, then goes to lunch for an hour. Then for the rest of the afternoon he's either sitting in his cube doing nothing again or "taking a stroll" as he likes to say (literally walking around the building instead of doing work). He's also known to leave early, as soon as our boss is out the door. I'm guessing he's in the office for maybe a total of 5 hours a day.

Are there any TSA employees out there who have called OIG on a coworker? What was the result? I'm afraid my name will be shared if this ends up getting investigated. Is there some other avenue I can pursue? I know, I know...MYOB, right? Well it's hard to do that when I already have more on my plate than I can handle and then we have to make up for this worthless POS.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your boss about your work load. Even if "John" were fired (near impossible for a fed anyway), that wouldn't change your workload, it may actually increase it. While it sounds like "John" is doing next to nothing, he may actually be getting some work done in person as he walks around. Some people prefer to work with colleagues face to face. I've been on countless email chains that could have been avoided with a simple 5 minute conversation. And, how do you know John doesn't get up early, log on remotely to get some work done, take care of his sick wife, go to work for 5 hours, leave early to again care for his sick wife, and then log on from home to finish up the work. That would of course require a telework agreement between John and your boss, something you have no real need to be in the loop on. I don't say any of this to be harsh. I've been in a similar place as it sounds like you are coming from. In my situation, my boss actually asked me to work with a colleague to help them take more ownership of their portfolio. Then, my boss promoted this colleague instead of me!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the reply, PP. "John" is an admin that routes documents for approval, reserves conference rooms, and monitors a group mailbox. I trained him on everything he does so I know what's involved. He's not walking around in order to get work done face to face. You may have a point that he could have a situation at home which requires some flexibility at work but for some reason I doubt that's the case.

I wish this didn't bother me so much, but it does.

[Anonymous]

I had a similar case, brought up to the supervisor and nothing came out of that. Talked to the second line supervisor and was told just ignore the turd and do my work. Guess what - I found another job...

[Anonymous]

It's not the IG's mission/purview to investigate this type of tattletale. If he does, get ready for your entire unit to be audited or investigated. Are you chit chatting? Ebaying? Sure hope not.

[Anonymous]

Not to hijack this thread but what would/can you do with someone who spend an ungodly amount of time on eBay and Craigslist? I wish this guy gets fired.

[Anonymous]

I thought TSA weren't feds?

OIG won't care about this. You should really talk to his boss. That's the only person who can do anything.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the government. You didn't know this is what you signed up for?

I left several years ago. Same coworker issue except my coworker was renovating a home for the good part of the year. Told management, then management came down on me (other coworker was a pet).

[Anonymous]

I have the exact same coworker issues. It is frustrating, but nothing ever seems to get done about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the reply, PP. "John" is an admin that routes documents for approval, reserves conference rooms, and monitors a group mailbox. I trained him on everything he does so I know what's involved. He's not walking around in order to get work done face to face. You may have a point that he could have a situation at home which requires some flexibility at work but for some reason I doubt that's the case.

I wish this didn't bother me so much, but it does.

Is he not completing his work in a timely fashion? My observation of admin's in my agency is that the work they are qualified to do has shrunk enormously and been largely taken over by automation-- but no one quite wants to do without an admin all together. As a result they have a ton of down time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not the IG's mission/purview to investigate this type of tattletale. If he does, get ready for your entire unit to be audited or investigated. Are you chit chatting? Ebaying? Sure hope not.

Bullshit. If John puts in a timesheet that indicates he worked 8 hours and he's getting paid for 8 hours but he's really only working 5 hours, it's theft and it's definitely something the OIG investigates. So what if the entire unit's timesheets are also audited?

[Anonymous]

he's not your direct report, so MYOB. Nothing good will come of whistleblowing. Tell his supervisor, and that's the extent of your responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not the IG's mission/purview to investigate this type of tattletale. If he does, get ready for your entire unit to be audited or investigated. Are you chit chatting? Ebaying? Sure hope not.

Bullshit. If John puts in a timesheet that indicates he worked 8 hours and he's getting paid for 8 hours but he's really only working 5 hours, it's theft and it's definitely something the OIG investigates. So what if the entire unit's timesheets are also audited?

Goofing off while you are on the clock is not theft of time. Theft of time is an offense that has to be proven by saying you are at work and then being off the premises.

[Anonymous]

Yep, they can certainly investigate an allegation of "fraud, waste and abuse." Whether they would or would not, I can't say. Theoretically, your name would be kept out of it as a whistleblower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep, they can certainly investigate an allegation of "fraud, waste and abuse." Whether they would or would not, I can't say. Theoretically, your name would be kept out of it as a whistleblower.

hahaaaaaaaaaa

I work on these cases and whistleblowers are rarely anonymous. The accused have a right to know who accused them. I wouldn't send anything through email either. The accused can FOIA your emails and see you were the whistleblower.