Board of Veterans Appeals (Attorney Advisor)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster. I agree with a lot of what has been said in the last few posts. The Board is a good place for some and a bad place for others. Like any job. Take it all with a grain of salt. I like it, but that's me.

Like any job? Hmm… do other jobs have a dedicate section on an online forum with more than 1,250 comments discussing whether or not the job is bad?

Yes? Have you ever read Reddit? LOL. Showing your ignorance.

There are hundreds more posts on Reddit about BVA. The posters there have the same concerns about BVA as the posters here.

While there are threads on Reddit discussing various jobs, none of them are quite like this.

Wow. You need mental therapy. All you are doing is moaning, whining, and complaining. Do you even work at the Board or were you fired? You try to justify all of your own opinions by saying "nope, not good enough" to anyone with an opinion or fact contrary to your own. I am done posting in response to you.

Seriously, SEEK MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY. If you do work at the Board, I can see why you hate it. You are your own worse enemy. And if you were fired by the Board, I understand why, you're nuts.

This response is so typical of management at the Board. Whenever someone raises any criticism of the Board, management refers to them as whiners and mentally ill. Have you seen the Board surveys where nearly 400 attorneys complained about working conditions at the Board? Do you think all of them are crazy and should seek mental help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster. I agree with a lot of what has been said in the last few posts. The Board is a good place for some and a bad place for others. Like any job. Take it all with a grain of salt. I like it, but that's me.

Like any job? Hmm… do other jobs have a dedicate section on an online forum with more than 1,250 comments discussing whether or not the job is bad?

Yes? Have you ever read Reddit? LOL. Showing your ignorance.

There are hundreds more posts on Reddit about BVA. The posters there have the same concerns about BVA as the posters here.

While there are threads on Reddit discussing various jobs, none of them are quite like this.

Wow. You need mental therapy. All you are doing is moaning, whining, and complaining. Do you even work at the Board or were you fired? You try to justify all of your own opinions by saying "nope, not good enough" to anyone with an opinion or fact contrary to your own. I am done posting in response to you.

Seriously, SEEK MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY. If you do work at the Board, I can see why you hate it. You are your own worse enemy. And if you were fired by the Board, I understand why, you're nuts.

This response is so typical of management at the Board. Whenever someone raises any criticism of the Board, management refers to them as whiners and mentally ill. Have you seen the Board surveys where nearly 400 attorneys complained about working conditions at the Board? Do you think all of them are crazy and should seek mental help?

I am one of the much earlier posters here. I was following this odd discussion, which veered way off course. I just want to say that you do sound like you are just spiteful. I mean, if you were hurt, sorry for that. But complaining and crying "victim" does not make you credible. At some point, you do need to stop blaming others. Just move on.

[Anonymous]

Totally random comment here. But if you are at the Board, and your are familiar with the prior administration under Trump, you know that voting for Harris/Walz is the only way to go to in this election if you want to retain any sanity at the Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster. I agree with a lot of what has been said in the last few posts. The Board is a good place for some and a bad place for others. Like any job. Take it all with a grain of salt. I like it, but that's me.

Like any job? Hmm… do other jobs have a dedicate section on an online forum with more than 1,250 comments discussing whether or not the job is bad?

I will happily contribute and have contributed to many such threads about Biglaw. Which is why I don’t work at Biglaw. Although I recognize that plenty of other people like it. I find that incomprehensible but acknowledge it works for them and my experience, while common, is not universal.

Seriously if it’s that bad you need to just leave and find anything else. You’re giving them way too much space in your brain.

[Anonymous]

Folks are complaining that certain VLJs are just impossible. Can we get some names?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks are complaining that certain VLJs are just impossible. Can we get some names?

Why don't you ask the people who are complaining?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks are complaining that certain VLJs are just impossible. Can we get some names?

That's going to be personal to each person. Some will say VLJ "A" is bad and others will say that VLJ "A" is good. It's a personal opinion.

But, I believe there is an overall consensus that the DVCs are worthless (not including the two that were recently appointed from VLJ status to temporary positions).

So far, we have gone through two that clearly were here only for themselves. One guy came from the DOJ, I think his name was Silas, about 3-ish years ago. He lasted 2 months and left. The most recent was Tamia Gordon who caused many problems and was just fake. She came across as friendly, but you could really tell that was all for show. You know that type of person. She lasted a couple of years, and everyone pointed out that she knew nothing about the Board. So, she left for the Dept of Energy because she couldn't handle the work at the Board. She faked her way through most of her duties.

Anyways, VLJs aside, people should really be concerned with the Chairman and Executive DVCs. They have power to change things, but don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are complaining that certain VLJs are just impossible. Can we get some names?

That's going to be personal to each person. Some will say VLJ "A" is bad and others will say that VLJ "A" is good. It's a personal opinion.

But, I believe there is an overall consensus that the DVCs are worthless (not including the two that were recently appointed from VLJ status to temporary positions).

So far, we have gone through two that clearly were here only for themselves. One guy came from the DOJ, I think his name was Silas, about 3-ish years ago. He lasted 2 months and left. The most recent was Tamia Gordon who caused many problems and was just fake. She came across as friendly, but you could really tell that was all for show. You know that type of person. She lasted a couple of years, and everyone pointed out that she knew nothing about the Board. So, she left for the Dept of Energy because she couldn't handle the work at the Board. She faked her way through most of her duties.

Anyways, VLJs aside, people should really be concerned with the Chairman and Executive DVCs. They have power to change things, but don't.

These people have nothing on that guy Merrick who was there a few years ago. He would send put 10 emails a day about administrative and recreational crap like recycling bin locations and jazz festivals in Mount Vernon Square. Dude literally collected $180k for telling you where to recycle papers and hang out after work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are complaining that certain VLJs are just impossible. Can we get some names?

That's going to be personal to each person. Some will say VLJ "A" is bad and others will say that VLJ "A" is good. It's a personal opinion.

But, I believe there is an overall consensus that the DVCs are worthless (not including the two that were recently appointed from VLJ status to temporary positions).

So far, we have gone through two that clearly were here only for themselves. One guy came from the DOJ, I think his name was Silas, about 3-ish years ago. He lasted 2 months and left. The most recent was Tamia Gordon who caused many problems and was just fake. She came across as friendly, but you could really tell that was all for show. You know that type of person. She lasted a couple of years, and everyone pointed out that she knew nothing about the Board. So, she left for the Dept of Energy because she couldn't handle the work at the Board. She faked her way through most of her duties.

Anyways, VLJs aside, people should really be concerned with the Chairman and Executive DVCs. They have power to change things, but don't.

These people have nothing on that guy Merrick who was there a few years ago. He would send put 10 emails a day about administrative and recreational crap like recycling bin locations and jazz festivals in Mount Vernon Square. Dude literally collected $180k for telling you where to recycle papers and hang out after work.

Oh, I believe that. Sounds like DVC Rodriguez whose duties are to give awards out. I mean, what in the world do we need him for?

[Anonymous]

How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

Yeah you’d be fine. So much of this thread is just histrionics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

Even if you have no life, why would you want to live like that? There are much better jobs out there. Working 60 hours a week for GS-11 to GS-13 pay sounds horrible. Before you join, I recommend reading the latest union survey and looking into the proposed performance standards.

https://afgelocal17.org/all-employees-survey-2024/

https://afgelocal17.org/proposed-changes-to-performance-standards/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

The smart ones do it in less than 40 because they understand how to work the file and how to write the decision.

the others are whiners and say that not staring at every single page is “cheating” but they are probably just reading medical notes that have nothing to do with the claims at issue and don’t understand how to quickly identify duplicate information. Either they are nosy or too dumb to understand the job. The files can be huge but many of them contain medical information not part of the claimed disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

Yeah you’d be fine. So much of this thread is just histrionics.

depends on the judge really. There are some very difficult judges out there that chew people up and spit them out without any hesitation. There are also some very nice judges. And several are in between. So it kinda depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many hours would be needed to work to keep your job? I have no life so I could work extra. Would 60 hours a week be enough to not get fired?

Yeah you’d be fine. So much of this thread is just histrionics.

depends on the judge really. There are some very difficult judges out there that chew people up and spit them out without any hesitation. There are also some very nice judges. And several are in between. So it kinda depends.

+1. There is a lot of variation. Focus on learning the training materials and drafting decisions that please the judge you are assigned to. Your judge ultimately will decide if you get retained so pay attention to their style and any specific notes they give you. Be as cooperative as possible with edits and revisions.