Board of Veterans Appeals (Attorney Advisor)
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Anonymous
| So who else is excited to work remotely from a regional office instead of working remotely from their house? |
Anonymous
| I'd rather work from the hospital. Better cafeteria, vending, etc. |
Anonymous
| Wow. I just discovered this forum. I worked at the BVA for a few years as my first job out of law school. I quit over 15 years ago to take a different job because the BVA work was boring and repetitive and kind of sucked. The people I worked with were okay but the management definitely sucked back then. An incompetent guy named Garvan ran the joint at the time. I'm reading some of these recent postings and it looks like the BVA got even worse in the time since I left, which is saying a lot. It looks like a real shitstorm of chaos now with DOGE and the current administration in charge. So very glad I quit this shitty job when I did. It's been very nice to read this forum and have my career decision so well affirmed. All I can say for you poor peeps still working here is GFL. |
Anonymous
| I absolutely love working there--the people, the content, the mission--it has been amazing compared to private practice or other public service jobs I've had. |
Anonymous
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It's only boring and repetitive if you make it boring and repetitive.
To answer the question about RTO, I will give working remotely from a regional office a fair chance b/c why not? It might be nice to not feel compelled to sign in at 9 pm just to finish something or check on a case or make sure you hit the production goal. Btw, the last time I worked on "production" it was literally in a factory. They really should consider changing the language they use to address attorneys, which chosen language is designed to subjugate. I mean the legal profession has its own lingo; why do act like we're turning out widgets and rely on military language and medical terminology? We're not interns nor are we in basic training. "Grand Rounds" makes me laugh and think of Scrubs. |
Anonymous
Huh? |
Anonymous
Most people don’t go to law school to “serve veterans.” Most people don’t go to law school to crank out three disability decisions a week. Some people enjoy working at the Board, but the thing that they love is not the mission or the work but rather the generous remote work policy. They put up with the work because of the remote work policy. |
Anonymous
BVA decisions are so robotic sounding, e.g., “service connection has been established.” The analyses in the vast majority of decisions use the boilerplate language regarding giving the veteran the benefit of the doubt. It’s hard to remain excited about the work when the work turns you into a human robot. |
Anonymous
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Working at BVA is a pretty good as long as your judge doesn’t have a personality disorder. Yes it can get boring and repetitive, but most people, maybe even most lawyers, would love to be bored and make GS-14 pay from their bedroom.
It seems like most of the horror stories are from people who worked here 15 years ago. |
Anonymous
The union took a survey of BVA attorneys a year or two years ago. While the survey results weren’t as horrific as the union survey from 2018, when numerous attorneys reported feeling suicidal because of the work environment, the recent survey still revealed that BVA is not a good place to work. And that’s not just coming from the union survey. Just look at the Federal Best Places to Work Survey. BVA consistently ranks near the bottom of federal agencies in terms of work environment. |
Anonymous
Most likely working from home has vastly improved the attorneys' work environments, depending on the judge. People tend to put more thought in what they say when there's a record of it in email or teams. |
Anonymous
I can only speak for myself, but I worked at the Board before it went remote and even then it was the best job I’ve ever had. When I went remote it was even better. Yes, there are stressful parts I don’t like - the quota is tough, and I wish they would change it to cases submitted rather than signed. But I genuinely like that I can log off at the end of the day and know that there is a specific person who I helped by finding a way to grant their claim. That hasn’t gotten old for me. I like learning about the veterans’ lives. I like that I can actually unplug at the end of the day and not be tethered to a blackberry or at the mercy of some partner who needs something done ‘asap’ that doesn’t really matter imo. I like that I don’t have to waste my time schmoozing with senior attorneys so that they will deign to give me work, all in the hopes that one day I’ll be important enough to beg clients for work directly. Instead I can just do the work. I get that the Board isn’t for everyone - that’s why there is so much attrition, and I wish the people who leave good luck in finding something that suits them better. But for some people it genuinely is an excellent job, and the idea of potentially being fired and having to start over at something else just makes me so sad. At this point my feeling is, if you hate this job so much, take the fork and let those of us who actually like the job have a better chance at keeping it. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like you had good judges. Mine seems afraid of appeals and just remands all IR claims for fear of not granting a high enough rating. She just moves paper around. A true bureaucrat. |
Anonymous
Do you happen to have one of them new-fangled outside hire judges? My judge is a long-time Board employee and has told their attorneys that they prefer decisions (one way or the other) in all cases if at all possible. |
Anonymous
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If you worked at the Board before it went remote the RIFs would have to be pretty deep to affect you.
It’s likely going to be recent (non-veteran) hires who are at risk. |