VA Targeting Employees with Accommodations and People They Don't Like

 

Now that the unions' contracts have been terminated the VA has declared open season on attacking employees. Their latest weapon of choice is the "fit-to-work" process. This process allows them to terminate anyone they see as medically unfit to work even if these employees have formal RA (reasonable accommodations in place) or FMLA paperwork. Workers are scheduled without their knowing for a medical exam on super short notice with a VA doctor/representatives for an exam to see if they are physically or mentally fit to do their job. They are told that they can have on outside doctor do the exam, but they are not given enough time to arrange outside testing and if they go outside of the VA they have to do it at their personal cost. Forcing the VA doctor/representative allows the VA to use bias to get rid of whoever they want to.

Example: I have already told you in previous articles about some of the training issues with the VA not providing good training to employees on changes to their jobs. Also, the managers tell employees to ask questions and that it is a safe space to do so, when in truth they are building 'evidence' to get rid of employees. One employee who asked 'too many' questions was submitted to this process for being mentally unfit to do their job. The complaint against the employee was that they asked too many questions and that they were having issues to log into one of the computer systems (because we all know that technology works perfectly all of the time....). This is even with proof that others were experiencing similar issues/questions and even other supervisors had issues trying to get the computer system to work like it should. As soon as the employee requested to be transferred to a different position/department the exam was canceled. This clearly shows that the department was using this process to get rid of the employee and was satisfied with the outcome. This employee has filed formal discrimination and harassment charges against this department/leadership not only for their actions around the exam but also for microaggressions both before the surprise exam and after. The department is also dragging their feet in transferring the employee even though other employees have been quickly transferred in the past. This allows them to continue to mentally abuse this employee.

The VA knew that they would be going after employees and that is why they got rid of the unions. But the joke is on them. With the unions in place cases like this could have gone through an internal process to get resolved. Now the VA is open to lawsuits and external coverage like this.

If you have a VA story you want to share either as an employee or a veteran who have been mistreated by the VA do not be afraid to tell your story out loud. I would be more than happy to help you get your story out there to be heard. Just reach out to me. The VA need to be held accountable for the abuses they have done and silence will achieve nothing.

#AFGE #union #abuse #veteransadministration #VA

VA Leaders Lie To Employees and Find Another Way to Hurt Veterans

Now that the union is gone the VA leadership team in Colorado just dropped a pile of sh*t on MSAs. The MSAs had ben repeatedly by both HR and the Director that the mandatory overtime would end in October. Yesterday in a meeting the staff were told that even though they were going to be hiring new employees that the mandatory overtime is now permanent. These workers did not sign up for this and the VA leaders are ignoring all of the medical research out there about the negative effects that over time has on workers. For leaders in a health organization they have no understanding of basic health concepts and should be fired for this lack of knowledge let alone their bad business decisions.

This isn't all that happened in the meeting. The leaders in the VA are also wasting money on new software. Here's the kicker, they are not giving any formal training to employees on how to use the technology. They said a email will be sent out, but an email does not replace active learning/teaching. This means that employees are just going to have to wing it with the new technology. Not only does this not support employees in doing their duties, but this lack of formal training is going to negatively impact the veterans. Without training the employees are going to be slower then they would have been with training or if they would have been allowed to just keep the systems they already know how to use. Time issues have long been plaguing the VA with veterans having to suffer in the slow downs. I personal know about how slowly the VA is with experience from what my family members have dealt with. New technology that employees are not trained on will also lead to mistakes. Mistakes in the medical field can cost lives, but the current leaders do not care about this.

Some more info on lack of training:

Jones, M. (2023, August 16). The consequences of a lack of training in the workplace. Connecteam. https://connecteam.com/e-lack-of-training/#:~:text=The%20consequences%20of%20a%20lack%20of%20training%20include%20high%20employee,engaging%2C%20accessible%2C%20and%20impactful.

   -The first paragraph alone shows the issues with no proper training.

NASA. (n.d.). Evidence report: Risk of performance errors due to training deficiencies - NASA technical reports server (NTRS). NASA. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20160003868

    -Even though this article focuses on trainings more related to working at NASA, its comments about general training still hold true.

Pearson, C. (2024, June 14). What if your employees can’t use Tech?: The hidden costs of neglecting training and change management. Your IT Department. https://www.your-itdepartment.co.uk/employees-cant-use-tech/

   -This website shows how issues about rolling out new technology without employee training are well known.

Weinstein, M. (2021, September 27). Should you force technology change on employees?. Training. https://trainingmag.com/should-you-force-technology-change-on-employees/

   -I like that this article focused on the "if it's not broke, don't fix it." If it is broke you should work with the subject matter experts (the workers) about what needs to be changed to fix things. Time and again in my career in education I say leaders become victims of tech companies selling them on the idea that their technology will solve all of their current problems and have bells and whistles that will distract leaders from issues with the new technology. An example of this is when the Colorado Community College System decided to waste millions on the new technology Navigate when the Banner/DegreeWorks systems they already had could have done much of the same things if they were just willing to turn on certain features. Leaders are taken in to just by new and roll out new technology without getting feed back from the workers that will be dealing with the technology. These leaders are also mostly cut off from the actual work and do not understand what the real issues are that cause problems. Now with the VA not doing the employee survey they will be even more cut off. This creates blind leaders that waste money and make bad decisions.

Kennedy, E. (2025, January 9). How the Lack of Training Affects Your Organization. The Training Associates. https://thetrainingassociates.com/lack-training-affects-organization/#:~:text=Training%20is%20essential%20for%20upskilling,minimizing%20legal%20and%20financial%20risks. 

VA Leaders Can't Math and Don't Care About What Workers Think

The VA Leaders are at it again, and by it, I mean showing that they can't even function as adults let alone as Health professionals. The latest is that they can't even do basic math. They decided to go back on the changes they were making to the mandatory overtime due to push back from employees and employees turning in medical letters and sharing the current research on the negative impact that mandatory overtime can have if required hours overlap with the natural sleep cycle. For more on this check our previous VA article. Now though employees need to sign up for 1.5 hour shifts in order to meet the required 4 hours of overtime....yes, think about that sentence...

1.5 + 1.5= 3 hours ...3 +1.5= 4.5.... 4.5 and 4 are different numbers. This means that the new policy of 1.5 hour shifts actually forces employees to do more then the required mandatory overtime. So these leaders in the VA need to be fired because they can't even do simple grade school math. These are the people making decisions that negatively impact both workers and veterans, because they do not even have basic skills needed to function in life let alone in the workforce.

Lets look at more math that they just don't get. The current administration in Washington don't want money wasted, but because the VA leadership doesn't understand math, they are mismanaging the money they have been given. Right now with the mandatory over time they are wasting money instead of just hiring more employees. Don't take my word for it, let's look at the math.

Let's say an employee makes $30 and hour and they work a normal 40 hour work week (this calculation will be before taxes and other things like health insurance).

30 x 40 = $1200 

Over time is time and a half for the additional hours. This means that 4 hours of overtime is an additional $180 (30 x 4 x 1.5). 

If it takes 10 employees doing over time to get to the 40 hours to equal a new employee, this means that the overtime to pay current workers would equal $1800 per week or $600 extra paid out that would not have to be paid out ($180 x 10). That extra $600 per week would more than make up for what companies pay out in benefits for an employee per month (this would be $2400 per month which is more then needed for benefits at most companies).

This shows that hiring 1 new employee for every 10 workers doing overtime would not only balance out the work (helping the other employees with work life balance and mental health), but save money. The kicker here is also new employees could be brought in for less money because they are new. For example the minimum wage in Aurora, Colorado right now is $17. This would mean that the VA could save up to $13 per regular hour by hiring a new employee instead of forcing employees to do overtime. This just shows how little the VA leadership understands math.

(Checking on the usajobs.gov website it looks like the position of MSA makes around $17.51 per hour to start out with, $36,435 per year. This confirms that new employees make less and could save the VA from having to pay out overtime).

Another thing that came out today is that the VA is canceling their employee survey for this year. I wonder why....they know that workers are upset about all of the stuff they are pulling and they don't want any formal record of employee complaints. It is them trying to hide the abuse that workers are experiencing. The VA is doing everything it can to silence workers. The VA claims that they are not doing the survey to save employee time and money, but in reality they know that it will so that the VA is failing and that it is a toxic place to work.

VA Once Again Finding Ways to Hurt Its Employees

So, not only is the VA continuing to enforce mandatory overtime that hurts employees, but now they are taking away what little flexibility there was for workers. Before workers were able to do the overtime either before or after their normal shift. This would allow them to try and pick times that would be the least invasive even though this mandatory overtime is massively invasive in the first place. Now employees, starting August 18, can only do the overtime between between 6am and 8am. The work must be completed in 2 hour increments instead of being spread out throughout the week. This means that employees that have sleep issues will have their internal clocks messed with. Sleep is very important and changes to it can have huge impacts on a person's health, let alone if they already have issues with their health. This is very basic information that people that work in health organizations should have knowledge or they shouldn't be working in the health field. All these rules are just structured abuse by an employer. 

It gets even better though. The union was in the meeting and they didn't speak up to support the workers. For those of you that don't know the VA union is AFGE. They have a history of not supporting workers which I have reported on in past posts. The will not picket even though they have pictures of picketing on their website and they won't even speak up in meetings like the one where these changes were presented. Yet they are willing to take money out of the accounts of employees to pay their own salaries while they do not actively fight for the people that they claim to fight for.

With this post I am formally calling requesting that all Colorado AFGE current leaders to step down from their positions for failure to do their jobs. This includes Bernard L. Humbles who has been aware of all of the abuse that workers have been going through and has not gone to the media or called for picketing of VA sites even though he could do this. Even if the workers themselves can not strike according to the union, their families would be more then happy to show up to a picket line in support of their loved ones. It is time that AFGE gets workers that have some backbone and will not only take a pay check, but will stand up for the workers. 

Recommended Readings

-Wong, K., Chan, A. H. S., & Ngan, S. C. (2019, June 13). The effect of long working hours and overtime on Occupational Health: A meta-analysis of evidence from 1998 to 2018. International journal of environmental research and public health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6617405/

"The result demonstrated that employees working long hours were vulnerable to suffering from diverse types of occupational health problem."

-U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2021, June 25). Long working hours and health. The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8315652/

This article is good because it acknowledges that a persons' previous/current health conditions can impact the impacts that overtime can have on them. What does this mean? It means that if a person already has health conditions that working overtime can make those conditions worse and make the impacts that even a healthy person would experience be worse for the person with preexisting conditions. This article is also interesting in how since the 8 hour work day was established, that companies have been pushing and finding loop holes to get workers to work longer hours. These tactics by companies actually pushes/breaks laws that were put into place to protect workers from abuse. This once again reinforces how companies like the VA are willing to hurt their employees in any way that they can try and get away with.

-Harknett, K., & Schneider, D. (2020, February 12). Precarious work schedules and Population Health . Health Affairs Brief. Health Affairs. Accessed July 30, 2025. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20200206.806111/ 

          Even though this article focuses on hourly and service workers its points around 'erosion of job quality' where employers will make negative changes after people start working for them. Employees agree to work for companies with certain expectations in place and when companies do things like the VA is doing it breaks this agreement and could be seen as possible contract (verbal or written) breakage. Companies that do this need to be held accountable for doing these types of underhanded things. It is said that there is a term for this because of companies doing it. It is even sadder that in order to hold these companies accountable that the only thing that works today is taking these issues public to embarrass them. Our culture has moved away from one of accountability. 

If the VA leadership wanted to even take the smallest time to educate themselves on these topics a basic Google search would bring up for them:

and more. I could only catch so much in my picture. Picture From: https://www.google.com/search?q=Mandatory+overtime+impacts+on+health&sca_esv=d0444d30016ff5d8&sxsrf=AE3TifOkQX_Vjn1JjlL-VhVVr-2AjkENOQ%3A1753917910917&ei=1qmKaOTTN5HGkPIP6ry56Ag&ved=0ahUKEwjklq6w3eWOAxURI0QIHWpeDo0Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=Mandatory+overtime+impacts+on+health&gs_lp=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-TrAbIHBjQuMjcuNbgHpirCBwkwLjE0LjIwLjLIB5cB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Even though this is a very basic search it would hold more information then the current VA leadership seems to know. They then could do more research and read all of the research studies, but they don't want to take the time only to find out that what they are doing is wrong and hurtful. We need actually educated people to be leading and not wannabes.  

-De Raeve, Lore, Nicole WH Jansen, and IJmert Kant. “Health Effects of Transitions in Work Schedule, Workhours and Overtime in a Prospective Cohort Study.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health 33, no. 2 (2007): 105–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40967632.

This article is good because it points out how overtime impacts different genders. Women have more general and psychological distress then men (P 6). "Moreover, it is important to pay substantial attention to employees' expressed requests for changing their worktime arrangements, as they can be an antecedent of a future change in health, as well as an effect of already changed health" (P 8).

-Baek, S.-U., Won, J.-U., & Yoon, J.-H. (2025). Gender differences in the association between long work hours, weekend work, and insomnia symptoms in a nationally representative sample of workers in Korea. Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, 11(2), 191–197. https://doi-org.ccco.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2024.11.002

"Previous studies have consistently shown that long work hours and weekend work are associated with short sleep duration" (introduction section). Also points out that it is known that long hours can cause depression. One of the key findings "showed that long work hours and weekend work were significantly associated with insomnia symptoms in workers" ( In Discussion Section). The article also acknowledges 'work-life conflicts'. Another key point of this article is giving workers control of their overtime so that they can do it in ways that would impact them the least. This would confirm that the limited way that the VA wants workers to do overtime is too restrictive and will actively hurt people since what little control workers used to have over the mandatory overtime has been stripped away.

-Pisljar, T., van der Lippe, T., & den Dulk, L. (2011). Health among hospital employees in Europe: A cross-national study of the impact of work stress and work control. Social Science & Medicine, 72(6), 899–906. https://doi-org.ccco.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.12.017

This study looks specifically at healthcare workers an points out that overtime leads to poor health in workers and that this study's finding reenforces findings in other studies. This is not new information and is well known. What was interesting about this article is that it also thinks about the impact that other factors like culture and politics can have. This is super important in the US right now considering all of the craziness coming out of the White House and how leaders can be using those positions to make work life worse for employees instead of focusing on doing the right things for employees and the people they serve.

VA Continues to Fail Veterans and Employees

The article "VA Reinstates Mandatory Overtime To Address 200,000-Claim Backlog" just came out (link at bottom). This is just one part of the VA that doesn't have the needed staff to serve our veterans. Mandatory overtime has been going on for awhile in different departments, like community care. Not only are veterans actively being hurt by the current understaffed, but employees are suffering burn out with their work life balance being massively disrupted. 

Here's a specific example of how these staffing issues are negatively impacting veterans. I personally know a veteran who 2 days ago was told that they couldn't get a needed sleep study down until October...6 months away. This veteran has already been diagnosed with sleep apnea, has other major health issues along with symptoms that are being impacted by the sleep issues, and they still can't get help faster. Sleep issues can have massive impacts on a person's overall health and can lead to death untreated. So yes, this means that the VA could even be killing veterans due to lack of service. Something massive needs to be done asap and our current government does not have the knowledge or caring to fix it.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/05/va-reinstates-mandatory-overtime-to-tackle-backlog-of-200000-benefits-claims/p

VA Hurting Veterans

The VA is going to lay off a vast amount of workers even though they are under staffed. Right now many workers in the VA are having to work mandatory overtime because they do not have enough staff. Veterans are being hurt because there is not enough staff as is to serve them. They have to wait months to years for services and this is impacting their health. Help protect veterans by reaching out to your government representatives and tell them to stop the VA reductions.

From: Humbles, Bernard <Bernard.Humbles@va.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 1:01 PM
To: VHAECH AFGE Union Members Local 2241 <VHAECHAFGEUnionMembersLocal2241@va.gov>; VBA AFGE Union Members Local 2241 <VBAAFGEUnionMembersLocal2241@va.gov>
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL]

 

https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/03/va-plans-lay-many-83000-employees-year/403477/

VA plans to lay off as many as 83,000 employees this year.

A leaked memo released Tuesday called for VA to slash its workforce to 2019 levels that were in place before millions of veterans became newly eligible for care.

 

Bernard L Humbles JR. BS,BA, LAC,CSOC, PhD, US Army Retired
District NVAC District 13, Council 219 Representative, CO,  WY, UT, AZ & NM

President, AFGE Local 2241 & Local Legislative Political Coordinator

President, Colorado AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council

AFGE Affiliate Vice President, Colorado AFL-CIO Board/Council Member

VISN 19, Liaison to the AFGE National VA Council  

Denver Area Labor Federation Delegate/Board Member

Colorado Alliance Of Retired Americans/Board Member

Personal Email: afgehwa2241@outlook.com

AFGE National VA Council, Drug Testing Committee Chair

Colorado Notary Public

Office 720-723-6577 Cell 720-891-5084 or 720-937-4602   

Poor Leadership in the VA Leads to Abuse of Employees

This is the first in a series of articles that will look at the Veterans Administration (VA) and how it is failing both the employees and the veterans. The VA is one of the largest health care providers in the US and is government run. This has allowed it to do things however it wants to and it is not held accountable for all of the people it steamrolls. The goal of this series is to bring more attention to what the VA is doing and to have those in power in the VA held accountable for what they have been doing.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stands is a crucial institution responsible for the well-being of millions of veterans across the United States and is one of the biggest health care providers in the US. It’s mission statement is “To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans” (“Federal VA Overview”). Then its vision statement is “to provide veterans the world class benefits and services they have earned and to do so by adhering to the highest standards of compassion, commitment, excellence, professionalism, integrity, accountability, and stewardship” (“Federal VA Overview”). The problem is in order to do this it takes a large workforce to provide these services. They may have noble mission and vision statements but there lies a troubling reality: the pervasive abuse of employees by bad leaders within the organization. This post will look at the horrible leadership that is sending negative impacts reverberating throughout the VA system.

Mismanagement within the VA shows up in various forms, ranging from toxic work environments to blatant disregard for employee well-being. Both of these are largely influenced directly by leadership since it is the leaders that create a business culture. A large aspect of this mismanagement is evident in the prevalence of workplace harassment and discrimination. One example of this is Dr. Lisa Brenner where the VA union had to file a formal report on her that included reports of “emotional, mental and psychological abuse” of employees (Tabachnik). Another current example of this is James Edward Stafford who was hired and has moved up into leadership positions within the VA even though his criminal record is well known by VA staff. Does is name sound familiar to you? A while back he was forced to resign from the Lafayette police force for abuse of power before the police department could fire him. He was trying to save face from the horrible things he had done while sporting a badge. He used his police power to give tickets to his ex-girlfriends boyfriend, stalked her, and lied about her stealing money to try and get her fired from her current job just to mention a few things (The Associated Press). His legal team was able to work wonders and got him out of a felony if he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (The Associated Press). This doesn’t mean that he didn’t do crime equal to a felony, but that he was able to wiggle his way out of the harsher charges. Unfortunately, this is the state of our legal system where we don’t fully hold people accountable for what they do even if they had been abusing their power when they were supposed to be helping people. Now Stafford is at the VA making it a nightmare place to work for the people under him while he abuses the power that the VA has given him. One example of this is that he has taken Medical System Administrators (MSAs) and thrown them into a call center because he could not handle managing a normal call center. The MSAs were not hired to work in a call center and when they started working at the VA many were told that they were not being hired to work in a call center and that their job would never be call center work. This was the only reason why some of these employees took the job. Now Stafford is breaking the hiring contracts and having workers do call center duties (which is not on their job descriptions) because he can not hire enough staff to work an actual call center due to the mental and emotional abuse that those workers experience under the VA call center structure. He has also been caught lying about having the VA union’s support in his actions and has been reported to HR for it. He has also even told managers to yell at employees to get the work done. There has been report after report to both the union and the VA HR about Stafford, yet the VA continues to employ him. He likes to tell people that he has reformed since his ‘misdemeanor’, but he continues to abuse people in other ways. Some people never change.

VA has consistently ranked among the top federal agencies for whistleblower complaints, highlighting systemic issues within its leadership structure. The Office of Special Counsel has more than 1/3 of its cases coming from reports of the VA retaliating against whistleblowers (Patricia Kime). Such complaints often cite instances of retaliation against employees who speak out against misconduct, fostering an environment of fear and intimidation. This fear and intimidation creates a toxic work environment and negatively impacts employees mental, emotional, and physical health. Studies have found a direct link between a toxic work environment and employee engagement (Rasool SF and others). For the VA this means that the toxic work environment that leaders is creating is then also directly impacting the service that veterans are receiving.

Also, the lack of accountability among VA leadership makes the problem worse. Bad leaders within the VA frequently escape repercussions for their actions, emboldening further abuse and undermining the organization's integrity. Some like Dr. Lisa Brenner are just moved to other locations where they can abuse a different set of employees (Tabachnik). Another example of this is the supervisor that multiple investigations recommended be terminated from the Veterans Medical Center in Loma Linda was kept by higher level administrators (Rob McMillan). Even with many of these abuses going public, which would make most companies change their ways, the VA continues to foster and environment of toxicity. 

The negative impact of mismanagement extends beyond individual employees to the overall effectiveness of the VA in fulfilling its mission. High turnover rates among staff, attributed in part to poor leadership, disrupt continuity of care for veterans and impede efforts to address pressing healthcare needs. The loss of workers then also adds to the workload of employees that are already overworked. Moreover, the erosion of employee morale resulting from abuse and neglect hampers productivity and innovation within the organization, hindering its ability to adapt to evolving challenges.

The VA's failure to address these systemic issues reflects a broader pattern of neglect towards its workforce and a knowing disregard for overall human decency. Despite numerous internal investigations and external audits, meaningful reforms have been slow to materialize. In a large meeting of VA employees that had the goal of listening to employee complaints, employees found out that the toxic work environment was impacting most employees. Leadership in this meeting said that they were trying to make changes, but they are moving to slow to help employees that are suffering. The inherent bureaucratic complexities of the VA, coupled with political pressures and budgetary constraints, have contributed to a culture that encourage misconduct and undermines accountability.

Overall, epidemic of employee abuse within the VA underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reform. Bad leaders within the organization continue to exploit their positions of power, perpetuating toxic work environments and compromising the well-being of employees. Employees are given no relief from poor leadership even when they make formal complaints. Addressing this crisis requires a concerted effort to hold accountable those responsible for misconduct, implement robust safeguards against retaliation, and foster a culture of transparency and accountability. Only through such measures can the VA fulfill its commitment to serving those who have served our nation.

Works Cited

Associated Press, The. "Former Lafayette officer receives probation in stalking case." The Denver Post. May 26, 2009. https://www.denverpost.com/2009/05/26/former-lafayette-officer-receives-probation-in-stalking-case/

“Federal VA Overview.” Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://vets.colorado.gov/federal-va-overview#:~:text=To%20provide%20veterans%20the%20world,integrity%2C%20accountability%2C%20and%20stewardship

Kime, Patricia. “Majority of VA Whistleblowers Report Retaliation after Calling out Agency Wrongdoing.” Military.com, May 5, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/05/04/majority-of-va-whistleblowers-report-retaliation-after-calling-out-agency-wrongdoing.html. 

McMillan, Rob. “LOMA LINDA VA INVESTIGATED FOR ALLEGATIONS OF EMPLOYEE ABUSE AND HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT.” Los Angeles and Southern California News, Weather, Traffic - ABC7 KABC, June 19, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://abc7.com/amp/va-loma-linda-healthcare-system-abuse-hostile-workplace-allegations-whistleblower-complaints-rep-jay-obernolte/13391540/. 

Rasool SF, Wang M, Tang M, Saeed A, Iqbal J. “How Toxic Workplace Environment Effects the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support and Employee Wellbeing”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021 Feb 26;18(5):2294. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052294. PMID: 33652564; PMCID: PMC7956351. Accessed December 17, 2023. https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/pmc/articles/PMC7956351/

Tabachnik, Sam. “Aurora VA’s Suicide Prevention Center Rife with ‘Emotional, Mental and Psychological Abuse.’” The Denver Post, December 22, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/10/aurora-va-hospital-suicide-prevention-center-abuse/amp/. 

Resources

“7 Things You Didn’t Know Happening at VA Hospitals.” AFGE, May 22, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.afge.org/article/7-things-you-didnt-know-happening-at-va-hospitals/. 

-AFGE is the VA union. They are putting out information on the VA that the VA doesn’t want people to know about.

Bunch, Joey. "Lafayette cop faces stalking charge." The Denver Post. July 30, 2008. Accessed September 15, 2023. https://www.denverpost.com/2008/07/30/lafayette-cop-faces-stalking-charge/

Casey, Michael. “Federal Watchdog Finds VA Ignored Bullying Complaints.” AP News, December 13, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://apnews.com/general-news-df3d5468b5395bf3b2022b941b6f89d6. 

Estes, Andrea. “Veterans Affairs Administration Ignored Complaints of Harassment and Bullying, Federal Watchdog Says.” The Boston Globe, March 5, 2021. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/04/metro/veterans-affairs-administration-ignored-complaints-harassment-bullying-federal-watchdog-says/. 

Gooding, Mike. “VA under Fire for Retaliating against Workers Who Disclose Wrongdoing.” 13 News Now, June 16, 2022. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/va-under-fire-retaliating-workers-disclose-wrongdoing/291-322e99b5-47cc-4091-92f8-400142f712ea. 

Gray, Justin. “VA Worker Says She’s Being Forced to Work with Supervisor Who Judge Found Harassed Her.” WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta, October 30, 2023. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/va-worker-says-shes-being-forced-work-with-supervisor-who-judge-found-harassed-her/6DPSIDB47JEIPJNSCQCLVXUJGE/?outputType=amp. 

-They VA had no right to force the woman to work under a person that a judge found had harassed her. At that point that supervisor should have been fired. This shows a total failure on the VA’s part to protect employees from abuse and shows the VA actually support the abuse.

“Largest Veterans Affairs Employee Union Calls on VA to ‘do Better’ after Arbitrator Finds Agency Guilty of Violating Federal Labor Law.” AFGE, March 13, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024.https://www.afge.org/publication/largest-veterans-affairs-employee-union-calls-on-va-to-do-better-after-arbitrator-finds-agency-guilty-of-violating-federal-labor-law/. 

-This one I found interesting for the picture. My past information was that the union couldn’t strike, but this image shows that if workers aren’t able to strike then they can march. This makes me wonder why the union here in Colorado is sitting on its butt when it has received so many complaints about the working conditions and bad leadership in Colorado, and wonder when it is going to do something big to make the VA actually do some change. Or will the union just sit back watching while people like me work to expose the abuses that the VA are actively doing.

Lukitsch, Bill, and Cortlynn Stark. “‘Ghetto,’ ‘Boy’: Former Kansas City VA Employee Files Race Discrimination Lawsuit.” Kansas City Star, July 6, 2021. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://amp.kansascity.com/news/article252606338.html. 

-This one shows how VA employees suffer from discrimination from their managers.

“Nurses at Aurora VA Hospital Rally Today.” YouTube, July 17, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrKzSxL0Y_U. 

-This shows actual VA staff telling you about their experiences.

Parker, Cherie. “Effects of Harassment on Mental Health.” VA News, July 29, 2022. https://news.va.gov/104031/effects-of-harassment-on-mental-health/. 

-When I found this article I had to sickly laugh since the VA does nothing to help the mental health of employees that experience workplace harassment.

“Rubio Blasts Biden Admin for Disregarding His VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act.” Senator Rubio, July 27, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://www.rubio.senate.gov/rubio-blasts-biden-admin-for-disregarding-his-va-accountability-and-whistleblower-protection-act/. 

-You won’t find me agreeing with conservatives that often, but I the case of VA reform, it is massively needed.

Schwebke, Scott. “Mother of VA Loma Linda Employee Who Died by Suicide Files $5 Million Claim.” Redlands Daily Facts, October 2, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2023/10/01/mother-of-va-loma-linda-employee-who-committed-suicide-files-5-million-claim/amp/. 

-This article shows that VA employees are so negatively impacted by the work environment that they have even committed suicide. Why is the VA not paying attention to the impacts that leadership is having on workers? Why has the government not directly held the VA accountable for these abuses of power?

Schwebke, Scott. “Va Loma Linda Whistleblowers Mount, Probe Widens into Harassment Allegations.” Redlands Daily Facts, June 19, 2023. Accessed March 4, 2024.  https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2023/06/16/va-loma-linda-whistleblowers-mount-probe-widens-into-harassment-allegations/amp/. 

-This shows how the Loma Linda situation kept escalating.

Tabachnik, Sam. “Head of Aurora VA’s Prosthetics Department Canceled Veterans’ Orders to Eliminate Backlog, Ex-Employees Allege.” The Denver Post, December 12, 2023. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/11/12/aurora-va-hospital-veteran-affairs-prosthetics-department-colorado/. 

-This shows an example of how leadership in the VA make bad decisions that negatively impact veterans and then staff are also impacted by then having to deal with all of the angry veterans and those veterans have a right to be angry.

Titus, Jennifer. “New Report Shows VA Has a Way to Go on Handling Harassment Cases.” 10 Tampa Bay, September 9, 2022. Accessed March 4, 2024.   https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/new-report-va-handling-harassment-cases/67-f7095b04-3177-4e07-b4a7-133c0e310d0e. 

Urie, Heath. “Lafayette Police Officer Pleads Not Guilty to Harassment/Stalking.” Boulder Daily Camera, August 15, 2009. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.dailycamera.com/2009/08/15/lafayette-police-officer-pleads-not-guilty-to-harassmentstalking/

-This article goes into some of the best detail about Stafford and shows just how crazy of a situation he created and how scary he can be.

U.S. Office of Special Counsel. “2021 Annual Whistleblower program report to Congress.” Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.sec.gov/files/owb-2021-annual-report.pdf

Wagner, Erich. “Vast Majority of VA Employees Have Either Witnessed or Experienced Racism at Work, Survey Finds.” Government Executive, April 14, 2021. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/08/vast-majority-va-employees-have-either-witnessed-or-experienced-racism-work-survey-finds/167583/. 

-There is no way that the issue can be this high of a percent unless the VA was actively ignoring the issue.

Watson, Kathryn. “Trump Signs Bill Making It Easier to Fire Bad VA Employees.” CBS News, June 23, 2017. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-signs-bill-making-it-easier-to-fire-bad-va-employees/. 

-This is basically the only thing that Trump did in office that I agree with. The sad thing is even with this, the VA is still holding on to managers/leaders that negatively impact the employee experience.

Wolf, Jeffrey. "Police officer arrested for stalking." 9 News. July 30, 2008. The Denver Post. July 30, 2008. Accessed September 15, 2023. https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/police-officer-arrested-for-stalking/73-342686551

2023 November News

11/13/23: "Head of Aurora VA's prosthetics department canceled veterans' orders to eliminate backlog, ex-employees allege"- This kind of underhandedness is not surprising coming from the VA. Employees have been making complaints to HR about people in leadership positions, but nothing is ever down and these poor leaders are not being held accountable for their actions. This is just another case of the VA protecting its leadership instead of showing that they have any ethics or morals. https://www.arcamax.com/currentnews/newsheadlines/s-2959866

11/29/23: "Cannabis Use Linked to Epigenetic Changes, Scientists Reveal"- https://www.sciencealert.com/cannabis-use-linked-to-epigenetic-changes-scientists-reveal

11/30/23: "VA workers face more mandatory overtime amid record claims processing"- This is just one example of how the VA is abusing its employees. Instead of hiring workers to work or run call centers they are making workers either do overtime or do jobs that they did not sign up for and that equals way more then the standard 10% other duties as assigned. My mother actually works for the VA and is one of many employees that have been and continue to be abused by VA leadership. There have been many complaints to both HR and the VA union and nothing is being achieved. VA leadership is refusing to acknowledge that the patient experiences is shaped by the employee experience. It is common knowledge that happy workers lead to better customer service, but those currently in VA leadership do not have the skills enough to even understand this. I will continue to include information about how messed up the VA is on this blog since it is one of the major health systems in our country. https://www.federaltimes.com/management/pay-benefits/2023/11/30/va-workers-face-more-mandatory-overtime-amid-record-claims-processing/

11/29/23: "Caffeine Could Have a Surprising Effect on The Brain's Ability to Learn"- https://www.sciencealert.com/caffeine-could-have-a-surprising-effect-on-the-brains-ability-to-learn