Member Kel submits this for our observation. If readers wonder why I remain anonymous pending resolution of my claims with the vA, they need look no further than this example of recrimination. Criticizing the vA is bad for your health. It impairs your earnings potential, causes loss of face and is often a reason for being marginalized right out of your job. Thus losing you job and its attendant financial security can cause health problems when you don’t get enough to eat and suffer mentally.

Michelle Washington is about to discover just how strong her union is -or isn’t. AFGE has been described by some officious former vA employees as being a farce. Their feelings are that it does not represent the rank and file vA workers. Readers will recall the AFGE was the motivating force behind the recent protests outside the Columbia, S.C. VARO.

I make no judgement calls here. I simply report it. But it does strike me as being short-sighted to come down on a whistleblower. What could be more foolish than to exert ham-handed tactics on a woman who testifies before Congress? Subtlety would carry the day here without resorting to an Omaha Beach frontal assault on her. Marginalizing employees for legitimate activities, no matter how injurious to the Agency, is an art form that vA has never attained. Their excesses are legend. Witness the Keith Roberts imbroglio and his subsequent imprisonment for almost four years. After extensive litigation, they admitted their error but who paid the price for their flying off the handle? vA has rightfully earned their sobriquet as an Agency who shoots from the hip and asks questions later. Much later. This is an important precept in the “team” method of accountability. It consists of twenty officials in a circle pointing at one another as the culprit. The obverse is to blame it all on the Veteran and imply that his actions brought this on.

Even money says Michelle will continue to be ostracized sotto voce while accompanied by protestations on Uncle Eric’s part that no such thing is afoot. Once caught with the hand in the cookie jar, the response has almost universally been to adamantly deny the wrongdoing and promise that, even were this the case, it has been looked into.  No further violations can possibly ensue because everyone is aware of it and a Training Day was scheduled to brief everyone on proper deportment in these matters.

Michelle will never regain her place in the sun. Her reputation as a loner who refuses to be a “team player” is now cemented. The approbation of her superiors can never be recalled. Eventually she’ll realize like many did in the military, that this seminal event will preclude any possibility of advancement or promotion in her career.  File this under “Open Mouth. Insert Career.”