Jim,

I am now a former VA employee due to mistreatment and bullying by the Administrative Officer in my department - with the complicity of the department chief. I have witnesses, backup documentation, and my mental health disability percentage was increased my 20%. My psychiatrist even gave me a letter saying I should leave the department, but I couldn't locate another job. It got to the point where I couldn't get up every morning or leave the house on some morning, so I had to put in for disability retirement.

I took my concerns to the union and the hospital human resources department. Needless to say nothing was really done. Also the department chief broke the Department of Labor rule about not interfering with my unpaid lunch break and exerting supervisory authority.

I cannot locate a lawyer to take my case. Can you provide any help or advise???

Reply:

I wish I could help but I'm afraid I can't.

My focus is on veterans benefits issues. Your problem is strictly employer/employee. These things most often boil down to something like a divorce with a lot of "He said/She said" and no real evidence that either party was wrong. It's why there are no fault divorces now.

Many veterans believe that in every walk of life society will owe them some special benefit because of their veteran status. The reality is that in divorces, child support and custody issues, criminal proceedings, foreclosures, debt to credit card companies, dealings with banks and most of the ordinary problems of life on this planet, your vet status doesn’t carry much weight at all.

I get a lot of mail like yours. My advice is always that you're much better off if you forget it and move on. If you’ve been turned away by lawyers, your union, the employer’s human resources department and so on, you may want to consider that what happened was actually your fault.

Hey, it happens sometimes.

It's next to impossible to prevail in these disputes and you'll be better off accepting that and going on to live your life.

Good luck.