Tradd
5-18-13, 3:46pm
Since several of you have emailed me asking for an update on the work situation (I was surprised people were keeping up with it that much!), I thought I'd update:
Things have really calmed down at work. GM was apparently told by CEO that GM had bigger fish to try then concentrating on daily, operational stuff. He pretty much stays in his office.
Corporate officer for customs related stuff who was filling in as my dept's interim manager was ordered back to corporate by CEO. Said person was also heavily involved in other offices as well.
Supervisor has settled down a lot. I had to laugh earlier this week when I found out the customs corporate officer had given the supervisor something complicated on the customs side about a month ago. Simply told supervisor, "Here - you do it." Well, supervisor has no clue how to even start. She asked for help from corporate officer for about a month, to no avail. I'm happy to see other people are beginning to see the light about the corporate officer. I heard supervisor talking about this complicated task (writing a letter and filing documents with CBP on an entry). I ended up doing it, even though the corporate officer wanted to eyeball it before it went to CBP. Turns out she didn't change a single word of what I'd written. When I asked supervisor why she hadn't asked me for help, I got no answer. Corporate officer has been trying for months to undermine me, by making anything I send to CBP go through her, but the funny part is, she reads them, but can't make heads or tails of about 75% of what has to be written, given the terminology used. Supervisor writes very poorly, spells even worse, and even verbally is continually using words really wrong. Even simple emails she sends to the department make me cringe.
Still no replacement for the manager I loved who was promoted. I hear someone might be close to being approved, but I'm not sure.
As for my customs broker license...
CBP is a freakin' mess. They've been heavily promoting for more than a year this new, streamlined program that will take the time to approve a license application from 12 months to 3 months. Hah! What a crock of BS! I got my letter that I passed on 11/13. Dropped application off at CBP local office on 11/14. I wasn't called to schedule my interview until 1/27 or so. Interview/digital fingerprinting was 2/6. Local port director wrote internal letter recommending I receive my license on 3/5 and my application was forwarded to CBP HQ in DC that same day. I emailed one of 3 broker compliance people several weeks ago. The response I received told me to "endure" (their words, not mine!) until I heard from them. Essentially, don't call us, we'll call you. It appears I will be fortunate if I receive my license by the end of the year.
My application situation isn't half as bad as others I know. I know two folks in other parts of the county, much smaller cities than mine. They are not near a larger CBP office that is doing the digital fingerprints/background check. When they were sent applications in the fall, they were sent paper fingerprint cards and had to go to local law enforcement agency to be fingerprinted. Well, we just learned that the FBI has stopped running paper fingerprint cards for the brokers license applicants. Anyone who has paper fingerprint cards goes to the bottom of the 450+ stack of applications in DC. Or they can travel, on their own dime, to a larger city where there is a CBP office with the electronic fingerprint capability.
One of my friends has a TWIC card from DHS due to where she works. She had to cough up $160, get background check and electronic fingerprints. CBP is refusing to allow those fingerprints from the TWIC card application - taken by another division of DHS - to be used for my friend's brokers license application. When my friend called CBP in DC, she got the voice mail of the same person who emailed me. His outgoing voice mail actually says to not bother leaving a message for him if you applied for your license less than 10 months ago.
Our tax dollars at work...[:(!]
I am still looking for other jobs, but frankly, I need my license. There was a great one up in Minneapolis that would have been perfect, very similar to what I do now, but with the added authority to make changes when necessary. But again, applicants must have their brokers license already in hand, not in progress. There are very few jobs that mention being in the license process is OK.
No license is holding up my $10K raise. However, the one positive thing GM did was to put in writing with HR that if I didn't have my license by June, I would get HALF my raise. So, I've got a $5K raise coming very soon.
That's it. Otherwise, I'm just busy as heck at work, as we're getting into the swing of peak shipping season (stuff coming in for back-to-school, Halloween, and Christmas). It will be extremely busy through October-early November, depending on the customers.
Things have really calmed down at work. GM was apparently told by CEO that GM had bigger fish to try then concentrating on daily, operational stuff. He pretty much stays in his office.
Corporate officer for customs related stuff who was filling in as my dept's interim manager was ordered back to corporate by CEO. Said person was also heavily involved in other offices as well.
Supervisor has settled down a lot. I had to laugh earlier this week when I found out the customs corporate officer had given the supervisor something complicated on the customs side about a month ago. Simply told supervisor, "Here - you do it." Well, supervisor has no clue how to even start. She asked for help from corporate officer for about a month, to no avail. I'm happy to see other people are beginning to see the light about the corporate officer. I heard supervisor talking about this complicated task (writing a letter and filing documents with CBP on an entry). I ended up doing it, even though the corporate officer wanted to eyeball it before it went to CBP. Turns out she didn't change a single word of what I'd written. When I asked supervisor why she hadn't asked me for help, I got no answer. Corporate officer has been trying for months to undermine me, by making anything I send to CBP go through her, but the funny part is, she reads them, but can't make heads or tails of about 75% of what has to be written, given the terminology used. Supervisor writes very poorly, spells even worse, and even verbally is continually using words really wrong. Even simple emails she sends to the department make me cringe.
Still no replacement for the manager I loved who was promoted. I hear someone might be close to being approved, but I'm not sure.
As for my customs broker license...
CBP is a freakin' mess. They've been heavily promoting for more than a year this new, streamlined program that will take the time to approve a license application from 12 months to 3 months. Hah! What a crock of BS! I got my letter that I passed on 11/13. Dropped application off at CBP local office on 11/14. I wasn't called to schedule my interview until 1/27 or so. Interview/digital fingerprinting was 2/6. Local port director wrote internal letter recommending I receive my license on 3/5 and my application was forwarded to CBP HQ in DC that same day. I emailed one of 3 broker compliance people several weeks ago. The response I received told me to "endure" (their words, not mine!) until I heard from them. Essentially, don't call us, we'll call you. It appears I will be fortunate if I receive my license by the end of the year.
My application situation isn't half as bad as others I know. I know two folks in other parts of the county, much smaller cities than mine. They are not near a larger CBP office that is doing the digital fingerprints/background check. When they were sent applications in the fall, they were sent paper fingerprint cards and had to go to local law enforcement agency to be fingerprinted. Well, we just learned that the FBI has stopped running paper fingerprint cards for the brokers license applicants. Anyone who has paper fingerprint cards goes to the bottom of the 450+ stack of applications in DC. Or they can travel, on their own dime, to a larger city where there is a CBP office with the electronic fingerprint capability.
One of my friends has a TWIC card from DHS due to where she works. She had to cough up $160, get background check and electronic fingerprints. CBP is refusing to allow those fingerprints from the TWIC card application - taken by another division of DHS - to be used for my friend's brokers license application. When my friend called CBP in DC, she got the voice mail of the same person who emailed me. His outgoing voice mail actually says to not bother leaving a message for him if you applied for your license less than 10 months ago.
Our tax dollars at work...[:(!]
I am still looking for other jobs, but frankly, I need my license. There was a great one up in Minneapolis that would have been perfect, very similar to what I do now, but with the added authority to make changes when necessary. But again, applicants must have their brokers license already in hand, not in progress. There are very few jobs that mention being in the license process is OK.
No license is holding up my $10K raise. However, the one positive thing GM did was to put in writing with HR that if I didn't have my license by June, I would get HALF my raise. So, I've got a $5K raise coming very soon.
That's it. Otherwise, I'm just busy as heck at work, as we're getting into the swing of peak shipping season (stuff coming in for back-to-school, Halloween, and Christmas). It will be extremely busy through October-early November, depending on the customers.