Time off for family

Can’t write blogs and entertain family members simultaneously — I’ll put the blog on the back burner until next Saturday, then. I am twitching with anticipation to see some of my offspring, my sister, my niece, and one more. Just in time for a VERY hot week here in Utah!

The monsoon season has begun, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms that blow through and drop the temperature fifteen degrees in a few minutes. This ought to be a good way for the family to experience my world. (Yes, it heats up again almost as quickly. What a crazy desert.)

Hiring difficulties

I appreciate my boss’s boss’s forthrightness. She came to those of us who had applied for the permanent position at Arches and admitted outright that two applicants from the pool were “compensable veterans,” which means that they have a service-related disability and therefore a 10-point preference in hiring. Even if we non-veterans were to score a perfect 100 on the rating system, they would completely trump us. She wanted us to know right up front so that we would not wait and wonder. No non-veterans’ applications would even be READ unless both vet applicants turned down the position.

Government regs, if I understand Nancy’s explanation correctly, require the hirers to choose the disabled vets first. There are large numbers of traumatic brain-injured (as well as other-injured) individuals out there from our current wars in the Middle East, and even if they have less experience they must be hired. Folks who have been in the Park Service a long time say this is the hardest it has ever been to be a non-veteran and vying for an NPS job. This is a bitter pill to swallow, even though I completely agree with the logic and have much compassion for those injured while serving our country. I guess I just want a Park Service job badly enough tonight to want to shake my fist at a large impersonal institution like The Government.  **sigh**