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Antiwork

Accepted a position within the Federal Government based on offered benefits only to be told I don’t qualify for them.

I recently accepted a position and started working for a local VA Hospital. In both my a tentative job offer and firm job offer it is clearly stated that my position qualifies for sick leave, PTO, health insurance, life insurance, pension, and 401k. I was also informed by my manager that I qualified for night shift differential, weekend differential, and paid federal holidays. I didn't have access to my pay stubs until after my second pay period. My second pay period consisted of primarily night weekend shifts and a night shift worked on MLK. I immediately noticed something was wrong when my paycheck was half of what I expected. It was also at this time I was given access to my paystubs and no sick leave or PTO had been allotted to me. I printed off both job offers and my paystubs and headed in to my HR department to…


I recently accepted a position and started working for a local VA Hospital. In both my a tentative job offer and firm job offer it is clearly stated that my position qualifies for sick leave, PTO, health insurance, life insurance, pension, and 401k. I was also informed by my manager that I qualified for night shift differential, weekend differential, and paid federal holidays.

I didn't have access to my pay stubs until after my second pay period. My second pay period consisted of primarily night weekend shifts and a night shift worked on MLK. I immediately noticed something was wrong when my paycheck was half of what I expected. It was also at this time I was given access to my paystubs and no sick leave or PTO had been allotted to me.

I printed off both job offers and my paystubs and headed in to my HR department to try and iron everything out. I figured it was a simple mistake that could be fixed fairly simply.

I was then informed that my position does NOT offer these benefits. HR has since been treating me like I'm ungrateful for the job I have. These benefits played a very large roll in why I accepted the position. At my base pay rate I cannot support my wife and child and had I known this position didn't qualify for these benefits, I would be working at a different hospital.

I escalated the issue to our VISN HR office (VISN being our regional office) but they treated me as if I was gold digging. I felt very belittled. I've really enjoyed every moment of my new position and now I feel as if I've lost the wind from my sails..

Should I pursue this further?

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