There is an atmosphere of paranoia. They operate under this notion the Federal client is going to strip them of their contract, and this fear becomes the burden of the talent under contract. I had no timekeeping issues for the 4 years I worked there (and senior HHS leaders found me invaluable in the role I performed for the Enterprise Executive Committee), but I was terminated effective immediately for placing 6 hours I worked on a Sunday in the Saturday column of my timesheet. I did not think this would be important to anyone. (No one works weekends anyway). The error in judgment did get caught and corrected in the QA process I co-designed with my on-site technical monitor, but GAPSI was angry with me because they approved my timesheet before they should have (i.e., before my technical monitor and I could finalize it). This happened largely because a holiday weekend put everyone under unusual time pressure. Nevertheless, if there is any "foul" to speak of here, GAPSI is just as much to blame as me, but washed its hands of its responsibility and tried to make me the scapegoat for something that never presented to the client as a problem or issue. The impact of the termination on my young family was severe. GAPSI was aware I had a 10 month old child and dragged me into the meeting to terminate me despite the fact they approved me to take a sick day to care for the infant, who they knew had a fever of 102 and who I described as "leaking from every orifice." In short, when I think of GAPSI, I think of sub-standard human beings in addition to young, immature, and quasi-educated professionals.
