This has been my concern also although it is impossible to prove. For example the switch to a new time and attendance systems occurred during the week of July 4th which except for the end of December is when the greatest number of reviewers take vacation. In spite of this reviewers were told that they had to verify their personal information in the new time and attendance system during this week otherwise they might have problems that would be very difficult to fix.

Policies were changed so that special permission has to be obtained each week to build up compensatory time and credit time on Sundays. This has severely impacted Jewish reviewers who did this so they wouldn’t have to use excessive amounts of vacation time for religious holidays.

Under the new system you need to ask for permission with the exact time you are taking off for Drs. appointments. You not only have to put the request in via the computer systems but also have to send an e-mail requesting permission first. Then if your Dr. appt runs long you have to get everything corrected which requires special input from a centralized office.

Reviewers are having to spend so much time on fixing these things that it is cutting into the time for doing reviews. If you’re contientious you then do the review work by working on your own time in the evening or weekends, but of course there’s no money in the budget to pay for this and it’s illegal to do it if you’re not paid, so you have to do it serreptitiously otherwise you can get it trouble.

It seems to some of us that these systems and changes in policy might be being used as a form of harassment and retaliation for saying things in reviews or meetings that the companies don’t like. Of course there’s no way to prove that.