r/USACE

In the past, MSCs existed to coordinate with the different districts building/managing infrastructure along the same river or whatever body of water.
Things have changed over the last 20 years, especially with improvements in communications technology.

When I moved from the district to our division, it was because I kept hearing from colleagues that the pay is better and there's less work, charge to one code and not deal with agonizing over timesheets, whether I have enough project hours to charge to.
Now this varies from place to place, position to position, but I generally found it to be true in my case. Push things from districts up to HQ, push things from HQ down to the districts, occasionally do tours site visits to district projects to view things and then fly home.

Then 2025 happened, the DRP happened, and as many at the MSC level tend to be on the older side, we saw mass retirements. It happened quick, knowledge was lost. A flood of new openings appeared, and many new people moved to the MSC level nation wide.
What resulted is that instead of passing things up or down, it's now just going down. Most of these people are in their 30s, still figuring things out, and especially, are too afraid to stand up to HQ and protect their districts.

HQ, which has long been out of touch with reality (hello RAPID!), is pushing their agendas directly to the districts very limited MSC Filters now. HQ will push a policy asking all districts to jump, and MSC response is, okay, how high shall we ask the districts to jump?

My lazy ass got fed up at what was happening at our division and their kowtowing to HQ. and so I went back to my old district this year. That COP seminar on RAPID a few weeks ago, notice most of the cheerleaders were not district employees who are struggling to figure out how to implement and operationalize these ideas.

In many ways, some of the re-alignments or mergers can actually be positive. We saw changes with SWD, and now LRD with POD next in line. Some of the MSC people will be brought back to the district where they can touch the grass again.

With the dissolving of the CBA, has any other District taken away Maxiflex time and changed/eliminated Core hrs?

Any major changes happening with the CBA gone?

I’m an early to mid-career civil engineer thinking about going private.

1. Is it better to use up as much PTO as I reasonably can before I leave or leave it alone?
2. Is it better to cash out my 4.4% FERS contributions to invest in Roth IRA/401k? It seems like the value of the pension is low until late in one’s career since the calculation isn’t inflation adjusted until age 62.
3. Any other tips for someone with about 10 years of service?

Are you seeing more 3s being given out for this rating period than in previous years? It seems everyone is getting 3s in my section. I know there were discussions about limiting the number of 5s that are given out; although I’m not a supervisor, so I’ve seen no evidence of this, it seems team members are very unhappy with ratings this year, myself included. I’m curious if this is just local to my district/branch or if others are seeing this as well. I’ve received the lowest rating in my 16 year career, and it seems I’m not the only one.

Our supervisor said that all current design projects after reaching 35% milestone will be contracted out to an AE. Essentially we are moving from design bid buid to a design build. USACE will just handle the 35% design, develop the RFP, and then oversee AE for the design-construction. Are other districts hearing this also?

I’m 33 now and have 10 years of credible service in the government. Can I leave to join the private industry and then claim my annuity when I turn 57 with no penalty?

I’m considering accepting a TJO from SPA and would like to get some insight on the office culture, especially as it relates to situational telework. Do most people have telework agreements in place? Is use of TS scrutinized? Etc.

Any insight would be appreciated!