U.S. Customs and Border Protection reviews

Mandatory overtime with no regard for your personal life or family life. You get up to 5 weeks vacation but they steal it from you anyway by forcing you to call in sick to get a day off - so after you burn up your sick leave you use up annual leave then take leave without pay. Frequent payroll errors never in your favor: You have to check your hours worked against your earning and leave statements. They mess them up constantly, making you chase your money.

The management level employees I have worked with have always been a disappointment. Aside from the 10yrs w/the IRS, management with each agency have been extremely overpaid, lazy, and careless. With USBP the management staff are continually rotated in/out, leaving permanent department employees in a constant state of "re-inventing the wheel" syndrome. In the 6yrs with USBP, I have seen 7 immediate supervisor changes, 5 next level changes, and our Chief of Sector has rotated out 6 times now. The department I work in, currently has 6 supervisors for 13 employees... yes you read that right 6/13. Every time a new immediate supervisor comes in, they want to "change things", even though it adversely affects everyone in the department. It might be a law enforcement thing, but every new supervisor wants to "leave their mark" before moving on (even if it is unnecessary, disruptive or foolish). Each supervisor is assigned to our department for no more than 2yrs, but you would be amazed at the havoc they can create in those 2 short years! USBP also has a big problem with promoting those who are liked, as opposed to the quantity of those who perform. It's a buddy system here. You're either promoted "out" for being unliked, or promoted "in" because their buddy decides it to be so...and it's always a promotion to move along the unliked. Yes, there are some good leaders, but the ratio of good AND qualified remains a big question mark. One other "con" I have is how this agency abuses, and outright steals overtime benefits. Uniformed employees believe they are entitled to 2hrs OT/day even if they are not required to remain at work. Most of the time, USBP agents are hanging around, complaining of the lack of work there is to do in the office, but stay to collect OT funds. This is a HUGE ongoing problem, with no resolution on the horizon...ever. Overall USBP is a good-ole-boys-club for management level staff. The agents in the field are some of the greatest around. They are extremely frustrated with the political mess we are in right now as a nation, unable to complete their mission effectively, but they DO give it their all every single day. My hats-off to them. However, the over staffed management positions detailed or employed in USBP's administrative/office settings have abused their overpaid positions, and are an ineffective bloated element within USBP.