VA puts some Veterans Crisis Line hires on hold, as it considers putting remote jobs in office

A licensed clinical social worker spent months going through the hiring process for a job at the Veterans Crisis Line. The Department of Veterans Affairs says she’ll have to keep waiting.

The reason? The VA is in the process of bringing previously remote employees into the office — except department officials aren’t sure what to do with Veterans Crisis Line employees, or where to put them.

“We regret to inform you that we are withdrawing the current Formal Job Offer,” a VA human resources official told the social worker in an email. “At this time, remote work authorization has been canceled. The Veterans Crisis Line is actively working to secure office space for new employees while concurrently requesting an exemption that would allow staff to work remotely.”

The VA sent similar emails to at least dozens of other prospective hires who received final job offers for positions at the Veterans Crisis Line.

“We do not have an estimated timeframe that we can provide regarding resolution,” the email states. “Once we have a resolution, we will provide you with a Formal Job Offer for consideration. This will include an updated start date and potentially an updated location to report to.”

The clinical social worker, who spoke to Federal News Network on the condition of anonymity, said she was supposed to start her new job in a few weeks for a position that was advertised as fully remote.

“This delay is creating chaos and ultimately could have devastating outcomes regarding veterans and their families calling the VCL, if not staffed adequately,” the social worker said.

The social worker applied for the VCL job last October last year, and interviewed in November before receiving the final job offer in recent weeks.

While the federal hiring process often takes months to complete, HR officials told the social worker they were experiencing additional delays, because they were locked out of USA Staffing, an onboarding portal run by the Office of Personnel Management.

Federal News Network previously reported that some VA HR officials, under the Trump administration’s hiring freeze, encountered a new pop-up window on HR Staffing that prevented them from taking the next step in the hiring process — until they heard back from OPM.

“They couldn’t move forward with anything there for a while,” the social worker said.

VA officially exempted much of its workforce from a governmentwide hiring freeze and OPM’s “deferred resignation” offer.

In practice, the department is encountering many of the same problems that agencies with fewer carveouts are experiencing.

VA Secretary Doug Collins, in recent video messages posted on X, said that the Trump administration’s recent workforce policies haven’t impacted veterans’ benefits, and said the VA hasn’t fired any Veterans Crisis Line responders.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) recently told reporters, however, that her office has been in contact with at least two former VCL employees the VA recently fired, as part of a governmentwide push to fire employees in their probationary period — and that the VA is in the process of rehiring them.

While the Veterans Crisis Line is still trying to hire responders who answer calls coming from veterans, current VCL employees have told Federal News Network that other hiring for other crisis line positions that support the frontline responders is frozen.

The social worker told Federal News Network she’s concerned that Trump administration officials may not fully realize the impact that this new return-to-office policy is having on VA.

“It appears the return to office mandate has created a hiring freeze on positions exempt from that freeze. Intentional or not, this is the reality of the return-to-office mandate,” the social worker said.

Federal News Network has reached out to the VA for comment.

A current VCL responder in Atlanta said that VA officials are figuring out how to bring these remote employees back into the office.

“The thing about Atlanta is the office doesn’t exist. They no longer have the building,” the employee said.

VCL employees in the area worked in the office before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, crisis line staff moved to mandatory telework, and were granted official remote work status by 2022, allowing the department to downsize office space.

“We had a whole floor, and we were pretty much on top of each other, but it worked. “They don’t need the space anymore, they basically shut it down. If you’re not using the space, we’re not going to waste the money,” the VCL employee said. “Looking at VCL, particularly in Atlanta, it would probably cost them more money than it’s worth to actually pull us from our remote status back to an office, because you’re got to find space.”

The VA recently rescinded telework and remote work policies for about 20% of its workforce — but will keep some of these policies in place, as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities, as well as several other narrow exemptions.

Several VCL employees have told Federal News Network that the VA is directing them to be within 50 miles of one of five hubs — Atlanta; Topeka; Atlanta; Canandaigua, New York; Waco, Texas; and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The Atlanta VCL employee estimated that the crisis line has roughly 2,000 total employees — but only 1,110 or 1,200 live within 50 miles of one of these hubs.

“The others, they’re out there in no man’s land, and they don’t have access to the facilities,” the employee said. “This is an ultimatum — am I going to try to uproot, get closer, or am I going to drop it and keep going?”

The VA recently fired 2,400 employees still serving in their probationary period. The department has another 40,000 probationary employees, but said these workforce reductions won’t impact VA health care or benefits.

Amid all this, the VCL employee said responders are seeing a higher-than-average call volume.

“There’s already enough of a backlog trying to get any type of appointment. But you cut staff, that makes it even worse for us,” he said. “You’re listening to veterans calling in, crying, saying ‘This isn’t fair, I need to get my benefits.’ It’s a heavy burden to carry.”