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Thread: USSS Work/Life Question.....

  1. #1
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    USSS Work/Life Question.....

    Hopefully ok to post this here...

    I ran into a young guy yesterday at a volunteer gig. We got to talking a bit about work and he shared that he got an offer to join USSS but as excited as he was about the offer, the few current and former members he's spoken with painted a bleak picture of work/life and family (divorce rate) prospects.

    I know a few long term military folks with very successful marriages. But moving your family from base to base with hundreds/thousands of similar families is quite different, I suspect, than moving from place to place with USSS. Much fewer people around you in a similar situation, less of a local support network for relocated family members, very different work demands. Etc.

    If my read on this is wrong, or someone would be interested in giving this guy some encouraging information, I'd like to try and make the connection. I didn't think to get his contact information at the time, but, will likely see him at a volunteer event next week.

    If his warning lights are justified, I'm happy (sad) to relate that confirmation to him.

    Anyway.... it troubled me enough that I thought I'd ask. I figured we had a few members in a position to offer a qualified opinion.

    Feel free to PM if you don't want to post here.

    Thanks.!
    "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

  2. #2
    banana republican blues's Avatar
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    @TGS is in a good position to answer questions of this sort. I don't know if we have USSS agent members here.

    Personally, having worked with and alongside many, it's just not a job that appealed to me...but I have respect for those agents who can do it. (There's more to the job than protective work, but still...)
    There's nothing civil about this war.

    Read: Harrison Bergeron

  3. #3
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    @RoyGBiv

    The warnings are well justified. The turnover numbers at the Service speak for themselves (even higher turnover than FAMS or Border Patrol), and I'll reserve the rest of my comments for private conversation.
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

  4. #4
    I’ve met multiple former USSS special agents who left the agency to work for other agencies. They all claim to be much happier at their current agencies. My impression is that it’s not the drain of regularly relocating long term that drags people down. It’s constant short term travel on short notice. Also the fact that every four years during a presidential election you’re spending much of the year on the road for protective details. It doesn’t matter if you were investigating the biggest case in USSS history. It’s a drop everything and go do this situation.

    Did your acquaintance get the offer for a uniformed division (UD) position or a plain clothes special agent position? I know one former UD officer. When he decided to apply for a plain clothes investigative position, he didn’t apply to USSS for a special agent position. He only applied to other agencies.

  5. #5
    We have several former USSS guys at my agency. I've NEVER heard anyone say anything good about USSS management.

  6. #6
    Site Supporter psalms144.1's Avatar
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    I've worked with tons of USSS agents, and even more FORMER USSS agents. None of them loved their management, or the pace of work they were forced to conduct. I had a former USSS agent in my Special Agent Basic class and he related that while working in the national capital region as a new hire, he was given the option to pick ONE regular day off per month for his first six months of service. He was making tons of money in scheduled OT, but he got out of USSS as soon as he could.

    I've worked about 9 years of protection out of the last 21, so if your friend has specific questions about the protection lifestyle, I'd be happy to chat.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by TC215 View Post
    We have several former USSS guys at my agency. I've NEVER heard anyone say anything good about USSS management.
    This^^^

    Some great people in USSS but they are known for their “Apache” style of management. I.e. an Apache will ride a horse till it dies, get it up again, ride it 50 more miles, then eat it.

    Unfortunately, Manny of the USSS managers brought this management style to the Federal air marshal service when it was expanded after 9/11.

    Prior comments regarding frequent short notice travel are spot on. In an election year it would not be unusual to be on the road 200 days a year And those are not eight hour days. In addition to the obvious family and relationship issues this can cause, it can be frustrating for those who are trying to work investigations that have to be put on hold at critical junctures to prioritize protection work.

  8. #8
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    Edge of my lane- I had started a response to this thread on my home computer but had to come into the office and just came up for air. My first version was better I suspect.

    Like the others who have posted, I know a lot of former USSS Special Agents who are now Special Agents with other agencies, mostly smaller OIGs.

    In the Midwest, USSS agents get detailed to IOWA as the election season rolls around, all the time, such that ANY casework that is not protection related take a back seat.

    I believe that USSS agents have to do a DC based Protection assignment that is 4+ yrs in length. I have heard it referred to as the "marriage breaker" because those agents are NEVER around their families in a consistent, predictable way.

    I know a former USSS Agent (Now with an OIG) who was assigned to the Baltimore or DC Field Office ( different from the protection detail) and was told that time in the "field office " would count toward the protection detail because those agents augment that PD on a regular basis. Ultimately that was not the case such that the promised 4 yr gig in DC max became a 6 yr gig min.

    I know that as a USSS agent you will spend more out of pocket for gear/clothes/shoes etc. because by custom, practice, pride and position, USSS agents wear suits and ties much more often than other agencies such that buying off the rack at Macy's with a pair or two of leather soled Alfani brand dress shoes is simply not going to cut it.

    I know that I have to tell USSS agent that when I say meet me @ 0900 I mean 0900, not 0830. They are, to an agent, VERY on time. I have had little success and finally have said, you come when you want, I will see you at 0845-0850 because that is as early as I run and you can witness me walk into the office for the day.

    Having said all of that, Series 1811 Special Agents Appointments are hard to come by. Virtually every retired USSS SA I know has parlayed their training/experience into very nice retirement gigs if they so chose. i.e. Pick of the litter executive protection,. high end private investigative work, security directorships for banks, school districts, private schools, universities, colleges, hospital systems etc. I am not saying that other retired agents do not land on their feet. It just seems that retired USSS ones do so better than all the others I have seen.

    The window opens and closes on being Series 1811 SA. The agency you start with is not the agency you end with. Knowing everything I know now, I would try to realistically set the expectations of my family accordingly if I was going to take that job.

    Let us know what happens.

    BE SAFE AND WELL ALL.
    I am not your attorney. I am not giving legal advice. Any and all opinions expressed are personal and my own and are not those of any employer-past, present or future.

  9. #9
    Modding this sack of shit BehindBlueI's's Avatar
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    I worked with them fairly frequently during the Pence VP years. Seemed like a lot of short term travel, a lot of working for people who were, um, "personalities", and a lot of things that didn't really appeal to me. I also noticed I didn't see the same guys all the time, and the guys I did see weren't even from the same office. They knew each other, but it wasn't like a team from Office X flew in. Some guys from here, some from there, hasty assemble and take care of the detail then go back home sort of stuff.

    The one UD guy I knew certainly did not speak highly of his time there.
    Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    The one UD guy I knew certainly did not speak highly of his time there.
    I always heard that UD was one of the worst jobs in law enforcement.

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