Employment -- The District of Columbia Government is a Big Joke!

In the summer of 2005 I registered with the District of Columbia Department of Rehabilitation Services.  I was interested in obtaining employment.  In fact, I am still interested in obtaining employment. 

I was initially assigned to a job counselor named Eugene Weatherford at Rehabilitation Services.  I was later assigned to Quentin Merrill.  I have yet to be advised of a single job interview.

But I will continue to wait.  If Rehabilitation Services calls me about an interview, I will go to the interview, and make a good faith effort to obtain employment.  It's just that Rehabilitation Services never writes; they never call.  They are like the children I never had.

The Social Security Administration has a program called "The Ticket to Work Program."  Benefits recipients are provided a "Ticket to Work," which they may submit to an employment agency or any private or government-sponsored job locator program.  I submitted my "Ticket to Work" to the D.C. Rehabilitation Services Administration in the summer of 2005.  Almost five years have elapsed.  Yes, I am still waiting for my first interview.

A clever lawyer, or at least a lawyer with a sense of humor, would say that Rehabilitation Services has breached a contract with the federal government.  The Social Security Administration is, under the common law of contracts, a third-party beneficiary of the agreement between me and the Rehabilitation Services Administration whereby the District has promised to find me a job.  Once the District finds me a job, and I become employed, Social Security will no longer have a duty to pay me disability benefits.  But the District, as a clever lawyer -- or a lawyer with a sense of humor -- would say, has reneged on the bargain.

You need a sense of humor to deal with the government of the District of Columbia.  That's what I've learned after living in the District, lo these last 27 years.  Fortunately, I have a sense of humor.

The District's Department of Human Rights determined that there was no probable cause to believe that I was fired unlawfully from my job because a psychiatrist (who never examined me) said I had a mental disorder -- despite the fact I don't have a mental disorder -- and the Rehabilitation Services Administration has reneged on its promise to find me employment.  Fortunately, another division of the Rehabilitation Services Administration has found that I am disabled and entitled to a half-million dollars in federal benefits (disability benefits plus Medicare and Medicaid).  You win some, you lose some, I guess.  If Kafka had a sense of humor he would have written a novel about me and the District government.