Summary The Telephone Operator is within the Health Administration Service. This person is responsible for receiving and distributing incoming calls and messages throughout the medical center. Responsibilities Places and receives local calls. Places and receives regular and special long distance calls over commercial circuits, tie lines, or other systems and various networks, consisting of wide area commercial system, a civilian Federal system, and a Federal overseas exchange system. Provides directory service assistance to callers by retrieving organizational information from computerized directory databases. Keeps records of calls for computing charges. Provides primary or alternate routing service for high precedence calls. Handles calls of varying precedence and preempting circuits if necessary. Keeps statistics on system use to inform management of trends concerning capacity and utilization, operates associated equipment. Places personal calls (LD) for senior employees, physicians, bed-restricted patients, and visiting dignitaries and other personnel at the facility. Prepares and records long distance and local information regarding the facility's communications management. system and other special telephone studies utilizing toll tickets and summary sheets, as required. Makes periodic peg counts of all types of traffic including incoming, outgoing, off-net, information, and other types. Totals monthly tickets and files with appropriate data at the end of the month. Monitors vital circuits and incoming emergency type calls such as those to security, the police, the fire department, etc., to assure call completion and proper disposition. Responsible for issuing emergency keys and for the security of the Dial Central Office (DCO) after normal duty hours. Serves as telephone trouble desk operator after normal duty hours, reporting all emergency communication outages to the maintenance section. Responsible for retrieving and/or updating relevant information in computerized databases using detailed procedural instructions and established guidelines pertaining to customers assistance, record keeping, and call receiving, placing, and monitoring. Work Schedule: Sunday 6:00am-2:00pm, Monday 6:00am-2:30pm Tuesday-Thursday 2:00pm - 10:00pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Telephone Operator/PD23115-A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/08/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-04 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-03. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GENERAL EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one (1) year of general experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. General experience is progressively responsible clerical, office, or other work that indicates ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position to be filled. OR SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE: Successful completion of two (2) years of education above the high school level in any field. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. One year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business, secretarial or technical school. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR COMBINING EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Combination of successfully completed post high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Critical Thinking Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Flexibility Interpersonal Effectiveness Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. The employee sits comfortably to do the work. There is some moving around to adjust equipment; carry of light items such as papers, books. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Education A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.