Side work while working for USACE

[geomane]

If I were to get a job for the USACE geotechnical division, could I provide geotechnical engineering services on the side for small residential projects?

 

[willsee]

If I were to get a job for the USACE geotechnical division, could I provide geotechnical engineering services on the side for small residential projects?

What does the contract you signed say?

 

[geomane]

I said "if I were to get a job." I don't work for the USACE right now.

 

[willsee]

My guess is that they won't care and you would be fine

 

[tj_PE]

and my guess would be that they might care. depends if there's a conflict of interest and if it affects your full time position. most contracts include wording on "moonlighting"

 

[agni]

Many government entities requires waivers from upper management to freelance. Like @tj_PE mentioned, conflict of interest is a big deal when working in the public sector.

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

and my guess would be that they might care. depends if there's a conflict of interest and if it affects your full time position. most contracts include wording on "moonlighting"

When you get involved with government and public sector work, the rules are much different than private industry.  Even in the private industry you have to make sure your side work cant be seen as stealing from your employer.

 

[willsee]

He's doing residential - I assume he's not competing with the Corps

 

[frazil]

I believe you also cannot use any government-provided hardware or software to do the work.

 

[Road Guy]

never worked for the feds but it was similar at both the state and county agency I worked at, any outside employment had to be pre-approved.  It would generally be approved if it was something that wasn't work associated with the agency so I think you would be okay.  But most of the ones I had were people working another non related job at nights or weekends ( these weren't engineer types)

You could also go with the its easier to get forgiveness than permission route -

 

[DoctorWho-PE]

I have a friend who is a Structural Engineer for USACE, and he in the past has done some work for small commercial and residential projects.  They were things that USACE would never be involved in, so he was ok'd to do the work by his sups.  It does become tricky with the liability insurance, so he did the work under the Architecture firm's umbrella so it was covered under their insurance, and he did not have to get his own.

 

[nmaevh]

Late response to this, but as long as there is no conflict of interest you are fine. You're ethics training at USACE will talk about this. Typically the contractors for USACE are not the same as residential. There are definitely a handful of people in each district who do side jobs.