And guess who I work for as a civilian. The U.S. Navy. Every single civilian supervisor I've had so far in my GS career hated that I was a reservist. One even told me they wouldn't hire a reservist the next time. And I'm not some low level employee. I'm considered a senior civilian in my career and still get shit for it.
It’s a major problem in the GS sector and prob more then private.
GS can’t exactly just hire anyone to backfill without all sorts of HR backing. So a reservist leaving either leaves a gap or they got to hire a temp or term civilian.
I know that I have worked in a relatively narrow slice of the federal government but know quite a few of my fellow reservists that have worked across many parts of the government and at all levels (to include quite a few in the Navy) and government contracting and very few of them have issues being a reservist, either while getting hired or while they are working in their jobs. There have been a few instances where folks have had issues but they were almost all individual issues and not office or agency-wide.
So while you all may have had some issues they are in my experience, both first and second-hand, relatively rare exceptions and nowhere near the rule. That said several USERRA folks I have talked to said the federal government was the worst offender they dealt though it was also by far the largest one they dealt with too. They also mentioned that 99% of the cases were resolved in 1 to 2 phone calls.
My and most of my peers experience has been more similar to Griz's, where any action or even non-sarcastic disparaging of reservists will get you in hot water pretty fast.
There’s a few positions that are exempt and you’re not allowed to hold reserve membership in. And if you’re in those positions you’re supposed to move to USNR S1 status because you’re mob could be detrimental to public safety or national security.
Often times individuals keep drilling and if mobilized they’ll get letters from their employers saying they can’t be mobilized and CNR will cancel their mob.
The Navy Reserve is then supposed to start processing your discharge or transfer to the IRR, I've seen specific explicit instructions the last few years about this and while a few may get still get away with it Navy Reserve policy is not to have those folks as SELRES. I know this in part because one of my bosses tried to do this with for my first MOB but his boss nixed that bright idea before it got very far. Lets be frank, I ain't
that important.