At the time our laboratory at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Syracuse, New York was closed I was a full-time federal employee, GS-14, which paid quite well. Because I had long since passed my federal probationary period for employment, I had a guaranteed salary, but not a guaranteed job. With the laboratory gone, there was simply no need for a GS-14 research biophysicist at the Hospital. According to the Personnel Department, there were only two other jobs for which I was qualified—janitor and hospital director.