Comments:

February 17, 2005

  DoD NSPS Comments

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   DoD NSPS Comments:

  I am writing to express my concerns about changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD).  The proposed regulations, identified as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), were printed in the Federal Register on February 14, 2005.  This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. 

  One of the reasons I left a good job a few years ago to come to work for the DoD was the stability offered by the GS pay scale.   I am upset that the new system seems to take away the checks and balances in place in the current system.   Most DoD employees work hard and are committed to performing well and doing a good job. I believe that this new pay system will hurt the agency’s mission.  I do not think that NSPS is a good system for government employees.   This system will change the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated.  These rules would create a system in which federal managers have the potential to be  influenced by favoritism rather than promoting the traditional work ethic.

  Annual Pay Raises

  Under the General Schedule, employee pay was clear.  It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away.  However, NSPS will take away this certainty.  Salaries and bonuses are funded by DoD.  In the past – as recently as just last year – DoD did not fund its awards program.   It is my understanding that no system is in place in the NSPS to insure  that government employees can have confidence that salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future.  If this is true, this will provide absolutely no incentive for employees to "exceed expectations" because there will be no reward for doing so.

  Schedules and Overtime

  It is my understanding that NSPS will allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient advance notice of schedule changes.  If this is true, it could defininelty adversely affect parents who would then have to make costly child-care arrangements.

  Civilian Deployment

  It is also my understanding that Federal employees could be deployed anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice.  I am proud to serve my country but I joined the government as a civilian, not as a member of the military.  

  Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.