| Comment Number: | EM-001373 |
| Received: | 2/23/2005 10:57:09 AM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
February 23, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: I write to express my concerns about changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD). The proposed regulations, known 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. A little about me. I am a Federal employee. I am a GS-11 Supervisor. I am also a retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer. I anticipate terminating my employment after working at Commander, Navy Personnel Command in Millington, TN for 7 years in August 2005. I am not going to be affected by this proposed NSPS change but feel that this change is partly right and partly wrong. I do like the idea that it will be easier to terminate bad employees. We have had a few employees that we terminated due to poor performance but it was extremely hard and time consuming. Even with a large amount of documentation, we lost one case although the government paid a substantial amount to a member in order to terminate the member's civil service status. I do not like the idea of allowing Supervisors to decide who gets a pay raise and how much. It will be the same as allowing the fox to guard the henhouse. Remember, there are some pretty bad supervisors in DOD just as there are some poor non-supervisor employees. Although guidelines that we currently have received for the NSPS change is vague at this time, we have discussed what we know with our civil service personnel in our Branch. Some personnel are very concerned that this program is open to abuse and the personnel who have face time with their supervisors will be more apt to get a substantial pay raise and those who do not will be left with nothing. This is what happened last year in another Branch in our code. The only personnel who received a monetary personnel award were the supervisors. None went to the junior employees. I cannot fathom how a Branch can be successful where only the supervisors perform above standards. I firmly believe the only reason why we are changing our current pay system is to save money not because some government employees are not worthy of a pay raise. I believe that instead of giving everyone a 3.5% pay raise across the board, that when NSPS is approved, there will be 2.5% allotted for pay raises. Then, guess who is going to get the raise? If I were sticking around, I as a widely respected Supervisor, would get more than 2.5% because I am an outstanding Supervisor. I feel like, based on my responsility, I deserve a 5% pay raise. Other Supervisors might feel they should get a 10% pay raise. Of course, that is going to leave nothing or bread crumbs for the most junior of our personnel. Sorry, but that is human nature. Granted we do have some personnel who do not perform as well as other personnel. That is why we have different paygrades for civilians. Those who do perform at higher standards from their peers are promoted when openings occur. And when there are not any openings, that is when Spot awards or end of year incentive awards are given to those personnel who are performing well above their peers. Lastly, I wouldn't want to be the final say so on who gets a raise and who doesn't. There will be a few disgruntled employees who will take personally that they didn't get a raise and, at a minimum, will threaten their supervisors and make their lives miserable and a few will take physical actions against that supervisor. It will not matter if these employees have or have not been properly counseled. Our current performance appraisals are Pass and Fail. The old appraisal systems used to be graded on a 1 to 5 scale. The 1 was considered Fail, 3 Average and 5 Outstanding. At lease the member knew where they stood. The Pass/Fail change took the pressure off forcing the Supervisor to make the hard decision on who their best performers were. As I stated earlier, I will probably be terminating my status in the next 6 months or so. I do not have a stake in the proposed changes. The hate and discontent that will be caused by the proposed change will undermine the camaraderie that must be maintained in a branch or department to perform successfully. There will be accusations, some accurate and many more inaccurate. The time to adjudicate the grievances will be very time consuming for Supervisors which will take them away from their assigned responsibilities. Yes, make it easier to remove poor performers. I strongly disagree that the proposed change to the way we dispense yearly pay raises is the best for DOD personnel. It will lead to abuse by Supervisors because all Supervisors will get a raise whether or not their division meets command expectations. Isn't this what happens to most CEO's in the civilian communtiy whether or not their company has met or exceeded their yearly expectations? Sincerely,