Comment Number: EM-008397
Received: 3/9/2005 10:16:29 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:

I have been an employee with the Social Security Administration since 1997 and I have be amazed at the lack of management authority to get rid of lazy and incompetent employees. I applaud the new system proposed for the DOD and urge you to implement them in all government agencies. My experiences here at SSA have been very disheartening as a taxpayer. The vast majority of employees within this agency are GS-11 and above. These employees earn more than over 80% of all wage earners in this country, yet no one expects them to perform better than 80% of all workers. The Civil Service rules and union contracts have created an entitlement mentality that robs the taxpayers of their hard earned money and rewards laziness and incompetence as much as it rewards hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence. Al Gore's horrible reinvention of government that stripped agencies of management support only served to worsen an already bad situation. Our agency has many talented employees who are dedicated to the taxpayers they serve. But, unfortunately, for every such hard worker there is at least one employee who's only dedication is to themselves. Our hardest working employees must work in an environment that rewards mediocrity and the status quo. Management within the agency does little to change this culture and apparently refuses to use the tools currently available to them. My hope is that a new system will provide them with additional tools and the sorely needed kick in the pants to take action. Our highest union officials waste their time and energy complaining that management wants to include a dress code in the next union contract. They appear to believe that it is a horrible injustice to require an employee earning $60,000 per year to dress in a professional manner. Meanwhile they expect those of us with the abilities and the work ethic to perform at a level that is commensurate with our pay to sit back and watch fellow employees receive the same pay for a fraction of the work we produce. New rules are needed to give these union officials a new perspective. Despite my support for the effort to overhaul our outdated and inefficient system, I have some reservations about the safeguards to ensure that the best performing employees truly get the best pay raises. Any system that does not include full and open disclosure that will allow employees to make meaningful comparisons and prevent secrecy will only open the door for lawsuits and nay-sayers to point fingers. This system must include making comparative data available to all employees and include a meaningful review process for those who feel they did not get what they earned. I would like to give SSA as an example of what could be done. Our output is captured by computer inputs that provide work credit for certain actions. We currently have a fairly comprehensive system that allows management to track the total output of each employee. However, this data is not distributed to bargaining unit employees to compare their output to the output of their peers. Our awards process if rather secretive and the type and amount of individual awards is never discussed. Additionally, the amount of award money available to each office is based only upon a percentage of office salary. There are no distinctions between a high performing office and a low performing office. The most substantial award, a Quality Step Increase (which results in a within grade increase), is distributed based upon staffing levels only. So a high performing office filled with superstar employees is allocated the same type and amount of awards as an office filled with under performing employees. Despite the internal secrecy of our awards process, our local newspaper has the right to request the annual salaries of all of our employees and publish as many of them as they wish. I believe this disclosure is authorized in the Freedom of Information Act or some similar legislation. Bargaining unit employees apparently don't have the right to compare their performance with their peers, yet our newspaper has the right to announce our salaries to the world. I believe any appraisal system must include the right for all employees to have access to comparative data to ensure that their raises truly reflect their performance. Any silly notion of a right to privacy should be trumped by a citizen's right to know what their government employees do to earn their salaries. Federal employees are, after all, citizens first. The fact that our local newspaper is allowed access to our annual salary data proves that this argument has already been addressed and a determination was made that the right to disclosure of government activities is more important than this privacy issue. The system also needs to eliminate the equal distribution of the types and amounts of awards to all offices despite their overall performance. The systems needs to allow employees to be compared and to compete with all employees nationwide. The employees of a high performing office, such as the one in which I work, deserve more than the employees of a lackluster office. In conclusion, I support the proposed system but urge Congress to ensure transparency in the appraisal system.