| Comment Number: | EM-017505 |
| Received: | 3/10/2005 7:05:45 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:
March 10, 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. I have been working as a Federal employee for over 30 years . With losses of personnel over the years and additional demands on our time at work caused by changes in the way we handle our workloads and training, the only way I am able to keep my work current is by working flextime. It is the time before and after the hours we are open to the public that are most important to processing the work we have taken in. The computer automation that has enabled us to work more efficiently with less people has also resulted in many, many more hours of training. Changes are made in the way we do business several times a year, as well as daily updates in many areas. The daily updates alone would take at least 1/2 hr of our workday to read and absorb. We need the flextime, since overtime isn't usually available, and when it is available, we are allowed to work only on Saturday overtime. I reserve weekends for my family, with 2 sets of aging parents, a disabled adult child to help, and my own home and family to care for, I need the weekends. Flextime is vital to getting my work done. I am concerned about the pay for performance, because much of our current complex workload comes from past shoddy work. We still have workers that due to lack of training or job incompetence or just laziness will not process a claim correctly. It takes much longer to process a claim correctly than it does to ignore necessary development and process it anyway. Management defends the sloppy workers because they are putting out numbers, until there are repercussions, then I am asked to clean up the mess the sloppy worker has created. I work hard, give up breaks, give up part of lunch time, and work late to keep current. I don't know that my numbers are any better than the shoddy worker's numbers. I know the quality of my work is much better, but that probably will count for nothing. Our management isn't that aware of quality and how work should be done because they have been out of the processing of the workload aspects too long. They can only measure by the numerical aspects. There are many ineffecient employees in the organization. But numbers can be juggled, so the numerical system is not the way to eliminate inefficiency. We have to look at quality as well. Sincerely,