| Comment Number: | EM-020094 |
| Received: | 3/14/2005 11:23:14 PM |
| 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 14, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: I wish 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 worked for DoD for more than 37 years. I am now retired, but I am angry that these proposals seem to treat the employees who help defend our country as the enemy. Most DoD employees work hard and are committed. Annual Pay Raises Under the General Schedule and FWS, employee pay was clear. It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away. ?Friend of the Supervisor? Pay System With the new patronage pay system, which DoD calls ?pay for performance,? the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of his or her manager. During my 37 plus years, I saw the performance appraisal system reward many poor performers, who happened to have good office politics. They often did not know their jobs very well, but knew how to razzle/dazzle the supervisor. The end result was that they were promoted to higher paying jobs and many of them made supervisor. This meant that they became part of the ?family? and continued the same habits of rewarding their friends, to the detriment of the DoD. Schedules and Overtime NSPS will allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient advance notice of schedule changes. It will also mean that abusive managers could harass employees with bad schedules or short notice. Civilian Deployment Federal employees could be assigned anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice. I am proud to serve my country but I am also responsible for caring for my family and my personal obligations at home. We signed up for a civilian job. We did not enlist in the military. In effect this is the reinstatement of the Draft. Take a long hard look at what our Civil Servants have been able to accomplish in conjunction with our military. Most of us are very patriotic and would work beyond the call of duty when needed by our country, but at the same time we expect fair treatment. Sincerely,