| Comment Number: | OL-10500016 |
| Received: | 2/14/2005 3:08:30 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:
To Whom It May Concern: I am 25 years old and work as a civilian for the Navy at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division in China Lake California. I was hired as a result of NAWCWD’s aggressive hiring strategy targeted at young scientists and engineers. I have been working in civil service as a software developer for the past 3 years. I have a degree in computer science from California State University Northridge, which I obtained in 2001. Here at China Lake, we are already on an alternative pay system called the Demonstration Project, which has been in place for a few decades and has had tremendous success. Everyone I know here personally loves it. I understand that the NSPS will be similar. I would strongly recommend partnering with China Lake, and others, who have had decades of experience with executing a pay for performance style system. What we have here works and there is no sense in reinventing the wheel. I understand the systems will not be identical, but there is much knowledge to be gained from the DP system. I would not give much weight to the cries of the union bosses who swear that the world as we know it will collapse if we move to a PFP system. They do nothing but spout off fear and other dooms day predictions. The simple fact is that the private sector has been PFP since the concept of commerce was born. But for some reason, government employment is on a different system which doesn't follow the same rules or make logical sense. It is a system where everyone is treated the same, and it is very difficult to take disciplinary action for improper conduct, or poor performance. And for that reason, it is obvious why people are fighting so hard to maintain the status quo. We need to bring the government system closer to the private sector, and I think the NSPS is a great way to do that. Our national security is at stake here. The bottom line is that none of the things DOD does would happen without people. People are the key, and without good people in place, you will not get good results. Incompetence in employees can cost our nation dearly. How would the public feel if they knew that there were technological failures in our weapons systems because the people engineering them were incompetent? It would be a huge disservice to the taxpayer and the citizen. We need to get the right people working for the government, and implementing a PFP style system will definitely help in that process. I wish you the best of luck in doing this, and urge you to ignore the dooms day predictions made by the union bosses. I also advise partnering with people who have experience in the Demo Project system. They will be able to share a wealth of knowledge. -Matt Feemster NAWCWD matt.feemster@navy.mil