Comment Number: OL-10500248
Received: 2/15/2005 6:42:46 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:

Any system that bases hiring, firing, promotions or demotions on the good graces of your supervisor, rather than your performance, and then does away with most avenues of appeal, is not a good system. Even though this system is being touted as a way for management to overcome some of the barriers to hiring good people, and states that pay increases and promotions will be based on performance, those of us who have any time at all in government service, know that this is just another version of the "good ole boy" system that has been around for years and years. All that will matter, in the end, is how well your boss likes you. And, hiring a better caliber of employee, faster, is not going to make a dent in the problems that have been created in government, by our own administration, over the last 10 years. Downsizing, regionalizing, call it what you will, has driven off our top performers and, if asked, I doubt that any would return, no matter how fast you could hire them and/or how much you could offer to pay them because that is not why we cannot attract employees. Even if they come on board, they soon leave because "there's no one driving the boat". Brain-drain has been astronomical and this newest experiment to "make it better" at the expense of the workforce that remains, is just another experiment in futility.