| Comment Number: | OL-10500630 |
| Received: | 2/18/2005 10:59:18 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:
Proposed NSPS Regulations I believe these proposed regulations are a slap in the face for every DOD employee, military reservists and congressman who passed the laws Mr Rumsfield is trying to abolish. Performance Management: Elimination of a public law with its requirements for valid performance standards and a good faith opportunity to improve before an employee is demoted or fired is rife with problems. I have a supervisor whom I asked point blank during a performance review with the statement “How do I exceed my elements” with a reply of “ I don’t know”. Your agency indicates it will train supervisors to be effective and efficient supervisors. This supervisor had already received 40 to 80 hours of in class training and replied in this manner. If you have bad supervisors and you give them more power it does not solve any problems just aggravates the situation. It becomes a personality pageant as employees grapple with supervisors over who has the “best attitude or is more appreciated” in the workplace. Giving these supervisors who wouldn’t know what the elements of management let alone there are elements of management authority over basic pay and retention in a RIF would be an egregious error. Management Relations: Many of us are reservists who were activated due the recent events. I personally had my appraisal lowered due to activation with the comment “you weren’t here so how could you get a good appraisal and then to top the comment off with the statement that civilian personnel told us to give fully successful ratings to activated reservists”. The only recourse available to me was union representation. I was activated to ensure another country could have the same freedoms as the United States of America and one of the basic tenets of this country is the right to collective bargaining and redress of grievances in a court of law. Your agency is taking away my basic rights which I was activated on to ensure another country has the same rights as you now wish to deny me with this NSPS regulation. Reductions in Force: It is difficult to understand what you are trying to accomplish with the proposed changes to the RIF regulations published by OPM at 5 CFR Part 351. Giving considerably less of an advantage to veterans and disabled veterans in a RIF is a slap in the face to everyone who gave to their country. Having performance ratings count for much more weight in retention standing that years of service and veterans preference is unconscionable. We went to merit principles to keep cronyism and favoritism out of employment decisions and you wish to abolish them and go back to a system that we legislated out of existence back into existence. You state these regulations should help keep the brightest and most talented and cut the unproductive from the ranks and I submit that you will drive the brightest and most talented away from DOD and into other agencies or employment. I have never considered leaving DOD but with these new regulations and my educational background another agency may be the correct course for me. Just what your regulations were trying to prevent i.e., losing employees who give all and have good work ethics and exceptional job skills.