| Comment Number: | OL-10501063 |
| Received: | 2/23/2005 12:00:28 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:
The proposed system is clearly a step backward. Although pay for performance and matters of security are, or should be a concern of most people, marketing a product such as the NSPS in this way is a deception. Working under the new system is an erosion of what has taken many decades to tweak and improve. The feeling among employees (I know) is that we have become a liability rather than asset to our Government. Most of us having chosen careers within DOD long ago view these changes as a finite definition of management and employee roles rather than embracing our common goals to foster loyalty and good morale. I am deeply disappointed at the clear intent it represents and the methods used to ramrod its implementation. Implementation of the NSPS will take us back to the time when it was more important to have friends in management than it was to take pride in a job well done. Friends take care of friends, thus the re-birth of the "good ole boy" network. Pay for performance is a slippery slope and can net benefits much lower than anticipated. After all, it is what some may consider the "insignificant many" rather than the top performers that get the job done. Keeping the workforce as a whole in good morale is much more important than implementing a system which boasts rewarding those over achievers. When it was clear to me that I went far beyond performance standards and yet received no award, I told myself “other duties as assigned” (taken from our standards). Considering those words and the oath I took when first hired, I didn’t need to be rewarded. My work and sense of pride was enough for me and many people I know feel the same way. We have been told what a good job we are all doing. I came to believe our Government truly felt that way. The NSPS gives many (from my perspective) a feeling completely the opposite of reward. To me it is a case of "action speaking louder than words". The terms modernization, re-organization, re-invention, re-alignment, downsize, right size, have been over used the past 15-20 years. These terms have become the means to achieve goals that do not consider the good of everyone. People have become aware of this and not only greet new changes with skepticism, but have become experts in seeing things on the other side after the dust settles. We could loose our union representation, the right to bargain? Wow! The message is clear.