Comment Number: OL-10502114
Received: 3/1/2005 7:47:03 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:

I would like to say that I feel this is an effort to 1. Systematicly weaken personnel protections in the civil service system and 2. Save money by disolving the mandatory pay protections we as Government employees have had for decades. I came to work for the Government in large part because of these protections and benefits, making many sacrifices along the way and now as the system appears to me to be declining, for my best interest, there soon may be no advantage to work for the Govenment any longer. Please, be assured, I am not alone in this belief. I'm a patriot and love my country but I will not hesitate to leave Governement Service (I served over 24 years in the US Military) as soon as my pay is calculated for anything less than and at any noticable difference from that with which it would have been under the old protected system. I have made countless sacrifices for my Government over my career, as has my family. You better think long and hard about this new system if your going to compete with the commercial world and be prepared to dig deep into Uncle Sams pockets to keep the experienced and knowledgable on board. Weakening the System will not improve the System. Changes within Management and the Beauracracies within is the only thing that will correct faults within this System. I have heard many talk who are either close to retirement or otherwise little invested in Government employ and I believe as soon as things start going South you will see numbers leaving the likes of which you have never seen before and I'm not talking just those that you may want to be rid of either. This may be one of your goals for making these changes, I really don't know anymore. While I do believe changes are needed this is not the way to go about it. You are throwing the baby out with the bath water in my opinion just to get rid of a few bad apples. As for my second point that this is a move to save money. I would be willing to bet a years salary that less than half those government employees who will remain after this is implemented will not be making the same salary that they would have under the old system even though they may be considered to be very good employees pulling their own weight. Who are you kidding. You can't give one person an 8% raise without taking money out of someone elses pocket unless you increase the size of the pay pot overall and you and I both know thats not going to happen. We're all not the dumb, no nothing civil servants you think we are. Like I said earlier since I'm not highly invested in this new career, leaving to work for private industry isn't out of the question for me. I've been there before and I will go back if thats what I need to do. If your attitude about me is, good ridence, then I didn't need to be here anyway.