Comment Number: OL-10503495
Received: 3/6/2005 1:06:26 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:

•Pay bands provide more flexibility to assign employees new or different work•Lengthy, detailed job descriptions no longer needed. Flexibility? How is it that the employee is to know what is expected of them to enable them to meet a criteria? If I don't have a specific job how can I be an expert and achieve a higher standard if I don't even know what I will be doing from one day to the next. I have worked for over 20 years for the Air Force. I have held many positions and each has had a specific set of AFI's that direct requirements of a program. Inspections are based on the implementation of those directives. Readiness is impacted by employees knowing exactly what those AFI's direct. You don’t read the manual on how to use the fire extinguisher after the fire has started! No one can be a SME (subject matter expert) on the entire regulation library. These rules are obviously written by people who have no clue as to how the "real" mission is accomplished! I don’t know how the other branches of DOD complete their mission but my guess is the same as the Air Force. “Team building” “Team work” No one person can be the know all, be all, do all. It takes team work, people working toward a common goal of mission accomplishment. People who learn their co-workers over time are able to build a working relationship that brings about that team effort. The NSPS sounds like a way to keep everyone off balance and punish them because they are not able to be an expert in their job while moving them from one tasking to another without warning or even telling them what is expected or what is performance excellence. I have always been a superior performed however any new job I have taken has always been a learning experience that required me to dig into the AFI’s , gather knowledge from co-workers who had been there longer and learn. It takes time. You can’t build a sound foundation or structure with out a blueprint! I feel the entire NSPS will be another nightmare in our Federal Government. Not only for the employee but also for our nation. You know I just don’t get it. No other worker in America works to pay his or her own salary. The Civil Servant does! No other American worker places themselves in buildings that are targets for terrorists like the Civil Servant. How about hazard duty pay for us while we are rewriting everything! This system has not been designed to do anything other than to discriminate, fire people who get to close to that retirement pay out they have worked for and ensure positions end up term appointments that sit vacant long enough between hires so they can be classed “term” This keeps the government from paying any benefits. How stupid do you really think we are that we have not learned how the system thinks? Mistrust does not even begin to describe what this Pandora’s box will generate that has been created. I have talked to a large number of other DOD workers. They agree. Most say they are already looking at retirement options. Others are already looking for other employment now and throwing away vested time. These personnel are not even going to bother writing comments because they see the handwriting on the wall. We have endured BRAC. A-76, RIF's, reform and restructure for years now. We are tired of living on the edge with no security in our jobs and our ability to provide a future for our family. We have bills to pay and dreams to build. We only live once and living like this, waiting to see what the government will do next to try and get rid of us is no way to live. We can't even make future plans because we see no future if we stay! Our government is getting ready to lose its experienced workers and continuity. God help us if we were to have another Pearl Harbor! You will have a bunch of temp hires who have no clue running around asking what is a THREATCON! I will pray tonight that those who have the power to stop this action will. A closer look at what this “reform” will do is needed. The Federal work place is not a “business” it is not IBM or Halliburton! We are not for profit. We have a mission that impacts the world. God help this country and the world if the ability for us to continue the accomplishment of that mission is turned into a competition between employee’s for favor and pay vice team work and mission accomplishment.