Comment Number: OL-10503692
Received: 3/7/2005 12:23:32 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:

I object to the lowering of pay raises in the future. This is unfair and in addition to discouraging the current federal employee, it discourages workers from the private sector to agree to come to work in civil service. Pay banding does not resolve the pay differences between private sector and us... a higher pay budget would be the instrument for working to do that. Private sector continues to pay much higher wages for the professional. To take away our specialty pay is a demonstration by the Federal Government that our knowledge and expertise continues to be under-valued. There should continue to be guaranteed raises for good performers without the consistent pushing of paperwork towards approval by a supervisor or manager. The current step system provides this and annual pay raises. Historically supervisors and managers are too busy to focus on just supervisory duties so much is overlooked when it comes to actual observed performance of an employee. NSPS requires more interaction between the supervisor and the employee but does not deflect the never-ending 'other' duties of the supervisor that primarily drives his/her workload. So how is a supervisor to know without a doubt who are his star employees? Team leads tend to report the workload as done by them... taking credit for the team's work and work efforts. Where does that leave the employee who is a part of that 'team'? I feel we should be able to challenge our performance ratings to an independent arbitrator. Manager's do make mistakes and there are many cases where there IS unfairness going on. Employees need the ability for recourse that would cause managers to stop and think before making bad decisions. People with too much power tend to misuse that power towards their own gain. NSPS promotes power-hungry managers and supervisors and even creates them where they did not exist previously. NSPS promotes favoritism and de-values current employees who have a history that shows them to be hard-working, dedicated, fair, and honest. NSPS promotes a "Friend of the Supervisor" Pay and Reward System. I am a civilian. I am not military. I am highly patriotic... my eyes tear up whenever I hear the National Anthem. However, I am an employee who does not intend to go into a war zone with little or no notice. I know there are job descriptions that provide for that employee who DOES want and expect to go into a war zone to work. Mine does not. I freely chose to work in my current job and I was aware of the job description before I accepted the position. Everyone should have that choice. I just returned from a 3-yr voluntary tour in Germany as a civil servant. My family accompanied me. There are LOTS of people who want to go overseas and still more who want to STAY overseas beyond the 5 years maximum that is levied on all DoD civilian employees. If DoD wants to have more civilians overseas then DON'T FORCE EVERYONE TO RETURN AT THE END OF 5 YEARS! ...and OFFER JOBS OVERSEAS THAT MEET THE NEEDS OF DoD!! This is an easy fix, far less costly than the resources that have been dedicated to NSPS and doesn't require an over-haul of the entire Civil Servant system. Just write the requirement into the job position description and assure it is stated in the job announcement. EASY!! ... and far less costly! I disagree with ending Due Process for the Civil Service employee. Reducing our voice will inevitably take away fairness and truth. I disagree that our years of quality service, commitment and loyalty should not count should we find ourselves facing a RIF. A single performance rating should not be used as measurement of our worth. Also, veteran's preference should ALWAYS be considered when RIFs are being processed. Sincerely, Mrs Buchanan