| Comment Number: | OL-10506839 |
| Received: | 3/13/2005 2:40:45 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:
As a former senior-level conservative Republican political appointee (Assistant Secretary / Office Director in the Reagan and Bush-1 Administrations, Chief of Staff (AA) to a conservative GOP Member of Congress), I see so many dangerous precedents in these proposed HR regulations. I see the return to the spoils system and the need for employees to "suck up" to senior managers, who are either political or people who report to political managers. I see disdain for hardworking employees. I see a Republican political agenda to destroy unions -- and what are unions but the collective voice of employees? I see a sanctioned system to run rough-rod over employees who dare to stand up for their rights. I see punishment of employees as the major driver of these reforms. I see the violation of a century of labor law. I see the arrogance of a political party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress. I see a political agenda to destroy the voting power of unions. I see the overwhelming need to maintain political power at all costs. I do not see: the budgets necessary to train managers how to manage; 360 performance evaluations for managers; training dollars for employees even in small offices without large office budgets; any quality management principals at all that empower and encourage people on the front lines to take chances and report problems as soon as they occur or become apparent; objective third-party review of management abuse; adequate rewards for risk-takers; cost-of-living increases for those at the top of their pay bands; respect for employees; respect for those who bargain for employees -- their legal representatives in the face of all this management power, the unions. Agencies -- even the Defense Department -- are first and foremost the people who come to work every day. Note to DOD: your most important employees are not your managers. Talk to the forces in Iraq -- they would tell you the team is what's most important...the people on the ground who are taking chances and fighting for freedom every day. These new regs should be scrapped and discussions begun anew with a real respect for the employees who work at DOD, with real negotiations with employee unions, and with real attention paid to the comments received in this forum. The GS system isn't perfect, but one thing it does well -- it insulates hard-working federal employees from the vicissitudes of partisan political appointees who come to agencies with visions of lucrative futures in the lobbying world in their heads; with political connections, not ability, that have gotten them their jobs; and with no interest in taking the time to learn how to manage. Give employees more training and better salaries, train the managers, give managers 360 performance reviews and hold them accountable for not only achievement, but morale, and you'll get what you want without all this needless upheaval of a model government personnel system.