| Comment Number: | OL-10508541 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 9:19:03 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:
As a newly hired federal employee I must admit that the pay-for-performance area of the NSPS is the portion of the proposal that causes me the most immediate concern. There are many similarities between the civil service branch of the goverment and the active duty military system. During my 22 years of active duty service I never had the priviledge of working with any immediate supervisor who was capable of accurrately measuring performance with zero personal bias. I think that it is safe to assume that most other civilian and federal managers will most likely fall into the same category since it is a human trait to be influenced by our own beliefs and ideals. Fortunately, with the military system my supervisor had no immediate effect on my pay. There was some long-term influence, but the immediate supervisor did not make the final judgement on my annual performance evaluation. This will not be the case under NSPS. As a matter of fact, an employees career status will now lie solely in the hands of their immediate supervisor with no oversight and very little chance for recourse if there is some conflict of interest. This seems to me a very dangerous position to place our employees in. How does this change really serve to make the DOD more mission capable? If used effectively, the current system allows for merit pay and demotion if warranted - since the current managers seem to be unable to use an existing system correctly, I have my doubts regarding their ability to use NSPS wisely also.