| Comment Number: | OL-10508874 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 11:15:00 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:
RE: the NSPS Requirements Document. There seems to be a lot of room for interpretation in the NSPS. 5.1 If we're going to be "banded" together, with no more specialties, how will you know if the "right person with the right skills" will be placed in "the right position at the right time and right cost"? 5.4.3 "Acceptance of, and satisfaction with, NSPS by both managers and employees will only occur if there is INTEGRITY THROUGHOUT THE SYSTEM." (italics mine) "Managers/supervisors who can lead and fairly execute the NSPS will be a key factor to .. maintaining system credibility and workforce trust." Only if the managers/supervisors have credibility and their workforce's trust to begin with. 5.4.2 I am part of the support team for our soldiers. I am not a soldier. My job is to support my soldiers so that they can concentrate on their jobs. Deploying me would be tantamount to endangering our soldiers. If needed, I would go, but only if I knew that that would be the best way to help, support, and protect my soldiers. I work behind the scenes because that is where I can best serve my soldiers and my country. 3.1/3.3 Pay for performance sounds good, but anybody who has been in any workforce knows there's no such thing. Human beings all have a common, basic flaw: they are human beings. Given a choice between a buddy with a mediocre performance and a mere acquaintance with an outstanding performance, the mediocre buddy wins every time. I know, because despite excellent ratings, I was the one who was denied promotion because I didn't kiss the boss's you know what, while a couple of mediocre performers who did get promotions were buddy-buddy with the boss. Locality-based pay for whom? I work in a relatively small community, but my taxes, mortgage, gas prices, car payments, insurance premiums, etc, aren't any less because of where I live. Without a COLA (sometimes even with) my pay "raise" won't keep up with the actual increase in the cost of living. Now you want to take that away, too? And when this "pool of money" is portioned out, are the ones in New York and California going to end up getting the lion's share, leaving nothing in the way of COLAs for those of us in the midwest and south? Where is the fairness in any of this? Do the powers that be really care about our soldiers, our country, and the civilians who support them? Or are they just trying to justify their own jobs?