| Comment Number: | OL-10508970 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 11:44:11 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 federal employee for over 25 years, I have seen many reforms. However, this NSPS scares me. This system will definitely promote the good old boy system like none other. It happens enough day to day now, but the NSPS will put a higher emphasis on this system. People will no longer spend time doing their job, but spend more time proving themselves to their bosses and/or schmoozing them. It puts a lot of power into a few people’s hands. I am sure there are a lot of good points about the system, however, it is only natural that a manager’s subjectivity will be the basis of their employees pay. That in itself is not that bad, but the managers are human and will choose those employees that they feel comfortable with to reap the benefits. In the commercial world, the bottom line is the determining factor in a business and even with the good old boy system in place, a manager must give some thought to those that truly perform to keep his bottom line in check. However, in the federal government there is no real bottom line, therefore, actual performance is not as critical as subjective opinions. At least the current system has real check and balances in the system. A manager can in fact stop a step increase of an employee but they usually don’t. I know of people who have been fired in the government that went through the checks and balances. The emphasis of the NSPS is supposedly the fact that there are too many people in the government that do not deserve their pay. In reality, people who are truly poor performers that are still working - is the result of management not wanting to spend the time to go through the current checks and balances to remove these people. To really implement NSPS effectively, it would take a manager more time to rate all individuals in an objective manner than it would have taken him/her to go through the check and balances to remove an unsatisfactory employee. However, having people removed or their pay affected just because a boss can do it with very little real oversight is scary for many people. It appears that DoD is trying to fix something that is not really broken. It would be interesting to know why this forum was opened since DoD has already stated that this system will go into place regardless of how we felt. Will our comments be used to fine-tune this system or was it just a vehicle for employees to vent?