| Comment Number: | OL-10509588 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 4:28:23 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:
My main concern with the NSPS system is the subjective nature of the rating system. At our DOD agency we have already experienced a watering down of the civilian performance plans over the last two or three years from a quantitative description of job duties and goals, (such as writes 4 technical reports per year) to "motherhood" statements such as "Works well in a team environment". One byproduct of this watering down is that supervisors no longer have to make the effort to learn the day to day tasks which their subordinates must perform in order to keep the machinery of the agency functioning. I've had a military branch chief for the last 2.5 years. During that time he has spent no more than 10 minutes total talking with me about the technical intricacies of my job. Within the past year, a civilian division chief was hired in my agency. In spite of the fact that my division is made up of around 100 highly trained technical people, many of whom hold MS or PhD degrees in science and engineering, there were no degree requirements in the job description for this GS 15 opening. The principal requirement was 52 weeks experience. And indeed, the person selected for the job has no technical degree. While the agency went through the motions of advertising for this high grade job, clearly preselection and the "good old boy" network were at work here. How can I expect this GS 15 to objectively rate my performance as a GS 14 scientist/engineer with an advanced degree and over 25 years experience?? In my opinion the NSPS system will only increase the degree of favoritism and subjectivity within the DOD civilian workforce.