| Comment Number: | OL-10510145 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 6:41:55 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:
I take issue with the RIF process of the proposed regulation. I do not agree that an outstanding rating should outweigh years of service. I have 25 years of government service. I have been promoted through the ranks and have gained invaluable insight, experience and knowledge in many diverse fields. 98% of the time I have received highly successful or outstanding ratings (the two highest possible in our rating package). The other times I have received a fully successful rating. Based upon I was new to a position and the manager believed that no matter how you performed you still received a fully the first year. The other times, I just ran up against a supervisor/management policy that no matter how hard you tried or what you did you could not receive more than a fully successful. Each time, I was given a new set of rules or benchmarks to achieve a better rating. I would meet or exceed what I was told but still given the same average rating. Based on my experience, I would hate to think that by mere chance an employee would encounter a manager/management policy like one of my examples and receive an average rating in fact, not based on merit but based on personality difference, management policy or quotas etc. Then this sole rating is the difference of being retained or given the boot. This would be difficult enough for one to experience at the beginning of his/her career. The only thing that could be worse would be to have several years of experience and have one rating make or break your career! This would be a rush to judgment and a big mistake to give a performance rating the determining weight in the RIF process. A decision of this magnitude needs to take years of service as the primary weight and factor in ratings. I would suggest looking at several ratings and find the average and have the rating count toward years of service in addition to actual years of service. If someone is a “slacker” or does nothing with many years of service perhaps someone needs to go back and look at the many managers the person had and investigate “why” no action was taken to remove the employee prior to a RIF? Do not make the rating be the determining weight in a RIF. Years of service should be primary and take into consideration ratings as a lesser weight.