| Comment Number: | OL-10510375 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 9:15:58 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:
If the current GS system were used properly, most, if not all of the pay for performance issues could be addressed. If an employee is performing poorly and the supervisor wants to take the time and energy to retrain or even fire a federal employee, the system is in place under the current system to do so. As far as pay for performance goes, I know I am a hard worker and that my supervisors appreciate my efforts. I am currently in a GS 12/13/14 position, which I was hired into 10 months ago. I should get my GS 13 raise before the new system goes into effect. However, I find it hard to believe that I will get a $13,500 dollar pay raise the following year under the new system, as I would have gotten if I were allowed to take my GS 14 promotion...the level at which my job is actually classified and the level of work that I am doing. I am quite sure my organization will not have enough money for all raises in the organization to be able to cough up that much money for one employee. My organization has many departments and divisions and only one pot of money to be divided "equitably." I know, in the past, just deciding how to divide money for bonuses and step increases has been a real issue. The supervisors don't want to make anyone unhappy, so they try to make sure "everyone gets something." This philosophy flies in the face of the new pay for performance system, and human nature being what it is, I don't see drastic changes to that ethos taking place, no matter how much training the supervisors get. I believe they will distribute the pay raises just the way they distribute the end of year bonuses...let everyone get something...only the pot of money that the new system will offer will be smaller than the pot of the money that would have been available for raises under the old GS system. Everyone will get less of something! I feel that federal employees are being handed a bad deal that is being sold in a way that perpetrates the general public's impression that federal employees are lazy and impossible to discipline or fire. This administration seems to have little regard for the hard-working, conscientious federal employees whose pay has not been in parity with that of their civilian counterparts for years. The current GS system will work if supervisors and managers properly utilize it. I predict that NSPS will cause the federal government to lose many valuable employees who become demoralized because they don't want to work in an environment where a very subjective group will determine their pay, and ultimately, their future.