Comment Number: OL-10510652
Received: 3/16/2005 11:03:38 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 read through all 54 pages of the regulation. Despite it's high-sounding rhetoric, what I gleaned from the reading is: (1.) The first line Supervisor will now be in charge of firing. This will be done by slow gradual demeaning of the employee followed by no-appeal dismissal. This will allow for a clever Supervisor to have unlimited power to build empires of "Yes Men". (2.) First-line supervisor who was promoted to a position from another functional specialty, and has several employees under them who do a function they are not familiar with will have to rate those employees according to their perceptions (and prejudices) of that series. How many times have you heard "I don't know what he (or She) does, and anyway, I think that job series is obsolete and ought to be eliminated... (I HAVE, many times!!!) Under this new ruling, those prejudices may result in good, contributing employees being fired or laid off--all because of a Supervisor's laziness or stupidity. (3.) Handing out the actual Dollar increases in the smaller organizations will be up to the First-Line Supervisors. That is what it boils down to. So the flatterers, lodge buddies, home team co-fans and Golf Partners.........well, you know the rest...... Everyone else will plod along at a fixed salary. There's no appeal as I can (4.) If you are not a Golf Buddy of the Supervisor, and you get tired of working for the minimum pay, and WANT to transfer to a place where there is opportunity, your present salary in comparison to that of your peer group can be noted, and will be a hiring factor. The result will be exactly like the 40-year old Captain in the regular army--"Too much time in Grade" will become a new criteria for dismissal (wait and see!!!). (5.) A lot of emphasis was placed in the ability to "deploy" employees at will. Does this include Management-Directed Reassignments within the USA? Many Supervisors and Area Chiefs want this right to move employees out of their organizations for punitive reasons. ("I'll Teach 'em a Lesson They'll Never Forget!!!") Transfer of a "troublesome" employee (like the Local Union Steward) to a geographical area in the USA where they would not be able to afford to live or where their family would never accompany them has always been wanted as a bludgeon by some Supervisors. (It could be justified as filling a Hard-to-Fill-Slot..) It has long been used by the Military to administratively punish those who make "waves", weather that individual was right or wrong. I DON'T LIKE IT.