| Comment Number: | OL-10511074 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 1:56:48 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:
9901.341 Performance-Based Pay, General While I understand the intent of what you are trying to do, my experience tells me that, without the checks and balances of grievable performance rating and with the increased chance for volatile pay changes, this method can be extremely detrimental to the continuation of a stable, talented workforce performing the national security mission. I have been in the same job and have had 6 government bosses in the last 4 years. Four bosses have loved the work I did and two hated it, all while I was performing the same level of dedicated work. One boss tried to push down any competitors for the job in which he was acting. One boss favored females over males. From what I understand, the demo projects upon which this system was based had a firm role of checks and balances including personal grievances and a final agreement of the overall package by the representing Union. Reports I have received are that this has worked well. However, the proposed system removes these moderating methods and places total control of pay at the whelm of the subjective (even more subjective now that behavior and attitude can be added into the mix) evaluation of one person by another. There is absolutely no way to keep the "personality factor" out of this system. In the old system, this "personality factor" was mitigated by a worker at least being guaranteed basic pay and a COLA, even though it still came into effect in promotions and yearly bonuses. I think the old system is more balanced in this matter and that workers, if they must now focus on playing the political games to get their yearly raises, will decide that they might as well go to private industry where they can get more money for having to deal with the same hassles. Of course, if the government then wants to buy that person's service, it will have to pay the for the profit that will be demanded by the private company.