| Comment Number: | OL-10511577 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 4:10:11 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:
One reason cited for the new system is better and more efficient hiring -such as direct hire authority. I have been through several hiring cycles over the last 15 years. We have researched and mapped the hiring process and made it work for us. We have hired people quickly and efficiently at times, and slowly and onerously at times. It seems that every time we get the hiring down, new leadership steps in and makes it worse with revisionist interpretation of policy and regulations. The worst I have ever seen is in the last 3 years, which coincidentally is the time period that DOD has been advocating for a new personnel system. A second reason is the ability to be flexible so that employees can placed where they are needed. I find this very scary. Does this mean any civilian employee can be deployed any where in the world on short notice, just like the military, and forced to work 12 hour days with his only recourse being to quit, be fired or demoted? A third reason given for the new system is the need to better distinquish poor performers from exceptional. The existing OPM regulations are set up to do this. But most agencies don't follow them. They have put in place their own performance management system which is inadequate. Therefore its a self-fulling prophesy that the system doesn't work. A fourth reason is communication between workers and supervisors. I find that communication between workers and between workers and supervisors is not the problem. The problem is communication between management and workers. Managers often have preconceived ideas and judgments about employees and their abilities and once these notions become established, sometimes on the basis one or two observation, they cannot be changed. Employees are doomed for failure. Employees can be set up for success or failure by improperly training employees, or not giving them adequate training, and then giving them an assignment that is beyond their ability. Only when the quid pro quos in the work place are eliminated, and management behavoir as well as employee behavoir is fully transparent, will we have a motivated and competent workforce. Only when we put a stop to managers grooming and training their favorite employees can we have a fair system. I am concerned the new NSPS will only entrench management even more than they are now. Finally, I find that most employees are generally competent and capable. There are only a very small number of poor performers and only one or two truely exceptional people. However, closer examination will often reveal that those one or two poor performers could be made reasonable capable with a little civility and help. Also, there are many high level performers who could be made exceptional with a little more time and help.