| Comment Number: | OL-10511850 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 5:45:22 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:
I have looked over and searched the proposed regulations and have found nothing mentioning the civilian employees who are also members of the reserve or gard. In a system where raises and bonuses are based on performance supervisors will be forced to rank mobilized or deployed reservists lower than their coworkers. A low ranking could be based on nothing other than the fact that these people were not around to perform the work required by their civilian occupation, thus making them look, on paper, like they are substandard performers compaired to their office mates. Without taking their service into consideration, this will put mobilized reservists in the same situation as many of their private sector counterparts. The worst case would be losing their jobs while deployed or upon return from deployment. A more likely scenario would be that the DoD civilian who is also a military reservist will be penalized for their service by excluding them from competition for leadership positions, bonuses and pay raises. Supposedly this new system streamlines the grievance procedure. Additionally, supervisors will be given "stringent" training. We always had the tools to separate the wheat from the chaff yet they weren't used. yes, it takes a lot of paperwork to terminate a non performer. Under NSPS it will still take much documentation. So what's changed. I fear the NSPS will promote favoritism. No employee will know what the other received, if any, of the bonus pool. For example: Given the pay bands, a previous GS9 might be overtasked, doing the work of a GS11. The employee is given these tasks because he/she is an outstanding performer...but has a negative personality.The GS11 who should have done is job is a poor performer but goes fishing with the boss. The GS9 is overworked and gets nothing in the way of bonus money. The GS11 on the other hand gets bonus money because he's likeable. Another downside to the program: The possibility of no COLA. Civil servants call them annual pay raises when in effect they are Cost of Living adjustments. NSPS briefers stated that it is possible for all of the available pool money could be used for bonuses; nothing for COLA. So, it is possible that a negative personality worker could go years without one single raise. Typically, the GS13s and 14s get all of the annual money while crumbs are given to the workers. What prevents this from happening? Will a miracle occur and supervisors become competent simply because we are now using NSPS? I think not. For some personal background: I'm retired Air Force. I was a fast burner. I brought teamwork where there was none. I brought teamwork to civil service as a Dept of Army civilian. I have done work on a national level for the Air Force and National Institute for Health. I believe NSPS will be a deterrent to teamwork. I believe the proposed system has merit but that merit goes out the window when you introduce human beings. Generally, when something new is proposed, for/against runs about 50/50, much like a general election. In the NSPS case, it is 100 against and 0 for. Of course the poll is taken at the grass roots worker level, not at the top echelons. The one thing missing in the new NSPS system is the element of trust...trust is non existent. I recently read some politically appointed SES's received higher pay raises than non appointed SES's. I fear this could also happen to others under the NSPS system. Non-republicans may suffer under this system.