Pentagon To Retool Personnel System (unions' get creamed)

[rodeodance]

The Defense Department's new personnel rules will jettison parts of a civil service system that for decades have meant steady pay increases for civilian workers and several layers of protection against arbitrary firings or discipline.


Pentagon To Retool Personnel System

Raises to Be Tied To Performance

By Christopher Lee and Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page A01

The Defense Department's new personnel rules will jettison parts of a civil service system that for decades have meant steady pay increases for civilian workers and several layers of protection against arbitrary firings or discipline, according to a Pentagon briefing for Congress yesterday.

Under the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which Defense officials will discuss at a news briefing today, pay raises, now driven largely by longevity, instead will be tied to annual performance evaluations that take into account an employee's conduct and professional demeanor.

The new system would toss out the 15-grade General Schedule pay system and replace it with one made up of "pay bands," offering fewer, larger salary ranges tied to jobs more broadly grouped by occupation and employee skill level, according to a 12-page summary given to House and Senate staffers yesterday........

[old freak]

1. Raises to Be Tied To Performance

Don't have a problem with that concept.

[woodsprite]

2. That's the way my university has worked for years. n/t

[ohtransplant]

3. This is clearly a process intended to de-unionize Feds.

Soon they'll want to expand this system government-wide.

It's primarily the civil service protections and workplace rules they want to change. Bring back crony-ism!

As a federal employee that's a scary thought. Politics inside the government are rampant.

[Bridget Burke]

5. Yes, "conduct and professional demeanor" are mentioned....

How many positions can really be quantified? Is "Conduct" the same thing measured on a kid's report card? Important, but it doesn't tell the whole story. And what the hell is "Professional Demeanor"--being the right sort of person who dresses & speaks correctly?

And how many "performance reviews" will be made by administrators who don't have the skills to do the job? (This DOES happen where performance reviews are used.)

Highly subjective, for sure. Wasn't James Garfield's fate the impetus for starting Civil Service?

[ohtransplant]

7. Exactly

The lack of objectivity/objective standards and managers/management who award "yes-persons" (trying not to offend those who blindly obey without benefit of critical thought)are major problems in "pay-for-performance.

Grievance, appeal rights, etc... are greatly limited also. The way to be promoted then depends solely on whether your present manager "likes" you.

Creating a real objective performance evaluation system for Feds is the long-term answer but it's a lot of work and no one seems ready to do that.

[MADem]

4. And you know damn well the POLITICAL APPOINTEES

...will migrate to the highest levels of the paybands. If I had to guess, I would bet that the darker your complexion, the lower you will sit on said payband, if you are allowed to keep your job at all.

Oh, and if you are gay, you can be fired for your orientation. Back in the closet with ye!

I'm astounded at the small amount of coverage this has gotten. This effort by these bastards has been going on for some time. And a knowledgeable, experienced civil service infrastructure is going to get screwed, and replaced by party hacks who do not know their asses from a hole in the ground. Bet on it.

If you don't play ball, ignore the rules when the hacks tell you to, and keep your opinions to yourself, you will get a shitty performance eval, and then you will be fired. With no recourse. They may as well just close up the CCPO, and replace it with a GOP bureaucrat who checks your party affiliation and loyalty to the fearless leader before you are hired. That's what this shit is all about.

The military can't speak out, due to their requirement to be loyal to their chain of command. The civilians were the voices of conscience, of understanding the history of any given department, and many, many years of experience in their particular skillset. All that is going to be lost. Before we know it, they'll probably contract out our records management to India or someplace!

This is dreadful news. Another step closer to completion of a coup...

[Triana]

8. better not be a woman either...

...they'll put them on the bottom of the 'pay bands' and there they'll stay. 'Conduct and demeanor' - too vague and leaves too much room for fundies, et al to use that for any old excuse they can find to keep anyone (people of color, gays, women) down at the bottom echelons of the 'paybands'.

Horrible. It'll be just like corprat AmeriKKKa.

[diamond14]

6. link??

:nuke: