Rumsfeld Tackles The Civil Service

Air Force Magazine | July 2003 | John T. Correll, Contributing Editor

[SLB]

This is a long article, but lots of meat in it.

[SLB]

I can see the pros and cons to this. Many times I get frustrated at the slow civil service system. Right now we are trying to hire some lower grade civil servants, GS 4 and 5 supply clerks and other admin personnel. It takes over 6 weeks from the time the announcement is published until they are on board. Could industry work like that? I doubt it.

[sauropod]

War is simply too important to be left to union micromanaging or in the hands of an incompetent executive who has been inappropriately promoted simply because he or she had seniority.”

Lots of those...

[sauropod]

"Chu replied, “We shrank the armed forces—the uniformed forces of the United States—by several hundred thousand people in the early years of the 1990s, and we did it with a non-tenure system. We did it with a system that was performance-oriented.” "

This is bulls*it! Almost all of the reduction in the federal workforce was done by the Defense Department. This was non-military people.

I don't trust Rumsfeld. I sure as he** don't trust Chu, a paper pusher from Rand. Its obvious he doesn't know WTF he is doing!

[JMK]

"David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness..."

I remember that name. It's the same SOB that recommended to George H.W. Bush that the V-22 Osprey be canceled, back in '89-90, I think.

Without a 4+ year delay, it might have been in service in time for the latest Iraqi campaign, and we wouldn't have had CH-46's falling out of the sky!

[sauropod]

um-hmmm...

[msdrby]

bump for later

[SLB]

I remember that name. It's the same SOB that recommended to George H.W. Bush that the V-22 Osprey be canceled, back in '89-90, I think.

The plot is getting thicker day by day.

[usurper]

I am currently assigned to the DHS human resource design team that is currently drafting options on these issues. The big problem with hiring (as I am sure you know) is the time it takes to complete background checks.

I realize it’s a slow process but quite frankly when background checks are not completed adequately we have even bigger problems, as we are currently experiencing with TSA.

As a field manager (non HR type) this detail has been a real eye opener. Much of the title 5 provisions of civil service seem to me to have been written by lawyers for lawyers. Chapters 71, 75 and 77 come to mind.

As for a pay for performance system it really sounds good but I am unconvinced it can work in all federal occupations. The problem, as the article noted, is with performance evaluations. Some occupations lend themselves to a business model where the number and quality of widgets each employee is producing can be calculated. However there are many occupations such as law enforcement where I don’t believe you can make the kind of individual distinctions in performance required if you are going to start basing peoples pay on it.

Not mentioned in the article is the important roll that longevity pay plays in some organizations. If it costs you $100,000 to hire and train a Secret Service Agent you hope to keep him for his (or her) entire career. It stands to reason that each year the agent stays on board they will become more valuable to the organization and that is something worth paying for. Additionally would it make sense to have Secret Service Agents competing with one another over their pay increases? Somehow I think that would not be wise.

I do not believe a pay for performance system will work for all federal occupations but for some it is quite reasonable.

[steve-b]

One of the startling things about the National Security Personnel System is the absence of detail on what the Pentagon actually proposes to do.

This is what's going to kill the proposal. One basic rule of politics is that you can't replace something with nothing.

[gaspar]

Wait until you try to fire them. For a simple secretary in the Department of State it can take more than a year, and countless reviews -- especially if dealing with a woman or someone intellectually challenged -- as one office after another seeks to escape its responsibility.

[SLB]

Additionally would it make sense to have Secret Service Agents competing with one another over their pay increases?

Even in a job such as mine, research analyst, the program one is assigned to can have consequences in performance levels. We would have to hope the supervisory chain would have some tools available to them to help in this area.

[Jack of Diamonds]

Your logic is %$^%$#$

[Valin]

Disciplinary actions are subject to extensive review, and poor performers must be given a “performance improvement period” before action can be taken against them.

“ In one case at the Defense Logistics Agency, it took nine months to fire an employee—with previous suspensions and corrective actions—who had repeatedly been found sleeping on the job,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz.

Not just a problem with the feds. Where I'm working now we have a similar situation.

[bvw]

Too much reliance on background checks.

People change.

From good to bad, from bad to good.

Much smarter and efefctive to have a culture of high pertonal standards, ethically and morally -- I mean on the job. Someone has a affair with an underling -- fire him. Someone charges personal goods to the company or government credit card -- warn them once, revoke the card the second, and if there's a third -- fire them. Someone is caught in a bold lie about a job-related critical issue -- fire him. Some screener harasses people constantly -- fire him. Some manager has a bad day and cusses out an underling -- warn her, second time -- demote her.

Create a sense in the workplace that immoral behavious, rude behaviour or dishonesty will not be tolerated. That honesty, integrity, diligence are highly valued.

Then background checks, simply, will not even matter.

[Valin]

It takes over 6 weeks from the time the announcement is published until they are on board. Could industry work like that? I doubt it.

Wanna bet. :-) We needed a person for 3rd shift 4 months ago..he just started training yesterday.
"Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses."
unknown

[Valin]

Explain please.