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Bureaucrats no more??
Posted by Raven on July 19th, 2005
Federal government employees are having a hissy fit once again. This time it’s about the very real possibility of being held accountable for the work they do. Instead of receiving automatic pay increases each year (regardless of the quality of work performed), they might be subjected to: A PERFORMANCE EVALUATION!!
The administration wants to abolish the General Schedule pay system by 2010 and require that at least part of every pay raise for the government’s 1.8 million civilian employees hinge on an annual performance evaluation, President Bush’s top management guru said yesterday.
It’s the end of the world as they (fed employees) know it.
“The federal government, as a rule, is pretty bad about managing people,” Johnson said yesterday in a meeting with Washington Post reporters and editors. “We tend to treat people and manage our people as if they are bureaucrats. ‘They are all the same, let’s treat them all the same.’ The goal is to treat them, and to think of them, as professional public servants, not as bureaucrats. . . . Until we can tie some small portion of pay to it, it will never happen.”
The federal government wastes too much money on these automatic pay increases that are not related to work ethics and performance standards. Some of us work and do the best job we can because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a matter of work ethics and pride, and that motivates us. Others, on the other hand, are not motivated to do much of anything except sit around and pretend to be important. And expect a nice raise for it.
The administration’s draft bill, which it is circulating on Capitol Hill, was criticized by federal employee unions. They have complained that the changes at DHS and Defense undermine employee rights and strengthen the hand of political appointees.
The proposal “is meant to erode federal pay and future retirement security for middle-class federal workers over time,” said Brian DeWyngaert, chief of staff to John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “They have no data whatsoever to indicate that this will improve organizational performance.”
What an idiotic statement that was…Of course they have no data dumbass…no one who works for the government has ever received an evaluation! There is a lot of data available…just ask any average American business owner or Human Resource Manager. They’ll tell you that performance based raises can motivate people to do the very least of what is expected of them.
The Government Accountability Office also has said that many agencies are not ready to carry out meaningful evaluations of their employees, a crucial component of the proposed system.
Yeah…this means that certain over bloated offices have no real management going on at all. I can imagine these are the worse offenders when it comes to worker laziness.
Under the proposed system, to be tailored to each agency, Congress would continue to authorize an average pay raise for all employees that varies slightly by the geographic area in which they work. But the raise also would vary by occupation, reflecting labor-market realities that workers in some jobs are harder to hire and retain than are others, Johnson said. The General Schedule, the decades-old 15-grade pay system, would be replaced by broad salary ranges known as pay bands, making it easier for federal managers to offer higher starting salaries to talented newcomers and to give employees pay raises without necessarily giving them a promotion.
WHAT?? The federal government getting up with the modern times vs. the 1950’s?? And it could hire talented people who can produce good work, at a competitive pay rate? This is too much for the average person to grasp.
Gone would be within-grade increases and step increases, elements of the current system that move employees up the salary scale the longer they remain in their jobs. That money would be redirected to raises based on annual performance evaluations, but it was unclear how much of an employee’s overall pay raise it would account for.
I think it’s beyond time for this to have happened. Most people, who work for a living, have to meet basic work standards and they get evaluated before they get a pay increase. At least most people I know. Not everyone likes their evaluations and many feel they are not fair. Whatever. It’s not an excuse not to have a system in place.
Since my tax dollars pay these people, I expect that someone is making sure they are doing their job and doing it well…Is this too much to ask for?
July 19th, 2005 at 8:51 am
I sure wish I could vote myself a raise. You are right, it’s way past time for this.
July 19th, 2005 at 9:12 am
All your title are belong to us
Today’s dose of NIF – News, Interesting & Funny … It’s Kerry-180 Tuesday
July 19th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Oh, sure…next you’ll be wanting to evaluate teachers in a meaningful way, and then it will be the UAW, the UMW, the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO…where will the madness end? These people are entitled to their jobs and bloated pay by virtue of having a pulse and breathing, and don’t you forget it!!
July 19th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
When I recall the NYC unions extorting money from NY at a time when the city was having profound financial difficulties and were vulnerable, I kind of seethe…
It’s time to take unions out of government, it really is. When a private organization is in a position to disable a public administration, it means some people have gone too far.
July 19th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
Clarification.
When a private organization is in a position to disable a necessary public administration in pursuit of higher wages than certain skill levels warrant and things like additional personal days, etc, something is definitely wrong!
July 20th, 2005 at 1:53 am
Excellent article.
Now if public education adopted the same philospohy I would call this serious progress
July 21st, 2005 at 11:17 am
Only one annual review? I have 4 quarterly reviews AND an annual. I can only dream of having only one set of paperwork to fill out!
July 26th, 2005 at 6:10 am
Quintessential Femme Fatales.
Once again, I have the distinct honour of co-hosting this weeks Cotillion Ball, along…
July 26th, 2005 at 6:24 am
Quintessential Femme Fatales.
Once again, I have the distinct honour of co-hosting this week’s Cotillion Ball, along with fellow femme fatales and MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, e-Claire, and Who Tends The Fires, In the indispensible noir and neo-noir film genres, the classic…
July 26th, 2005 at 6:27 am
Quintessential Femme Fatales.
Once again, I have the distinct honour of co-hosting this week’s Cotillion Ball, along with fellow femme fatales and MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, e-Claire, and Who Tends The Fires, In the indispensible noir and neo-noir film genres, the classic…
July 26th, 2005 at 6:28 am
Quintessential Femme Fatales.
Once again, I have the distinct honour of co-hosting this week’s Cotillion Ball, along with fellow femme fatales and MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, e-Claire, and Who Tends The Fires, In the indispensible noir and neo-noir film genres, the classic…
July 26th, 2005 at 6:32 am
Quintessential Femme Fatales.
Once again, I have the distinct honour of co-hosting this week’s Cotillion Ball, along with fellow femme fatales and MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, e-Claire, and Who Tends The Fires, In the indispensible noir and neo-noir film genres, the classic…
July 26th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Getting what you pay for
The Bush administration is making noises about abolishing the General Schedule pay system and implementing merit-pay evaluations. Clay Johnson III, of the Office and Management and Budget: The federal government,…
July 26th, 2005 at 11:13 am
This sounds good if done correctly. I always love to see how a simple capitalist model is mis-construed by the left.
“Oh my god, accountable! AHHHHHH!”
I am held accountable every day. Time for government employees to come back to earth. After all, they work for us don’t they?
John Di Saia MD