Serious efforts aimed at improving the competence of supervisors will do more for government than a dozen pay-for-performance systems. Administrative costs of deciding who should get what raises is greater than the total pool of money being divided.
Barack Obama comes out ahead as the leading choice among FedSmith readers to receive the nod as the Democratic nominee for President of the U.S.
Performance management is largely a subjective process. Federal managers are in the best position to make decisions on federal pay and performance. It is unfair to American taxpayers to allow a system in which performance plays a very small role in how employees are compensated.
Does a federal employee have a 5th Amendment right to refuse to obey a request to appear and answer questions in connection with an agency administrative interview?
TSP investors are on a roll with substantial returns extending back over the past several years. Is there any reason for concern about your TSP investments?
Absolute performance standards can be permissible in a federal agency. In this case, the “zero tolerance” policy against threats in the workplace was upheld by a federal court and a federal employee is out of a job after 20 years of working for the federal government.
Sometimes being a federal official can be challenging. Here is another perspective on a story that we ran earlier this week about a federal employee who returned to work after a conviction for public indecency.
A senior executive with the Treasury Department found himself on the losing end of an appeal after his denials were called into question as a result of the agency reviewing his e-mail.
A former federal employee said the VA did not live up to the agreement when OPM disapproved her application for disability retirement.
Supervisors and managers are selected for their understanding and ability of the work not of people nor because they possess supervisory skills. Managing leave in the federal environment would be a challenge for anyone. Here is how “flexibility” can look to a federal manager.
