Reader responses to Ned on Feds - Overtime pay acrobatics

DAILY BRIEFING

Reader responses to Ned on Feds - Overtime pay acrobatics

Here are the responses we have received to the April 3 Ned on Feds column, "Overtime pay acrobatics."

"I believe that federal employees should be given overtime pay. I put in more than 40 hours each week because my job demands it; yet, I can't get caught up because of personnel caps, downsizing, contracting out, etc. My organization 'frowns' on GS-13s asking for overtime, even though the law provides for it, and even 'implies' one should not look for a promotion if they aren't willing to put in whatever number of hours it takes to get the job done. People will only work so long at one place when they are treated this way. Our personnel turn over is terrible, and getting worse."

-Name withheld

"Nothing's simple any more, is it? We've gotten ourselves so gnarled up in legislative requirements, amendments to requirements, agency directives, department regulations, case-precedent rulings, and the like that we cannot possibly function efficiently in government. The paradox Ned Lynch points out between the Federal Employees' Pay Act and the Antideficiency Act tells it all. But, because we won't do the right thing and push for sweeping reform legislation that will unshackle leaders and managers, and allow government agencies to truly become competitive, the taxpayer loses in the end. More importantly, in the case of the Department of Defense, there's a case to be made that we put our national security at risk.

"Such paradoxes make it impossible for our organizations to really achieve the goals and intent of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. Thus, we often end up 'losing' to the private sector in competitive sourcing actions, when it's intuitively, if not patently clear that certain functions and work should be performed 'in-house!' Instead, we pay for a contract to do that which we capture on a Performance Work Statement. Now, contracts and contractors most certainly have their place, and we ought to employ them where it makes sense to do so. All too often, however, that doesn't work out well over time. Time and again, we're forced to squeeze in-house human resources out of hide somewhere to finish the work that we couldn't account for legally, because folks did it on their own time (overtime), because they cared about the mission and their jobs! "Well, such situations can't last, so later we finally end up paying significant additional contract costs because we finally admit the mission simply requires it! That ultimately results in growth of the contract 'shadow workforce' (as it has been labeled by Paul C. Light, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for the Public Service). According to Light, if we were to account for this phenomenon truthfully, we would show an overall net increase to the taxpayer in the size of government, and in the cost of doing government business.

"Yet, not only can we NOT pay our dedicated people overtime, we are in violation of the law if we allow them to "donate" their time just to get the job done to the standards of excellence that we require! What a travesty. Will we ever do the right thing, or is our fate sealed already?"

-Douglas M. Harris
Colonel, U.S. Army

"Pro Bono work has been a fact of life for my entire federal career. Everybody expects it from the top of management to the bottom. It is a right of passage to help ensure advancement. We do not expect to get payed nor does management expect to pay us. We are dedicated civil SERVANTS."

-Name withheld

"If government employees cannot receive overtime at time and a half then contractors, who a lot of times are working side by side with government employees, should follow the same rules. In fact contractors actually receive double time.

-Name withheld

"No, Ned, I don't agree! The law should be changed, and quickly. Any position at, for the sake of discussion, GS-13 or over, should be exempt from overtime payments. I'm naive, perhaps, but being a public servant, and being at a certain grade level (I'm not there, by the way) assumes an amount of dedication and commitment. "I routinely work over 50 hours a week, and don't see an end to it, but that's the price I pay for choosing my career field and agency. It is a privilege to work hard for the American people and for the veterans that have served in much greater ways than I ever will. High level/high paid bureaucrats who whine about not being paid overtime have missed the point of public service."

-James Douglas Butler
Supv. Employee Relations Specialist
HRM Service, Richmond, VAMC

"Your recent discussion on overtime for federal employees seems to suggest that only Justice Department attorneys are at a disadvantage by this archiac policy.

"Here at the Federal Aviation Administration, those of us in technical and administrative job classifications have the same burden. Our journeyman positions are FG-12s and 13s and we are frequently required to work overtime in the interest of aviation safety and security. Yet, our overtime pay (as a 10 Step 1) is substantially less then our standard base pay . . . more than $18.00 per hour when computed at the overtime rate of time and a half. To further this insanity, we are routinely denied the ability to have this overtime converted to compensatory time off to spend with our families or in matters of personal enrichment.

"If managers in the public service want a job done well, then the public should be expected to pay its employees as would any other employer in a like circumstance."

-Name withheld

"I am a GS-12 step 7, Operations Research Analyst. Basically I am a non-supervisory technical expert in test design and execution for the US Army Operational Test Command. I take a cut in pay to work overtime, which is mandatory during tests because my organization cannot or will not hire or contract enough personnel to man 24/7 during test ramp-up, execution and ramp-down. We have mandatory limits of how long we can take to accomplish certain tasks post test (very short suspenses). I'd be happy to take comp time, but am not allowed to because of the Director's policy. I'd be happy to be paid straight hours. Not every GS-12 and above is a supervisor, but we are all paid the same way.

"Because of the cyclical nature of work at my organization, it doesn't make sense to man for the high demand times. There isn't enough work. We have problems filling our temp hire positions because in this job market who wants a temp when they can get 30 percent more on the open market as a contractor or entrepreneur. Lot's of people can't satisfy the security clearance qualifications either. In the outside world I would be paid by the hour and would be likely to earn six figures, but I have a career and a spouse who wants to live in small town USA, rather than the big city. I still could telecommute, and am seriously looking at bailing out when I reach 20 years of fed service next year.

"Don't make it even more attractive for fed employees with less than 20 years and lots of experience doing unique work to leave the government. It will take at least nine months for an experienced analyst to learn my job and become productive, and in the meantime two tests will have occurred, in which the organization will look like a loser. I care for my co-workers, but I'm tired of being treated like a beast of burden for an organization that is woefully understaffed for its' peak demand."

-Paula M. Whitehouse
Operations Research Analyst
US Army Operational Test Command

"As a federal manager with more than 30 years service, I have very mixed emotions on the subject of overtime. 'Managerial level' employees earn more per hour on straight time than a GS-10/1 earns on '45 act. Given a choice, such employees when faced with critical deadlines will generally opt for compensatory time or just work for nothing to get the job done. The compensatory time route leaves their managers 'in the hole' later. And the work for nothing route leave managers feeling guilty and employees often feeling resentful or abused.

"Because of this, it has become increasingly difficult to fill managerial positions with properly qualified personnel. Many employees prefer to just 'stay in the trenches' where they can go home at 4:30. Senior managers retire at the earliest opportunity or accept less challenging assignments.

"If such managerial employees were truly salaried as 'managers' at the level of many managers in private industry, I could accept the notion that the long hours just go with the territory. But they are not and probably never will be. It's not politically correct.

"The same argument applies to Government lawyers. They simply are not compensated at the rates of their counterparts in private industry. In general, they are not required to work the long hours of their higher-paid counterparts in private industry, which is why many choose to enter or remain in federal service. But there are many government lawyers in critical positions who are forced to work long hours performing extraordinarily complex work for no compensation. Dedication will only carry these employees so far. I have seen a continuing exodus of some of the best and brightest who recognize that they will never be fairly compensated as federal employees. Their replacements by definition lack the experience and all too often lack the abitities to carry out these critical roles.

"In the long run, Congress and the public will get what they pay for."

-L.J. Weinig
Project Director
Immigration and Naturalization Service

"DOJ attorneys should be paid in accordance with the rules pertaining to ALL federal employees below the SES level. Let's get real, folks; overtime capped at GS-10-10 is quite a cut when normal compensation is at the GS-13 to GS-15 level. And singling out a specific group just because they are so-called 'professionals' gives one a creepy feeling. Who's next?"

-Richard L. Herrington
Civilian Contracting Officer
Navy

"It is great to see the articles you write. The fact that you can speak out on so many items and not lose your job is a benefit to all of us that would like to speak out. Adding a little to the overtime problem-if we didn't cut so many slots, people would not have to work so much overtime to try and stay on top of the extra work. But who are we to complain? We still have a job, right?!"

-Name withheld

"The issues to me go far beyond the realm of federal service. The government needs to examine what is going on in the business world. There are MAJOR abuses of 'salaried' employees. I worked for two major retail corporations. It was company policy at one to schedule you for 52 hours minimum each week. It was rare that you would leave that early. Many weeks were at 60-70 hours 6 days a week! All for the same pay. It was as if indentured servitude was back.

"The government should look the number of hours worked for everyone. Once they do, the government may get a good insight as to why the American family is suffering. They will know why the rich get richer and the poor just work more."

-Name withheld

"Working for DoD, overtime pay seems to be a moot point. Rarely authorized due to budget constraints, overtime pay is more of a pipe dream than a reality. This is especially true for anyone in the GS-11 to GS-14 pay grades."

-Cheryl Rawlings
Instructional Designer

"Unless I've misinterpreted your article today, Ned, I do not agree that professionals should get overtime in the government. That may be different than Justice having to abide by laws on the books.

"To my first point, you state that: 'Overtime payments are no more burdensome to federal agencies than they are to private employers. It makes little sense for the administration to support increased overtime pay rates for other senior federal employees, then carve out an exemption restricted to Justice Department attorneys.'

"This is entirely untrue to the best of my knowledge-having worked alongside attorneys in law firms as a non-attorney professional colleague and having co-authored two subscription books on FLSA exemption issues with an attorney.

"Private sector businesses do NOT pay overtime to a large range of 'professionals'-many highly technical computer positions, managers, supervisors, professionals (lawyers, higher level accounting professionals, etc.). They have to meet various criteria and many businesses misinterpret or are unaware of these criteria, causing all kinds of issues-however, compared to how often this occurs, it is rare that a private company is actually charged with such a transgression of the law.

"I submit that the public and private sectors are very, very different in this regard and that, apparently, the public sector suffers a much higher burden."

-Sharon Campbell

"I work for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and, as you might surmise, I agree with your conclusion that the government should meet its obligation under the Federal Employees Pay Act. However, my reason might surprise you.

"My basic belief is that government attorneys, like attorneys in the private sector, should be exempt from overtime as professionals, in spite of the fact that our salaries are much lower than comparable positions in the private sector. The reason I am taking a position contrary to that basic belief is because we are not treated as professionals, at least not in my agency.

"Forgetting about the salary differential for a moment, the hours actually worked by attorneys in the private sector are not generally recorded. They may have to show 'billing hours' but as you know, these hours bear as much relationship to actual hours worked as the billing hours an auto mechanic uses to bill his customers. Most exempt employees do not have to keep an accurate record of the hours they work.

"I know of no private sector professional employee who is docked for such trivial matters as arriving for work five minutes after the usual starting time, such as I was. This was the first time in ten years that I was late for work and I was docked fifteen minutes for being five minutes late. The Attorney General upheld this position. Other attorneys in our office have also been docked. Our lunch periods are monitored. We are supposed to announce when we go to the bathroom. We must seek 'dispensation' if we vary our hours in any way, and many times that dispensation is denied.

"On the other hand, we are expected to work uncompensated overtime. No compensatory time off is allowed. We are also expected to travel on our own time. It is because of requirements like these that the attorneys in our agency have recently formed the anathema of a professional employee, a union.

"I believe that the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice Attorneys seeking back overtime will be successful, and the Department has no one to blame except itself. If it had treated the attorneys with the respect that is due a true professional the Department would not be facing this problem."

-Name withheld