Return to Article: Report reveals anxiety over new DHS personnel system
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10239
I know there is more opposition to the new Pay for Performance System than is being reported, I've talked to a lot of civilian employees & none of them approve of the new system. They or I do NOT believe the Pay for Performance System is an improvement over the present pay system. Why would you allow DHS to master-mind the payroll system when they abused their money within the first year of being and continued to do so with their award system? The same kind of thinking that allowed Bill Clinton to remain in office after he was impeached! Did they honestly think anyone else could do any more damage to our country?
Now Defense has cut off negotations with the Unions! Is the voice of the people being heard? Is this DEMOCRATIC(relating to, encompassing, or promoting the interest of the people)? SOCIALISM (a social system in which the producers possess political power and the means of producing and distributing goods)? COMMUNISM (A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy & a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people)? MARXISM-LENINISM (the expansion of Marxism (the economic & political thought toward Communism)to include Lenin's concept of thought that workers could not develop a revolutionary consciousness without the guidance of a vanguard party & that imperialism was a particular stage of capitalist development)? DICTATORSHIP (The office or tenure of a dictator. A state or government under dictatorial rule. Absolute or despotic control or power)? Just food for thought.
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10197
The pay system for performance isn't working at TSA and now they want to implement it in the rest of DHS. Somebody stop this out of control train! What incentive/step increases were allowed at TSA equaled less than 5% of a staff of 181 employees (6 employees across three airports). The program is fundamentally a good program, there are just too many ways for dishonest people to continue to be dishonest from managers to employees. RW
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10104
"So What":
When you or someone you love is stricken by illness, will you say "so what, what will be will be, get over it"? I doubt that very much. You, like anyone else, will do whatever it takes to get help.
People have a right and a duty to speak out against injustice, no matter where it appears. You obviously don't work in DHS, and aren't going to be affected by this issue, so why criticize those who are trying to right this wrong?
If the shoe was on the other foot (yours), would you still feel this way?
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9767
Who cares?? What will be will be. Get over it.
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9720
What a disgrace! DHS received thousands of comments during the public comment period on the proposed MAXHR system (a.k.a. paybanding plus). The comments were overwhelmingly negative, but many offered constructive suggestions as to how to improve employee pay and benefits. These were totally ignored by DHS. Now management is having touchy-feely "focus groups", and spinning these as progress in moving forward with their plans. They toss employees who have legitimate concerns a bone by going through the charade of these focus groups, and then go ahead and do whatever they want to anyway. Everyone knows that this is being shoved down our throats against our wishes, but nobody is able to do anything to stop this disaster in the making. Congress, is anybody awake over on Capitol Hill??!!!
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9701
Commerce went to paybanding years ago. Our regional office has fought it with the help of our local union. Thus far, we have been successful. However, there was approximately 10-15 individuals who were very outspoken and argumentative insisting that we go to this. They all held team leader positions. It was no secret that they felt they would get better raises under paybanding. All managers were already in paybanding. However, anyone else could not go into it thanks to our unions fantastic efforts. So, management came up with a solution. Make all team leaders supervisors. They became supervisors and are now in paybanding with all the rest of the Good ole boys. Some supervisor a whopping 1 person. Unbelievable. I suspect we will eventually enter paybanding. But, I am totally against it. It is a system that allows some to migrate upward the equivalent of one grade and others at the top of the band are out of luck. If your not in that situation, your definately at the mercy of whether your supervisor is playing favortism. The current GS system works fine. You don't perform, paperwork is submitted to withhold any step increases. But, documentation is the key. Paybanding allows for arbitrary figures to be assigned to raises for employees that are performing the same.
One ongoing lawsuit against an agency is worth watching regarding paybanding. Those at the top of a band are typically over 40 since they have been there for many years - age discrimation.
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9681
Anxiety? No, it's more like disgust. You can't "train" people not to let their own agendas influence personnel and promotion decisions. This is just a perpetuation of the "Good Old Boy" system. And it is getting rammed down the throat of DHS employees. We have no input - we are just supposed to take it. What a morale builder!
Melted ICE puddle
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9680
Anyone who actually READ the planned personnel program for DHS back in 2002 could have seen that it was essentially a return to the 'spoils system'. It allows for removal of all the employee protections that were put into place to prevent arbitrary hiring and firing of government employees.
Those of us who actually read and understood it, just commented that anyone who worked for any government agency under those rules had to have rocks in their heads. Even third country sweatshops that are so denigrated in the U. S. have more protections than the DHS personnel system (which is now being used as a model to restructure the REST of the GS system).
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9675
This is what I've written about in the past. No amount of training is going to help DHS implement this program. The First line supervisors said:
"Supervisors said they are concerned about the training needed for the new system, the availability of information to answer employee questions and whether the goals of the new system are realistic. Supervisors also reported that they are concerned about the time needed to implement the new system.
To implement DHS needs the trust of its employees in the fairness of the program and the resources given to first line supervisors to implement a new pay for performance system. Without these components the project is absolutely doomed to failure no matter how much training you give.
It is really, really sad because the Union's could have been real allies in implementing this difficult program. Instead, DHS (and also Dod) wish to curtail bargaining at the very same time they are pushing though major workplace changes. From a Labor Relations standpoint it is really short-sighted and foolish- but not surprising given the level of administration hatred toward its own employees.
HR Specialist
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9672
The worker bees are not acting right. You are not supposed to say bad things about a whacko system. The scheme ginned up by Rummy and his side kick Mr. Chu (as in chew up the government workers). This system is going to make it through and all of the different departments will have different points to address the unhappy campers they have to deal with.
What a mess they have devised.
Shameful people
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9663
Boy, am I glad I retired in 2002! We used to have a saying in the early computer days (daze); "garbage in, garbage out". I'm referring not to the many thousands of professional officers in Customs, Immigration, PQ, etc., but to the flawed, stupid, and politically-correct mishap of DHS. Each job is separate, unique, and necessary for entrance to the US. "One face at the Border" is a cruel hoax, and this article reveals this clearly. Perhaps if the Democrats can win in 2008 (not with you know who from NY), this anti-worker trend can be stopped, but I doubt it..Federal government has taken to imitating the excesses and crimes of the private sector for the last two presidential terms, is there any hope in sight?
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9660
Government officials are "sick". This article demonstrates the anxiety and worries of the workers and managers and the government's answer is, "the report helps identify areas that need to be specifically addressed during training, which is set to begin in June. DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie said the focus groups worked exactly as they were intended."
We're trying our best to let OPM/DOD know that it won't work and there are problems in the system which can't be fixed with "TRAINING". They tried training managers in the current (old) system and it didn't fix any of the system's shortcomings.
"The whole idea of the focus groups was to go out and find out what the concerns are with employees," he said. "It has helped us prepare" for training.
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