Return to Article: Women, minorities underrepresented at top of congressional agencies
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40334
I disagree with the views that "as soon as someone doesn't get they want they cry and use the discrimination card." As you look around Washington and across the country for that matter, it doesn't take genius to see that females and minorities are in fact underrepresented in the upper ranks of almost any and every organization. I am all for hiring the best possible candidate, but this country has an ongoing problem of allowing institutional discrimination.
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38940
I agree 100% with John C. It all boils down to someone not getting what they want and then they throw the "discrimination, cry baby card".
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38144
I couldn't agree with you more Dan and this is the reason the agency has gone from over 9,000 to a little over 2,000 employees and only publishing just a few hard copies of the Federal Register and Congressional stuff-- but Congress likes to have its leather bound books with gold foil and thread stiching. You can't get good old fashioned printing and bookbinding done at Kinkos.
Former Congressman Ney of Ohio who was the JCP chair placed a bunch of his folks at GPO years and years ago-- they are still there running the agency in a Democratic Congress. The head of HR was the Safety Officer, the new General Counsel was the former IG-- the head of employee relations and workers comp have little to no HR experience and the EEO officer owes her job to the the head of HR. It is a truly ugly agency and does despicable things to its employees. Congress should be ashamed of itself for not listening to GPO and former GPO employees.
But Dan, I agree-- they should turn the GPO factory into nice condos by Union Station and pull the plug on this entire agency.
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37731
Why do we need a "Government Printing Office"??? You can get the same stuff done at Kinko's for less money and we could end all the discrimination there.
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37683
What ever happened to the concept - "The most qualified person for the Job"? Does being a Female, Minority or White Male make a person more qualified for a position. The "discrimination, cry baby card" has become just another form of discrimination against the "Qualified Workforce".
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37480
Please. give me a break--
The Government Printng Office is not called the plantation by its employees for no reason. There is almost no racial diversity among the GPO Executives-- there is serious religious discrimination at this agency. Woman are not promoted to the highest levels of the printing or bookbinding crafts and Congress could care less in addressing huge discrimination issues because the GPO is a backwater agency that nobody cares about.
I could easily testify to the disparate treatment facing minority and female employees if anyone cared. There are very serious prohibited personnel practices occurring on a frequent basis.
This legislative agency is still being run by Republican Party operatives put in place by Congressman Ney years ago with a mission to beat up employees and to continue to carve the agency. The senior Union officials are both too tired and too scared to effectively deal with this monster.
Ms. Elzy's statements make me laugh- she has absolutely no independence or ability or even interest in addressing these issues. And more shocking is that the GPO IG serves at the pleasure of the Public Printer. GPO employees have really little recourse against such maliciousness.
The Joint Committee on Printing who is supposed to have oversight is a total sham and doesn't care about the horrible working conditions or low wages of GPO employees.
Overall, it is a pretty horrible place and there is rambant and blatent discrimination. Shame on you Congress for allowing this to occur.
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37467
The answer is simple !...Just get rid of more white male employees (preferrably older ones)...
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37452
It is sad that agencies continue to use the excuse of not promoting women, minorities and underrespresented because the pool is not available. That is not entirely true. There are GS-15s that do not have a Bachelor Degree. There are GS-11's that have a Master Degree. It is not that there aren't minorities and/or people with disabilities that can fill the top positions. The hiring authority usually find a loop-hole not to hire minorities and/or people with disabilities. Woman are moving in the right direction. People with disabilities are underrepresented in the bottom, middle and top of agencies. This is 2007. It is a shame that Agencies talk a good talk. The data prove that it is just talk. Until minorities and people with disabilities are in top position, hiring of these underrepresented will always be deficient.
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37451
I applaud the efforts to increase minority representation in government, but I believe trying to force increased employment of women in any profession is a serious social mistake. If any woman wants to be in the workforce, then they have the right to do so. I have several working for me and they are good dedicated employees. And, if they excel, then they should be given equal consideration for promotions. The best candidate should get the promotion. Gender is irrelevant at least in my Agency. However, if we start enforcing some sort of "quota" then the social consequences can be severe. I believe men are primarily responsible for supporting their family, and if the best qualified person is bypassed because he is a male in favor of hiring a less qualified female, then we are in for trouble. When I hear statements like those by Delegate Norton, I am concerned because I have seen this gender preference policy in practice in the government and it has not been good.
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37398
Articles such as this are no news to those of us that are blatantly discriminated against. Without any regard for the mechanisms that have been put in place to "safeguard" discriminatory acts committed with public funds, a study will be no more than expensive pieces of paper, probably performed by the discriminators. Time out for talking, public funds, which everyone contributes to, should not be used to play the "let find out what's going on game, with no real action behind it.
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37393
There are many women and minorities who are overlooked already within the various agencies; some of which already qualify for SES positions. Should these people be granted true mentorship and/or training, they would potentially be ready to assume SES leadership positions. I have heard many say they don't want to be supervisors and many times, in order to advance, they need to get supervisory experience. They have told me they want to advance but without supervisory training, it's difficult to get fresh supervisors. Other problems within agencies are the ethics factors which cause personnel to become demoralized. I think the head of agencies try hard to improve but they are not listening effectively to their own personal. They are used to getting information down to the employees but find it difficult to listen to some of their personnel's ideas and to grant credit to these employees. Ethics or sometimes lack of ethics causes personnel to become demoralized. To allow mediocrity in the workplace is unethical behavior and sometimes this happens. So agencies tend to beleive fresh blood is needed to get "the best and the brightest" from outside of government service. Yet, "the best and brightest" are in your agencies right now. Utilize them, value them, help motivate them, train them, make them feel useful, validate their abilities and skills, learn to listen to them, give them credit verbally and in writing for their ideas, always be honest with them. If people problems exist in your agency, address and resolve them. Remember, you recruited these people, felt they had the right skills and hired them. Don't waste the talent you already possess. Some of the "Best and Brightest" are in your agencies right now.
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