Return to Article: Growing Pains
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91000
NSPS had to go. The scandals of individuals "working" their way to great salary increases were a joke. It was all about favoritism, who knows who, and who's sleeping with whom. Yes, of course there were a few who truly deserved some recognition, but for each one of those, there were dozens of inappropriate "promotions" of individuals in the NSPS system. Any system that puts GS-9's through GS-14's in the same pay band and went through the charade of competing GS-9's and GS-14's for the same position with the GS-9 winning was a total travesty. How can you doubt that sneaking suspicion that there was something inappropriate going on between the manager making the selection and the GS-9 who beat out the GS-14. Ridiculous. Let them settle back into the same grade they came from and compete for that promotion fairly.
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90973
Bargaining unit employees WERE moved into NSPS. This union lost NON DUES Paying memebers to NSPS. These people lost their rights for union representation without any say. Furthermore, there were NSPS personnel that were terminated with MSPB the only way to turn. In addition, ALL bargaining unit employees were on the converstion roster IF this thing survived. Union have served the Civilian population since 1917 when they were responsible for securing the first Bonus to 1945 when they got us all overtime at time and one half, a 40 hour work week and holiday pay in 1945. There are many more thing Unions have done for you that you just don't think about. Anyone care to go back to having a 80 hour work week, no benefits and no equal pay for equal work?
Don't forget, these are the same folks that removed all the securities and penalites so the banks and economy would not fail. If they messed with your money, they can and will mess with your workplace. Can you spell National Screwing of Public Servants (NSPS)??
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90910
If they lift the Exec 4 cap, they better do it for everyone and not just the folks coming out of NSPS. It would be unfair to the GS 15-10s in other Agencies to let only the ex-NSPS folks be paid above the cap. We have suffered with partial comparibility raises for years because of the cap.
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90900
The repeal of NSPS is NOT Rocket Science. If a regular GS person is promoted to a GS-13 level, and then get RIF'ed, TOF'ed, or other downgrade (not at their request), they are put on grade retention for two years and then pay retention until their salary can be placed in the step 10 of the grade they were downgraded to.
You can't just promote people because the position description is what drives the grade, not the person in it. If the job is a GS-12 job and you are receiving pay for a GS-13 Step 4, they will not make the job a 13 because it was properly classified at the GS-12 level.
NSPS was a DISASTER! I saw so many incomptent, arrogant idiots placed in jobs that they would have had to compete for if still in GS. By and large, they were "best buds" with the selecting official.
And, to all those folks whining about doing more than their co-workers and now they are not going to get paid a lot more, the GS system allows Quality Step Increases, Bonuses and other salary incentives.
Your manager or supervisor has to have the GUTS to write up a good justification for a QSI or bonus and deal with the fall-out because EVERYBODY did not get an increase in salary.
Good Riddance NSPS! Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out!
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90875
Try giving an honest 8 hours work for 8 hours pay you just might be surprised, what a concept.
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90803
NSPS, as designed, is labor intensive for the deck plate organizations. After reading self assessments non-stop for 4.5 days-can't say I'll miss it.
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90775
What is the max dollar amount that one can contribute to their TSP in 2010?
What is the max dollar amount that one can contribute to their TSP catch-up in 2010?
I cannot print money or sell bonds so I have to balance and pass my personal Current Year appropriations and hammer out the Budget Year, BY+1, BY+2 funding
Continuing Resolutions (CRs)puts everybody under my roof in a foul mood.
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90742
It sucks being a government employee doesn't it? I mean most people are worried about their jobs in this economic climate, and how much has the government sector grown in the last ten months? Hey, you chose the govt job with the transparent salary and benefits that anyone can look up on the internet. You knew when you took that job that it would not be converted to a higher wage grade, and the only way you could move up, other than step increases, was to take a different job. The job descriptions and wage grades for those positions are fixed within the government. It is NOT a pay for performance system. That is what NSPS was trying to fix, but whenever you make someones performance subject to the interpretation of others, it is going to be unfair depending on office politics and opportunities. A person working at a federal office in rural america may not get the same opportunities to excell as the person in Arlington. But, did the person in rural america choose to be there? Is it fair? What IS fair.
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90734
I have been under NSPS since spiral 1.1, and from the beginning have always had good/fair ratings and been given payouts, but if compared to what I would have received under GS- have lost a lot of money/TSP money as well, and due to a few reassignments with increases my salary was increased as well in additon to the pay outs, but not to the extent it would have been had the reassignments been promotions as they would have been under GS, so I will be happy to get my salary to where it should have been long ago. Not bitter, and believe we need a performance based system, but fair to all not just some- depending on the command you are attached.
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90731
NSPS was designed as a way to reward the best and give chaff to the rest. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, assuming that those in charge of this tool were capable of being fair and judcious was a misconception of enormous proportion. Over the hill suckups and bubble headed bleach blonds made out better than those able to make a postive effort.
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90723
I am apparently one of the cronies/teacher's pet/office cutie that were described by others. Here I thought I was doing the work of my former supervisor when he left and higher command decided to take the billet away (but not the workload). My responsibities just as a supervisor increased 4 fold but HR wouldn't let the command change the PD to be the correct series and change the duties at the same time, said it would have to go out for competition, even though I was already doing the work. Stayed that way until NSPS made it a whole lot easier for the command to correct the problem.
I will be one of those who would be subject to the "problem" of having been paid for my performance and not "fitting" on the GS scale which has ALWAYS punished those who do their job well over time (raises every 1, then 2, then 3 years) if there is no promotion available.
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90720
WOOOO, For some of us who thought they were getting a two grade promotion only to find out after that you will only receive a 5% increase in your salary which in my case was many of thousands of dollars below the old GS grade and step 1 equivalent. To simply say move to a grade commensurate with my salary would again down grade me be two GS grades. No what needs to happen is I need to be elevated to the correct grade and step I should have received if I was in GS, and since I have also lost out on a couple of steps in that grade I should also be moved to the step to properly compensate me for the loss I incurred as a result of NSPS. It appears to me that you are only concerned about those individuals who were able to benefit from NSPS so they can keep all their new found wealth and the rest of its to bad to sad. You not only lost a lot of money as I did tfor the past several years but guess what you are about to loose again when we send you back to GS. You will be down graded because your pay isn't what it should have been under gS. However your NSPS super grades will see either more money or be able to keep what they have regardless. How fair is all of this. Why don't you truly fix the conversion to what it should be.
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90703
Thats all fine and good for them but what about us who after converting to NSPS got what should have been a promotion but rec'd the lowest amount of money possible for that move to a higher pay band. Are we going to get our salaries adjusted to reflect the salary of the old GS position. In my case I lost lots of money, was not given an opportunity to address it.
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90694
Treat it like a RIF. Allow these employees retained pay for two years where they would have the opportunity to seek promotions. If at the end of the two years they are still in the same job, their pay goes to the grade step 10 and that's where they sit. If they truly are "role-models" they shouldn't have a problem getting a job that better suits their skill set. This will truly be a great test for "pay for performance". Track it and see how many are really worth the drastic pay increase that they took from other employees.
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90687
From everything that I've read on NSPS, no bargaining unit employees were ever moved into it. If that is the case, why are union officials commenting on and suggesting ways to move these non-bargaining unit employees back to the GS system? It's not their concern and will not affect bargaining unit employees. Of course, they all think that the unions should run the agencies, so this is just an extension of that thesis. I suppose their looking for a way to use this situation to expand whatever perks, pay and benefits they can get. Go back to defending the slackers among the bargaining unit with your quests for ever higher paychecks for nothing in return. I am not a bargaining unit employee, but not a manager either.
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90686
What will also be interesting is how they handle employees who are in between steps. Will they get bumped up or down? Or if held in place, how will their eligibility for promotion be determined?
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90685
Its hard to sympathize with those that are so gifted they can excel no matter where they may work. If this is not the case, then I apologize and hope they can brown nose themselves back up the ladder at some other job if they so choose.
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90647
I lost pay when I was moved into NSPS but no one seemed to care. Hopefully, they will take care of the people moving back.
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90632
"Obviously there's potentially a financial hit," he said. "You could argue they're not getting the same cost-of-living adjustment, but you could argue they're having pay protected at a higher rate than their counterparts. They're coming in at a higher rate, but they're being held back."
This is the quandry WG workers have been in for many years and it hassn't been an issue yet. Why the double standard with GS managers?
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90623
Makes perfect sense. NSPS was just a way to boost salaries for cronies. It worked too. NSPS was used as a pseudo promotion vehicle. Couldn't justify a GS-14 graded bump for a GS-13 graded employee because the HR weenies were being mean? Just pop them on to the NS-2 Supervisor slot and jack up their pay.
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90609
These big increases came from their coworkers' hides. I think they are all a pack of butt kissers, teacher's pets, and office cuties. To hades with them. They are living reminders of the evils of NSPS.
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90606
"Defense cannot simply move these workers into a higher pay grade that matches their salary under NSPS because doing so would result in numerous noncompetitive promotions."
Gee, why was it perfectly OK to allow this under NSPS (promote people without having to do interviews or compete), but in returning to the GS system it is absolutely forbidden. Good riddance NSPS.
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90601
Those of us who were converted from the General Schedule pay system to the National Security Pay System had no say in the matter. Many of us were already step 7s, 8s, or 9s when converted, which put us at the high end of the pay band. Most of us are outstanding performers that was the purpose of NSPS - reward the high performer - so raises were given. And, if we changed jobs we were guaranteed a 5% increase in salary. Also, if an employee was promoted, a raise between 6 and 25 percent would be negotiated.
Now the Feds are perplexed about how to convert employees back to the General Schedule pay plan because we no longer "fit" the pay schedule?
It's simple, reclassify the positions to the grade equivalent to the salary that the employee is making. Do not punish employees because they were high performers under NSPS and awarded for their hard work. If employees are given lower annual raises or lower cost-of-living adjustments until their co-workers' salaries catch up - what do you think it will do for morale - or better yet - performance?
"...they're having pay protected at a higher rate than their counterparts." Duh! 'They' most likely earned that pay and the others who are catching up are either not as senior or not performing at the same level. Punishing a high performer by making them wait for others to catch up is plain "BS"!
Someone with some common sense needs to evaluate this and develop a plan for returning to the GS pay system. Civil Service employees deserve better.
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90586
I know of at least one employee at our organization who was overseas for many years in a GS-12 position and returned stateside with the same salary into a GS-11 position, so it can be done very easily.
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