A majority of federal managers say it's too hard to fire poor performers, according to a recent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) survey.
Sixty percent of supervisors and 51 percent of employees surveyed said their agencies have a major problem getting rid of slackers. MSPB said federal managers believe they have to go through too many obstacles to deal with employees who are not doing a good job.
MSPB is an independent agency that hears federal employee appeals on personnel actions. In its survey of more than 9,700 federal employees and managers, MSPB asked employees whether they felt their agencies were adhering to the federal government's merit system principles.
Respondents gave their agencies relatively high marks on protecting employees from political influence, reprisal for whistleblowing and arbitrary personnel actions. But 38 percent of employees saw "personal favoritism" or the "buddy system" as a major problem in their agencies.
In addition, 22 percent of respondents said prejudice is still a serious problem in the federal workplace.
The biggest complaint civil servants at all levels had, however, was with how their agencies handle performance problems. High-level supervisors, mid-level managers and employees agreed that the government doesn't do a good job correcting performance problems.
"This is obviously an issue that federal agencies will continue to grapple with in years to come," MSPB said.
The MSPB's findings are similar to the results of past surveys that asked similar questions.
MSPB warned that agencies in the process of streamlining and reengineering their personnel operations need to be careful not to neglect the merit system principles.
"There is a danger that values such as those embodied in the merit principles will be lost in the shuffle," MSPB said. "Consequently, it's important that departments and agencies not ignore the underlying principles that prompted formulation of many now-extraneous rules and regulations, once those rules and regulations have been eliminated."
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