The Week in Comments: Bonuses, pet care and hiring reform
The best in reader reaction to recent articles.
A roundup of some of the comments received this week in the GovExec.com Mailbag. All comments are presented in their original, unedited form.
On Uncle Sam shelled out more bonuses in 2009
Sadly, many will read this and get the impression of the average government employee taking home large bonuses last year. But most of us in the federal workforce know the reality - the vast majority of these bonuses always go to senior executives, not to the average, journeymen employees. It is the senior executives who we frequently hear of who get bonuses of $50K in some cases. This is where the vast bulk of these bonuses is going. It's unfortunate that the article didn't break down the bonuses into the average amounts received by senior executives/senior managers compared to all other government employees. That would have been very interesting.
Which is nothing in comparison to the private sector and all the extra benefits the military gets. My $1,000.00 before tax bonus ALMOST covered the increase in my health insurance premiums....the misguided notion of federal employees being overpaid is a crock!
In our agency, at our level, there were no bonuses paid out other than a couple of awards for work above and beyond their job description. Guess we should start looking at transferring to an agency where all the money is being handed out.
On Lawmakers urge major cuts in Defense spending
It all sounds fairly reasonable, especially cutting nuke warheads. 1,000 should be enough to destroy the world.
We need a strong and efficient military, but we have never been a nation that places as much emphasis on its military as we are today. I think this bipartisan effort is a very good start toward resizing our military in a much more realistic way... both fiscally and societally. It would be better for the country to get our military back in balance with our many other equally legitimate needs.
Do not balance the Federal budget on the backs of our defense. Decrease the amount of borrowed funds we send to other countries to help with their problems we need those funds here. The other countries are not grateful and actually do not like us. That is where we should start to trim out budget.
On Unions unfazed by TSA nominee's punt on collective bargaining
Unions are the downfall of America. If it wasn't for them, we could still be competitive in the world market. But no! The unions had to fight for a 40hour work week, child labor laws, safe working conditions and so on. It was better when a company could just have a company town where the worker was paid in script that could be used to pay their rent to the company, buy their food from the company ans so on. Yes, unions bad, corporate power good.
Hey Kurt, welcome to the 1920s. It's good to see you union apologists have kept up with the times so well. Oh, in case you didn't notice... TSA is not a corporate power, it is US. The people of this country are (or should be) the power behind the government. This isn't about child labor or company towns; it's about the government having the ability to respond quickly to an emergency situation without having to ask "Mother may I?" of the Unions each time.
On Feds get time off to care for domestic partners, but not pets
I guess people in OPM have never owned a Horse.
What is it's a talking horse? They tend to lay guilt trips on you. "Oh, your going to work and I am foundering." "I ran out of oats and your were writing a stupid memo." See, we need to include the talking horses.
Another ridiculous taxpayer expense. Also, it amazes me that Government workers (paycheck collectors) would want time off for their pets...my tax dollars hard at work. Try this in private industry and see what happens.
So, I guess a straight couple in a relationship/not married is not recognized to receive the benefit of this new change. That speaks volumes about the crazy direction this country is going!
Sandy Weikert... Maybe the country isnt going in such a bad direction after all, the new order actually reads:
Domestic partner means an adult in a committed relationship with another adult, including both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships.
So you can post an apology about being ingnorant on the topic anytime.
On Burning Question: Does the military try to suppress the sex drive of recruits?
I always wondered what the 'speckles' were in the speckeled ice cream served at boot camp.
I was in the Army from 1986 ti 1989. I stood in a long line while the drill seargent each of us a pill and told us to swallow it. Another drill seargent stated you'll know what it soon. I did not have a sex drive for three months. Later I spoke with other recruits who noticed the same problem. One of them said. It's salt peter. It was the first time I heard that expression.
On Lawmakers seek better training for supervisors
Too late for the FAA. Most of the supervisors I had only had a HS diploma if that. Some could not write or speak ina complete sentence. Make it a requirement for any first line manager to have a college degree....period ! There is a reason that the FAA came in almost dead last in the employee satisfaction survey last year.
This is a joke right? As a line level supervisor, my ratings are overridden by the reviewer to ensure his favorite employees are protected. It doesn't matter whether the employee produces, actually work their official hours, or create havoc amongst others, their ratings get fire walled. So, the supervisor is powerless in our system....it's a joke. What we need are better people and more accountability in positions of responsibilities.
I think that this bill will benefit the Federal Service for years to come. As the article mentioned, there will be a number of retirements in the future and there is a need to train individuals eligible for promotion to supervisors, to be better supervisors. Morale is an important factor to any agency and this will be a start to building morale and a productive workforce in the future.
On Obama ties oil spill to need for sweeping reforms
"Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny." I like the sound of that. Time for America to lead the green revolution and grow those jobs rather than concede the entire market to Europe. They're already leaps and bounds ahead of us. Our alabatross is, has been and will continue to be our addiction to oil.
Reforms? We don't need no stinking reforms! Let's just keep the same idiotic "drill baby drill" energy mentality we've had since the turn of the century! Live for today, don't worry about tomorrow! There's no reason we can't be like that fat, dumb and happy fellow we've all met in life who eats what he wants, doesn't believe in exercise and lives life like there's no tomorrow, and does so right up to the day of the heart attack that kills him!
The cap and trade bill will hurt the average American at the gas pump. Washington is salavating over the thought of $10/gal gas (mostly taxes) like Europe. Want to be in a death trap like the smart car?
What does cap and tax have to do with stop the leak? I say do the right thing and go nuke! We have reactors on submarines and AC carriers for how long without a major incident?
On Agencies must justify non-competitive contracts
Another layer of administration, that may or may not have the intended consequence. I recall in the early days of the desktop computer revolution having to write sole source justifications and having it blocked by a contracting official who didn't have the background or education to evaluate what we were doing. Furthermore,with any cutting edge technology, protests were lodged by other companies based upon "vaporware" or software they said they could write but never did, thereby putting projects a year or more behind schedule with software that didn't work anyways. Be careful what you wish for.
Thank Heaven they clarified this. Now hopefully our contracting people in Arizona will stop hounding us to do market research on simple purchases. I can assure you this has led to more wasted money and time for simple acquisitions. The savings may even exceed their projection.
On Diversity and student hiring next on OPM's list
Break-down of article: diversity = quotas. hiring students = eliminate opportunities for existing civil servants. increase SES pay = reward failing managers.
If only 10% of the applicant pool are veterans, would you still have to hire 15% veterans? This hiring protocol obviously leads to hiring incapable individuals in order to meet a quota. Giving vet preferences may be appropriate but we also need need to make sure we're hiring capable individuals to run the country. It's bad enough having incapable politicians at the helm...
As long as discrimination is not practiced, diversity happens as it should. Any special effort to diversify is, by definition, discrimination. The federal government will never have a strong work force as long as 'favored populations" trump competence.
If OPM wants to focus on hiring college graduates, then they have to keep the FCIP program intact. It is the only way to hire recent graduates in a reasonable time frame. I have attended job fairs and commercial companies with booths right next to ours are making on the spot verbal job offers with follow up by letter within 3 days. Is OPM going to give the agencies that type of flexibility?
With regard to hiring veterans, it is difficult to find veterans with professional degrees (engineering, finance, law to name a few). Our organizaiton has very few positions for people without college degrees.
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