Letters

In a way I feel for former reinvention chief Morley Winograd ("Results Matter," Letters, April). It must be disheartening to know that so much of your effort has gone for naught. But he would have to be severely elitist or naive to believe that much of reinvention will survive. There were improvements in government, but that is the case with every administration.

I find it incredible that Mr. Winograd believes "we were able to begin an irreversible process of changing the culture of the federal government by embedding that change in the hearts and minds of those who work for it." I don't know how many moons his planet has, but this one doesn't resemble that statement at all. Sure, federal employees want to do good and wonderful things, but they are held down by the sheer weight of the bureaucracy. Mr. Winograd's three examples were laughable. They show he has no concept of what it is like to be a civil servant.

The only possible permanent improvement would be complete civil service reform, something I am not likely to ever see.

Jeffrey Holmes
Leader, Plans and Programs Branch
Readiness and Logistics Business Center
Fort Sam Houston, Texas

Theory of Relativity

While Eric Yoder raises all of the meaningful points in the debate about the size and nature of federal pay ("Raising Pay," April), one point needs to be emphasized.

After more than 20 years of human resources experience in one of those agencies excluded from Title 5, I can say it is not the size of one's pay that's important, but the relative size. Programs that clearly and personally differentiate pay raises and awards, rather than programs that simply increase them for everyone, stand a better chance of acceptance. And those differentiations in pay raises and awards should be based on performance.

As Yoder has pointed out, the "more for everybody" approach clearly is not supported by the American public. In my opinion, it is not supported by the federal employee, either.

Ward Mannering
Management and Compensation Consultant
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Corrections

The number of Foreign Service officers doing the work of the Bureau of Consular Affairs abroad was incorrectly reported in the Federal Performance Report (April). More than 900 Foreign Service consular officers are assigned abroad, a number augmented by consular associates, temporary duty personnel and re-employed annuitants. In the same issue, the "Inside NASA" chart incorrectly reported the number of flights for John Glenn. Astronaut John Young made the flights.