The entire government, from civil servants to elected officials needs to be overhauled. However, change must begin somewhere, and that "where" is within how human resources and personnel management are handled.
Because Congress is supposed to be serving the American public, just as the rest of us civil employees, they should be subject to the same rules, laws, and regulations with which the Office of Personnel Management governs us, especially where it pertains to pay, allowances, background security verifications, and benefits.
As a Defense Finance and Accounting Service employee for nearly eighteen years, my coworkers and I know that if we do not perform our jobs effectively, not only are the war fighters and their families adversely affected, but so are we. Unfortunately, we have been negatively impacted by negligible to nonexistent cost of living pay increases while Congress enjoys their self-implemented pay increases and paid vacations at the expense of the American taxpayers.
Congress has been allowed to function, cooperate (or not), and be productive (or not) at their own discretion, while having their pay and benefits virtually uninterrupted and steadily increasing. The American people all suffer because of their procrastination and dereliction of duties. Yet no reforms have taken place there as they should. Congress not only needs to be more transparent, but more accountable for their actions and failures to act.
Instead, the brunt of improving efficiency in government has fallen on the common employees who are “in the trenches” of conducting this great nation’s business. We are victims of spending cut-backs which affect the amount of cash and time-off awards and other quality incentives that are given to well-deserving employees – awards, which have been proven to be essential morale boosters and motivators.
Position and Time studies were performed under the guise of attempting to ensure that the salaries for particular position classifications are indistinguishable from identical positions across DFAS. However, we still have an imbalance between duties and pay grade. As a result of some of these reassessments, some of our positions have been down-graded though the type of work we do has increased in technical difficulty and volume and may remain at a higher grade at a different work site.
We have been subject to hiring freezes/ pauses though over 50% of the workforce is retirement eligible; so more work is being completed by fewer people. Congress elected to employ a program to ensure that our agency is not without leadership – the now defunct Leaders in Motion Program. However, that initiative was doomed to failure because what government needs is more people who actually do the work, not more supervisors and managers.
Basically, in order to reform our nation’s competency, one, a fresher workforce needs to be employed to replace retirees as they depart instead of the following year or not at all. This will take some stress and strain off the remaining workforce, which will result in decreased Sick Leave usage and increased presence. Two, position classifications and rankings need to be completed and made uniform throughout government according to their series. This will also ensure that candidates have the proper skill sets for the same type of job no matter the location. Three, current employees need to feel valued, and the best way to do that is to say “well done” with a token that reflects that. Last, but not least, promote employees within agencies rather than hire from off the street. Veteran employees have more direct knowledge and have already formed working relationships with their coworkers and customers. This would reduce the amount spent on training fledglings that are unfamiliar with the internal workings of the government.
These improvements will put country on the right track to success for all its citizens.
