Community Member

Member since 2 years ago

Badges

• Newbie

4 ideas posted

0 comments 113 votes

183 points View the Leaderboard

Department/Agency:

USDA/ARS

City:

Beltsville

Ideas contributed by Community Member

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  8 votes

  This idea is active.
  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Health benefits & 5 year rule before retirement

  According to HR, you have to be on federal health insurance for five years before you are able to retire and carryover FEHB for life. As a young employee, I don't think this is fair. I am paying higher premiums and have heard another employee essentially bragging that he is on his wife's insurance now (which is a lot cheaper), but plans to switch over to a federal plan soon so that he AND his wife can receive benefits ...more »

  According to HR, you have to be on federal health insurance for five years before you are able to retire and carryover FEHB for life. As a young employee, I don't think this is fair. I am paying higher premiums and have heard another employee essentially bragging that he is on his wife's insurance now (which is a lot cheaper), but plans to switch over to a federal plan soon so that he AND his wife can receive benefits post retirement. HR told him he can add his wife at anytime (i.e. she does not need to be on his insurance for five years) before he retires. I think this five year policy is making it harder for those of us who have been paying into the system for a long time. You should have to be on a federal plan for a minimum of ten years before you retire.

  « less full details »

  1 comment for Idea: Health benefits & 5 year rule before retirement

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  5 votes

  This idea is active.
  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  downsize/auction Smithsonian Archives

  Has anyone thought of auctioning some of the surplus archives that the US gov't is paying to maintain? Perhaps we already do this, but I am sure there has got to be several million dollars worth of items that could be auctioned without disrupting the bulk of the collection.

  Add your comment for Idea: downsize/auction Smithsonian Archives

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  16 votes

  This idea is active.
  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Revamp Federal Pay System, quit rewarding mediocrity

  As a young career status federal employee, I have seen how the current pay system can/should be improved. I have seen mediocrity and longevity rewarded with higher salaries with some employees working twice is hard while their peers are making thousands less doing the EXACT same work. Case in point: I work with two WG employees. One is extremely motivated, well rounded and does an excellent job. He has been with the gov't ...more »

  As a young career status federal employee, I have seen how the current pay system can/should be improved. I have seen mediocrity and longevity rewarded with higher salaries with some employees working twice is hard while their peers are making thousands less doing the EXACT same work. Case in point: I work with two WG employees. One is extremely motivated, well rounded and does an excellent job. He has been with the gov't 6 years. The second employee has been with the gov't 23 years. Although he reports to work on time, he does a mediocre job, and I often find the younger WG employee picking up the other employee's slack and taking on more projects. I cannot trust the 23 year employee with any projects that require attention to detail. The younger employee is a 6 year career status employee but is not eligible for another step raise for another year or two. The mediocre employee is topped out and is making almost $6k more than the younger employee. Unfortunately I am not either of their supervisors and can't do anything about their pay, but I have voiced my opinion that the current system needs to be fixed/improved.

  « less full details »

  6 comments for Idea: Revamp Federal Pay System, quit rewarding mediocrity

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  6 votes

  This idea is active.
  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Merge FSIS and APHIS

  With all this talk of merging agencies, I think an effective merger would be merging the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service with the USDA's Animal Health and Plant Inspection Service. When I worked in the for a large poultry corporation, I noticed that most FSIS inspectors had no clue about the growout and production practices at poultry farms. Good management in the live production environment transfers into a healthy ...more »

  With all this talk of merging agencies, I think an effective merger would be merging the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service with the USDA's Animal Health and Plant Inspection Service. When I worked in the for a large poultry corporation, I noticed that most FSIS inspectors had no clue about the growout and production practices at poultry farms. Good management in the live production environment transfers into a healthy and safe product hitting our grocery stores. Bad management practices can lead to issues like the salmonella outbreak we saw last year in our table eggs. If APHIS and FSIS worked together in animal production (both field and processing enviroments), you would take FDA out of the picture and allow the FDA to concentrate on non-animal derived food commodities. This would eliminate some overlapping and confusion between the USDA and the FDA.

  « less full details »

  Add your comment for Idea: Merge FSIS and APHIS

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

Displaying all 4 Ideas