Senior Officers and Civil Service
Current practice is to give senior level military officers (Lt Col and above) who elect to retire from military service and whom have a desire to enter into civilian service, positions at the level of GS-14 and GS-15 right away. These people were managers as military leaders, but have retired and at that point should have no direct sense of entitlement to senior levels of civil service nor should the system allow it. ...more »
Current practice is to give senior level military officers (Lt Col and above) who elect to retire from military service and whom have a desire to enter into civilian service, positions at the level of GS-14 and GS-15 right away. These people were managers as military leaders, but have retired and at that point should have no direct sense of entitlement to senior levels of civil service nor should the system allow it. These personnel have little to no technical understanding of the positions they are being given; they are managers of people. However, those "people" have worked hard to get through the ranks with exceptional levels of technical knowledge that supports far better understanding of how to deal with the needs of the people and the specialty area they oversee. When senior military officers choose to retire, they must recognize and accept that what they have achieved in their most recent position, does not translate into some automatic entitlement over others who have chosen a different path and excelled to a point of being deserving of such leadership opportunities. It is wholly unfair and unreasonable for senior officers to assume leadership roles in civilian service, they lack the technics and, most assuredly have not paid the price on this side of the fence to be granted such status. They were great in the military, and few had many civilians to deal with directly..so why should they be given senior status in civil service when that process is entirely different? The truth is, they shouldn't. If this were true, then why doesn't the sytem take in senior enlisted personnel? These people were exceptional leaders and technical experts that got the job done and made the senior officers jobs a whole lot easier and had daily supervisory duties over a whole lot of personnel with different skill levels, both military and oftentimes, civilians. The bottom line is, when you elect to end your military career to start another, it is entirely wrong to assume that your past status, should equal your present status. Each individual should be evaluated upon the techical knowledge they must already have acquired and practiced to meet the need of the position vacancy. Competition is exactly that...competitive. And there is nothing competitive about sidelining opportunities for civilian servants who deserve to excel to positions of great authority being bypassed by an individual who was fortunate to get his/her assignment via their former position in the military, selecting another of his/her kind, over someone of far greater technical knowledge, a capable and experienced civilian leader, and one who has earned the right to be at the top.
« less full details »