It has been said that when the Pentagon gets a cold, workers at the IRS, Interior Department, Justice and most other agencies sneeze.

The Defense Department is the largest single federal civilian operation and it often takes the lead in personnel matters. DoD is often the testing ground for many critical HR programs, from buyouts, which still exist, to its ill-fated pay banding program (NSPS) that was aborted a couple of years after it was launched. A lame duck version of it, this time with major union input and approval, is being prepped, although its launch date is uncertain, at best.

Now Defense is tackling two new problems — not enough in one case, too much in another — which will test the skills of both career Army, Navy and Air Force staffers as well as political appointees who are also preoccupied by where they’ll be working this time next year.

Problem one: Too many bosses. And maybe too many civilian contractors, which makes the giant contractor community very nervous. Defense has imposed a civilian hiring freeze. It was ordered in late February and went into effect March 20. It grows out of a directive from the Republican-led Congress. It is referred to as “delayering” and aimed at the Pentagon and other headquarters units which, apparently, have too many high-grade managers and supervisors. Federal News Radio reported that the hiring freeze applies to all components under the direct control of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That’s a very big chunk of DoD.

DoD reporter Jared Serbu said that normally a hiring freeze is a “brute force method to reduce staff size and personnel costs” quickly. This time, however, the purpose is to expedite “delayering.” Ask 50 people to define delayering and you might get 20 or 30 different answers.

Even as Defense is delayering itself, it also facing a major problem with its IT staff. As in getting and then keeping top professionals to work on developing cyber systems for the good guys (us) while coming up with ways to block or blunt operations from some very smart current and potential adversaries. For an update on that effort, click here.

Hiring freezes and other versions of delayering are not new to the bureaucracy. The names change but a reinvented wheel is still round.

Politicians — at the White House or congressional level — order shakeups, cutbacks and “reforms” but then leave the sticky details to political appointees and the career staff they depend on. Sometimes the initiatives go away (will the next Congress and administration care?). Sometimes there are end-runs. In the case of the endangered IT staff, Defense could relax its hiring freeze for that group.

In the delayering effort — too many coaches, not enough players — there are two solutions that have worked in the past.

Change the job titles of certain managers and supervisors . Leave their pay and grade intact, but change the job title of some chefs to cook. Or dishwasher. Then report back to Congress, quite correctly, that layers of management had been reduced by 10, 20 or 40 percent. Pick a number.

Look busy, look concerned. But do nothing. Time, especially in a year with both a presidential and congressional election, is definitely on the side of the hold-your-fire team.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

Maryland’s state dessert, the Smith Island Cake, traditionally has 8-10 layers of cake separated by chocolate frosting.

Source: Maryland.gov

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