NSPS Afterthoughts
In politically super-charged Washington, the rule of thumb is this: never kick them UNTIL they are down. Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says the punching bag ...
Since it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead we’ll make this fast: while Defense’s National Security Personnel System is still wheezing.
The Bush administration hoped the NSPS, its version of pay for performance, would flourish at DoD. And eventually go government-wide. That’s why folks at the IRS, FAA, Homeland Security, Interior and other agencies watched the rise, decline and fall of NSPS with vary degrees of alarm or satisfaction.
Tuesday’s column, NSPS Who Wins, Who Loses? noted some workers benefited, getting bigger pay raises under NSPS. Some hated the system. To wit:
- “As one who did well under NSPS and then got a raise upon conversion ($86 a month.) I have to say that I am pleased that NSPS has died. Something I predicted 6 months after its inception, although, I was surprised it happened so soon. I have to agree with the statement in your column …’NSPS, at best, would institutionalize the buddy system and could become a tool to permit supervisors and agency heads to run a political patronage system.’ I saw this first hand when sitting on the pay panels. Those around the ‘flag pole’ routinely received the 4’s and 5’s while those hard working individuals in the lower echelon, many who deserved a 4, received the 3 rating. It was all about the money. As a supervisor I was instructed by the pay panel manager to downgrade some of my 4’s to 3’s in order to ‘make budget’. Now we have the few who got the big raise and bonus complaining that the cash cow has died. I know of a few individuals who were hired under NSPS with a salary that already surpassed the so called ‘GS 14 step 15’ and a few who exceeded the GS 15 step 10 salary. This is why NSPS was doomed to die. May it rest in peace?” J.C. In DoD
- “Mike: I’m one of those 28% who’s going to be getting the half pay raises. And I don’t have a problem with that. I got to keep my pay, so I’m going to be ahead of where I was before. It seems fair to me that I get a lower pay raise than people who are in the regular system – I’m out of step with that system and I got to keep my higher pay. What really is the issue here? No, you’re not getting the same raise as a co-worker, but you’re still getting a raise. And you’re still making more than the top step of your grade.
“I don’t agree with the people who say they are losing money by only getting half raises, because they are still starting out with a bigger number for their pay than their co-workers. Their total pay is still more than their co-workers. I truly do not see that we have anything to complain about with the way this was handled.
“Count your blessings!” M.
To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com
Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota
According to ranker.com, number one on the list of “the top cop cars used as police patrol vehicles and pursuit police cars” is: the Ford Torino.
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