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    Lectern

    By Steve Kelman

    Blog archive

    The Lectern: One more time -- can we keep the kids?

    I am trying to repeat the point that perhaps the biggest human capital challenge for the government will not be recruiting a new generation of young people to public service (though that will be a challenge enough), but retaining them once we've gotten them.


    If we lose the kids, a big reason will be too much bureaucracy in government. This is one reason the bureaucracy-promoting fear industry is a danger to good government. The people who never met a rule or a control they didn't like drive creative young people (and perhaps older ones as well) from government.


    I wrote on this issue in my "reinvent the wheel" post last week. One of the respondents, who identified himself as "jswhetsell," wrote, among other things in a very thoughtful response, "[E]very day I find myself considering a decision to leave government because I spend so much of my energy dealing with rules and bureaucracy."


    The comment came from a young contracting professional named Jason Whetsell. Jason started his career right out of undergraduate school, working at the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection, and is now a contract specialist at the Office of Personnel Management, (he has been fortunate to work under John Ely at DHS and his wife Kay Ely at OPM, both great contracting professionals). I originally got to know Jason because he was one of the young procurement professionals working to introduce innovative reverse auctions for commodity buys at DHS. So I sent Jason an e-mail and asked if it was okay to write about him and to use his full name, and he said it was.


    Jason wrote in his e-mail to me: "The most frustrating thing about my situation is that I feel like I actually excel at procurement, but I find myself spending at least 80 percent of my time navigating through unnecessary bureaucracy."


    I've met Jason several times. Were the government to lose him, it would be an absolute tragedy. He is mission-driven and public-interest driven, caring about DHS' important responsibilities and focused on getting a good deal for taxpayers. He is articulate and hard-working. He is eager to learn more about procurement and about how to be a business adviser for agency programs. He is exactly the kind of young person the government should be looking for as the next generation of public servant.


    We cannot afford to lose young people like Jason. Yet everything going on in the procurement system now is sending Jason a message -- leave!


    Could some Hill staffers -- even better, their bosses -- invite Jason to lunch to get a feel for the impact of some of their rule/control-mania on Jason and on the procurement system?


    I would particularly like to get thoughts on these issues from young feds and/or young people who could consider becoming feds, whether in procurement or other areas.


    Jason, I'll keep fighting for you. I hope others will too.


    ****


    What do you think? Post a comment on this blog (registration required) or send an e-mail to letters@fcw.com and we will post it for you.

    Posted by Steve Kelman on Mar 06, 2008 at 9:18 AM


    Reader comments

    Fri, Mar 14, 2008 John Monroe

    In your writing about the issues of “can we keep the kids?, you have hit the nail on the head and I hope we can keep Jason and others like him. The issues you describe and frustrations Jason expresses are so real and can be fixed I am convinced. My background is in performance improvement and over my 23 years in government service, my observation has been that we have so many employees and leaders in key positions who interpret government rules and regs in narrowly focused and unduly strict ways that often prevent work from being done and inhibits progress toward our mission. Many employees and leaders are very comfortable in doing work in old, inefficient and ineffective ways and there is little interest in change. The “bean counters” reign, while we are continually told what we can’t do, instead of receiving assistance and support to think of ways to do productive work. I have often said and I learned in graduate school that Congress passed laws and departments and agencies have written rules and regs to support the work and missions of government, not to hinder them. Part of the answer lies in convincing leaders in key positions that bureaucracy does not have to exist. Efficient and effective processes can be designed and work very well in government systems – they just need to be used and supported by leaders and staff. Jason is not the only one who wants to leave and I hope we can keep him. We have over the years lost many capable, intelligent, enterprising, hardworking employees. I have myself left several positions in gov’t service when it was evident that my supervisors and leaders accepted the bureaucracy and the dysfunctional status quo. I am so fortunate now to work in a position with supervisors and leaders who are trying to make positive change. They are an inspiration and that encourages me to forge forward too (as frustrating as it is at times).Sheila M. Warren MPH, RN, CPHQ

    Mon, Mar 10, 2008 Tanya Brewer

    I'm not in procurement, but I'm in an IT security-related area of the government. Talk about rules and bureaucracy doesn't even touch the surface when it comes to IT security.I came to the government as a Presidential Management Intern (now Fellows). My year/class of PMIs was used in a survey to see how well the PMI program was doing. The news was horrible. Somewhere around 5% of us managed to stay in Federal service for 5 years. All the reasons Jason gives for wanting to leave are the exact reasons sited in the survey results for people leaving after only 2 - 4 years. Shock and dismay!I don't mean to sound flippant, but having lasted over 6 years now I can completely sympathize with anyone new to Federal service, especially if they are under the age of 40. Recently when I had troubles with a manager and began looking for somewhere else to be, I included outside the government without hesitation. Yes, the benefits are good, but they aren't good enough to outweigh the stress sometimes. And they certainly don't outweigh having to take work home or coming in on a weekend just to be able to actually DO MY JOB because my week was eaten by some new data reporting requirement or additional inventory hoop or having my computer replaced/reconfigured yet again or having to get trained on even more "security features" for my laptop.

    Fri, Mar 7, 2008 Luther Tupponce

    I was actually at the hearing yesterday, and it was clear that any opposition to reverse auction made by Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) was made within the context of complex requirements, such as construction contracts. Although both ACE and AGC mentioned that reverse auctions may, indeed, be useful for commodity purchases, no one at the hearing bothered to offer up data from a recent study that shows that reverse auctions not just may be useful, but, in fact, are an incredibly effective method for procuring commodities. Not only do they improve savings, efficiencies and compliance, but also dramatically increase small business participation and success in commodity purchases. The study, by researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School (available online at http://bosun.nps.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/Fri+Mar+07+08:14:50+2008+/SIRSI/0/520/07Dec_Brown_W_MBA.pdf), shows that when reverse auctions are used appropriately, small businesses receive the vast majority of award dollars – even when those dollars are competed on a non-set-aside basis.The fact is that many procurement folks in the government are using non-traditional procurement methods and using them very effectively, and small businesses and taxpayers are benefiting. Like Steve, I think it would be nice if these efforts and results could be recognized and appreciated.

    Fri, Mar 7, 2008 Steve Ressler

    While I'm not in the procurement field, I understand the pains Jason faces.The new generation of public servants value innovation, risk-taking, speed, technology, and transparency. However, those values are rarely seen in the government. This generation doesn't understand why they have to write KSAs through USAJOBS.gov, why Facebook is blocked at work, and why they have no mechanism to suggest new ideas.Hopefully, we can streamline rules/processes as well as implement new tools (wikis, blogs, social networking) to make the government workplace more appealing. My question to the professor is: "What percentage of these issues are just due to the nature of government bureaucracy based on its different set of values? Is the slow-paced, risk-adverse nature of government inevitable?"

    Fri, Mar 7, 2008 John Monroe

    Thanks to both of you for writing in. I just hope those who are promoting the current negative trends in the procurement system read this and listen. POGO, this means you.Readers may want to note that Jason's post logged in at 6:49 am this morning. and he is already focusing on work, reading the morning procurement news feed. (In the Internet age, I don't know whether he's doing this from home or the office, but the point is the same.) Does the fear industry really want to drive people such as Jason out of government service? Steve Kelman

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