Letter: Pay-for-performance projects leaves no one better off

A reader says, "The current [pay] system isn't broken, so leave it alone!"

Regarding "Agencies to launch alternative-pay project": If Congress, the White House, and agencies want federal employees to accept a private sector pay-for-performance model such as this, they should start off by supporting and providing federal employees with private sector equivalent pay before instituting it.  So far Congress and executive branch have resisted instituting this pay parity!  So no one needs to wonder about one key reason why federal employees as a group don't support this pay-for-performance model. 

Another flaw in the model is that it still won't eliminate subjectivity instead of objectivity in ratings. As such, this model could result in someone potentially ending up with little or no salary increase despite having good performance.  At least under the current system an employee can get a cost-of-living increase!

The current system isn't broken, so leave it alone! It allows for outstanding performance awards, quality-step increases, on-the-spot awards and accelerated promotions.  All this piloting and testing of the pay for performance private sector model is a slick attempt to try to institute something stealthly that could not be forced on federal employees across the board! 

Remember that these efforts are from a crowd that suckered everyone into believing that federal employees would be better off without the Civil Service Retirement System.  We are now seeing that the notion was pure hogwash!

Anonymous

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.