Letter: Managers spend too much time on "priority" projects

Regarding "Acquisition leaders concerned about eroding workforce"

I think this article hits on a lot of great points, but another reason I see is that senior executive managers are spending too much on so-called priority projects and not putting a lot of emphasis on personnel.

With an ever-shrinking budget, we have managers who do not know how to deal with spending cuts, especially during this time, and want to get their so-called projects completed no matter the cost. And most of the time our personnel are the ones who gets the brunt of this problem.

Planning is our major issue today, and not the planning from the top down, but planning from the grassroots level and us letting that upper level know the right way of doing things, or at least what it will affect.

So many times when an executive wants something, they want something, and nobody is challenging to let them know the pros and cons of doing "that" something. That is our problem! Until we start to challenge we will continue to have this type of changing priority every five minutes, with projects not truly getting completed and cost over runs.

Richard del Hierro
USDA Forest Service

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