The Week in Comments: Belt-tightening, insourcing and the politics of religion
The best in reader reaction to recent articles.
On House to hold hearings on Defense cuts
I'm certain the congressman knows better how to run the Pentagon than the Secretary of Defense.
More talk. Less action. The BTA has 300 employees and nearly 350 million budget. If Gates were serious, he would cut the entire agency, but instead he will roll the people and the budget into other areas - effectively doing a paper shuffle without a real impact. Pretty sure the leases on the space are set, so I am not certain where the savings come from. Like BRAC really reduced the staff levels. Contracting has its place, but it has been mismanaged, like so much else. DoD does need to form a long-time hiring strategy as well as unload some riding the gravy train.
Let's see the rationale: there is a war going on. Time to cut supplies and personnel. This just does not make sense.
On Postal Service strives to maintain a deep bench for executive jobs
NO YOU DON'T. This is the Post Office, not NASA. These are the positions to be contracted out when needed. You people at the top are running amuck. If the public only knew, and the Congress only cared. The USPS has over 40 "vice presidents", and countless positions that have NOTHING to do with processing the mail. Picture this: a log, rushing downstream with the river rapids. 5000 ants on the log, and each ant thinks that he alone is steering the log. This is a close analogy of USPS administration and upper management.
once again the p.o. gets it wrong.filling jobs at the top while the workers get stepped on with more mail and less time to do it.anyone who goes into management should have at least 1 full year of mail carrier or clerk time....then be a boss!
Ten-to-one the selections will be made from the same dysfunctional DNA pool they always draw from. Morons selecting more morons.
On Civilian agencies get green light to continue insourcing
This is a big mistake. Studies should be performed before allowing/directing an insourcing initiative. Activities are performing their on cost analysis, manpower studies, and final determinations. It's an opportunity for them to increase civilian billets that will later be realigned to other desired functions. This allows for the potential of fraud, waste, and abuse.
As a contracting officer, COR, and manager of contracted staff/contractor support services I can with all confidence say that DoD MUST pursue its in-sourcing efforts. I can only assume that DoD contractor lobbyists are influencing the demise of DoD's insourcing efforts.
What I've seen here in my DoD agency, does not adhere to the inherently government nor critical mission. It's simply a means to bring individuals onto government roles. This is done for various reasons, bringing in a crossection of workers and managers. Assuming SECDEF gets his savings, many of these new civil servants will likely be RIFed as they would have lost their contractor jobs. I'm not sure what this insourcing has accomplished.
The President was for insourcing before he was against it, but, as staff have now clarified he really is for it and always was. How could it be any different. OMB must have gotten the call from the WH's union policy coordinator. DC Fed
On New automatic enrollment program could encourage TSP savings
This is a smokescreen that they are trying to help us save for our retirement. By the time we retire, it will be worthless anyway. This is a method by which Pelosi/Reid/Obama can get their hands on more money to give to their supporters. They're robbing us of our pay, giving us IOUs, and continuing the scam on the newest employees.
This is great idea and should have been in place a long time ago. i can't tell you how many counseling sessions I have had about retirement and the folks tell me they can't afford to retire because they were like grasshoppers and lived for today.
On Senate majority leader breaks with Obama on mosque
Shame on you Reid. My Native ancestors indigenous to this continent would have preferred all your Christian churches to be built elsewhere. But today we are all living on this land together so why can't we all commit to respect each other's differences? I will always stand by our President. It's too bad you did not.
We can't say prayers in our schools, they want to remove anything that say in God we trust. We are not allowed to say "CHRISTMAS PARTY" in the government building where I work, so we don't offend anyone... but we can let any other people have religious freedom where ever they want it.... This has gone to far..... NO on the mosque.... Ask for a CHRISTEN CHURCH to be there... let's see what the answer would be for that......
On USAJobs aims to boost minority recruiting
is this another way to say reverse discrimination? what happened to equal opportunity? I dont think there should be anything, anywhere that indicates race, age or sex. Jobs should be awarded by skills and experience, not the color of the skin or which restroom you use, and definitely not by age. The new "hire young" thing is bad enough, they get hired and promoted over the older, experienced workers, now this?
What happened to recruitment of the most qualified, best applicant for the job? This is simply an outrage! There has never been so much "reverse" racism as there has been since this administration took over.
It is a step in the right direction and one that is needed. There are many talented minorities who would enjoy working for the federal government. I would like to see more young minorities share their knowledge and help may improvements.
Read the article, it is not about giving jobs to minorities. The article is about returning a form with 4 questions to collect data. We all know that the government collects data but does nothing with it. Apparently, the commenters here are not the best qualified candidates since they cannot even read the entire article!
no... W did not kill affirmative action, try as he might. it's still the law. and I enforce it.
My question is for the "white males" that assume their qualifications are negated by so called minority quotas. What rationale is used to assume that the "white male" is the best qualified applicant?
On From Nextgov.com: You're never too young to learn fiscal responsibility
What a concept. Perhaps this article should be titled "never too young or too old" and the educational materials should be passed on to our "friends" on Capitol Hill.
What an absolute farce; the federal government teaching fiscal responsibility. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Now that I am finished laughing, I think I will cry.
On Report: HR officials face an uphill battle on hiring reform
This observation really shouldn't come as a surprise. All we have to do is look around our office. We all have at least one person that we know should have never been interviewed, let along hired or gotten their non-competitive promotion. HR offices have an unenviable job, IMHO. They may be tasked with reforms but directors, managers, and supervisors have just as much of a responsibility in reforming the federal workforce, instead of setting an individual on a course of a life-time of welfare benefits, for no more reason than they share the same job series.
Anything is a tough charge for government HR folks. HR folks who don't even know the lingo of the jobs they are hiring for end up dumping a lot of qualified candidates.
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