Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2019 4:24:51 GMT -5
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Post by natethegreat on Jun 20, 2019 11:31:37 GMT -5
In all of my dealings with OPM over the years, they have been consistently incompetent and unprofessional. If the only way to make improvements there is to disband the entire agency, so be it. It's hard to imagine that what replaces it could be worse. While I can understand your frustrations with OPM, I get the impression many federal employees are less than impressed with GSA who is proposed to be taking up part of the OPM workload. |
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Post by foghorn on Jun 20, 2019 12:51:14 GMT -5
note the discussions on Post Lucia administrative law thread.
To me the overall concern is is this a way to do away with civil service? I am not a fan of SI's and other ways to allegdly hire objectively, but they are trying. The concept is that the civil service should be a meritocracy, choosing the best, promoting the best (I know, I know....reality is different).
Giving it all to other agencies who will then duplicate the work that OPM does many times over seems like a bonanza for HR types and the possiblities of blowback/unintended consequences are bad enough. Add to that degrading civil service and it's a giant cluster something ............
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Post by foghorn on Jun 20, 2019 12:51:35 GMT -5
Cluster's Last Stand, that's it.
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Post by bp on Jun 20, 2019 13:02:12 GMT -5
In all of my dealings with OPM over the years, they have been consistently incompetent and unprofessional. If the only way to make improvements there is to disband the entire agency, so be it. It's hard to imagine that what replaces it could be worse. While I can understand your frustrations with OPM, I get the impression many federal employees are less than impressed with GSA who is proposed to be taking up part of the OPM workload. I completely agree with this ^. OPM isn't perfect, but some things that they do are done well. In my opinion, USAJobs is a great website (especially compared to other government-made websites), and the previous OPM ALJ Examination wasn't horribly run.
I have very few positive things to say about GSA. Things in my building seem to break a lot and then can take months to fix. I know of an escalator in a building that hasn't worked in more than 10 years. We have a door in my office that GSA replaced, and I later found out that they paid more than $20,000 for it (a DOOR), and the installation work looks terrible and is coming apart. My interactions with GSA employees have not been very confidence inspiring. And then there is the history of lavish trips and conferences that still leave a bad taste in my mouth even after the practice has stopped.
OPM isn't perfect, but I fear anything they transfer to GSA will be done worse.
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Post by arkstfan on Jun 20, 2019 13:05:03 GMT -5
note the discussions on Post Lucia administrative law thread. To me the overall concern is is this a way to do away with civil service? I am not a fan of SI's and other ways to allegdly hire objectively, but they are trying. The concept is that the civil service should be a meritocracy, choosing the best, promoting the best (I know, I know....reality is different). Giving it all to other agencies who will then duplicate the work that OPM does many times over seems like a bonanza for HR types and the possiblities of blowback/unintended consequences are bad enough. Add to that degrading civil service and it's a giant cluster something ............ I think the goal is to eliminate civil service and return to the spoils system. The GSA stories I have heard create no confidence in me. I was told of one office that needed some space and adding it wasn't going to be a big deal except someone looked at the contracts and such a determined that nearly every office was "too large" so GSA wanted to gut the whole place to create smaller offices and the new space would still be needed. Someone finally got the good sense system turned on explaining that shrinking each office was going to cost a great deal and create displacement expenses. |
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Post by lurkerbelow on Jun 20, 2019 16:18:59 GMT -5
What could possibly go wrong?*
*Famous last words of many.
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Post by natethegreat on Jun 20, 2019 16:34:27 GMT -5
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Post by jimmyjiggles on Jun 20, 2019 17:03:21 GMT -5
Isn't the goodfellow location mentioned here the same place that houses the St Louis NHC/NCAC? |
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Post by uboat on Jun 20, 2019 17:14:28 GMT -5
It sure doesn't paint a pretty picture. My personal experiences with the quality of a GSA-administered building are also pretty dire. |
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Post by natethegreat on Jun 20, 2019 17:35:24 GMT -5
Isn't the goodfellow location mentioned here the same place that houses the St Louis NHC/NCAC? Yes, that is the location of STL NHC and NCAC. |
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Post by jimmyjiggles on Jun 20, 2019 18:10:17 GMT -5
Isn't the goodfellow location mentioned here the same place that houses the St Louis NHC/NCAC? Yes, that is the location of STL NHC and NCAC. Wow. Per the article: "GSA’s own environmental analysis in November 2016 confirmed lead, cadmium, arsenic, and other heavy metals contaminated most of the heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems – meaning employees were exposed to these airborne contaminants for years before OSHA’s investigation." Lead and cadmium, not just on the grounds, but in the HVAC system??? That is pretty bad! If you felt like you were losing IQ points working for SSA at the St Louis NHC/NCAC, well you might be right! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2019 19:46:02 GMT -5
First they came for OPM and people cheered, then they come for EPA and more people cheered, they next come for DOI and even more people cheered, then they finally came for SSA and some of the people cheering realized they were cheering against their own self interests.
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Post by carrickfergus on Jun 21, 2019 8:56:02 GMT -5
Not very confident in GSA either. The Augusta, GA OHO office was closed down because the GSA could not or would not mitigate environmental conditions in that office, kind of like the St. Louis situation. SSA finally got fed up and took their ball and went home. Every single employee was offered a relo package to any OHO office that had a vacancy for their position, and the office was shuttered.
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Post by marathon on Jun 21, 2019 9:19:23 GMT -5
I completely agree with this ^. OPM isn't perfect, but some things that they do are done well. In my opinion, USAJobs is a great website (especially compared to other government-made websites), and the previous OPM ALJ Examination wasn't horribly run.
I have very few positive things to say about GSA. Things in my building seem to break a lot and then can take months to fix. I know of an escalator in a building that hasn't worked in more than 10 years. We have a door in my office that GSA replaced, and I later found out that they paid more than $20,000 for it (a DOOR), and the installation work looks terrible and is coming apart. My interactions with GSA employees have not been very confidence inspiring. And then there is the history of lavish trips and conferences that still leave a bad taste in my mouth even after the practice has stopped.
OPM isn't perfect, but I fear anything they transfer to GSA will be done worse.
I have to disagree with you. Strenuously. You think that the OPM ALJ process wasn't horrible? The entire point of this whole message board is that the OPM ALJ process was so horrible that the brainy lawyers trying to navigate it needed to put this together because OPM was doing such a bad job. If OPM did even a halfway serviceable job of running that process, this board wouldn't exist. The old process was simply indefensible. And the USAJobs site is a dog's breakfast, always has been. While there have been some improvements lately, it has consistently been a decade behind the rest of the world in terms of features and usability. It is still riddled with mistakes and errors. How many of us have dozens of jobs in our accounts that are still listed as "referred" or simply "applied" from many years ago? How many times have I not been referred for a position and had to reach out to OPM to point out their mistakes, only to get referred that way? And don't forget the data breach. One of those "you had ONE job" moments that gives Americans reason to doubt the basic skills of all federal workers. Is GSA better? Maybe, maybe not. But OPM deserves to go. Kill it. Kill it with fire (not literal fire). Anyone that thinks GSA is the answer is a fool. Remember. OPM does way more than (previously) handling ALJ hiring. They administer health care and insurance benefits for a workforce of two million. Same with retirement benefits. They develop basic ground rules for working conditions, hours, telework and the like. These are things that impact every government employee. They do all of this, and then some with a staff of about 5000k. Is there room for improvement? Of course. But have my insurance premiums always been timely paid? Yes. Do they provide me with a multitude of insurance options? Yes. Can I say that about all my other private employers? No. How many companies are offering pensions? How many companies are offering multiple options for insurance? Few to none, in my experience. Data breaches? It’s happening to companies big and small on a regular basis. Including Fortune 500s. You want to be bitter about the old ALJ process? Fine. Duly noted. And also duly noted that the previous process no longer exists. It’s not OPM’s fault if you can no longer accept an offer for a city you put on a hiring list with another agency. Like most agencies, OPM is doing its best with the tools and structure given. Blowing it up in its entirety will be infinitely painful for two million employees. If you don’t care about that, I’d offer that being an ALJ is not for you. |
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Post by jagvet on Jun 21, 2019 9:33:59 GMT -5
I don't know if GSA or any other agency will do a better or worse job than OPM (think Postal Service, VA?). However, OPM was created around 1978, if I remember correctly, along with MSPB. The USAJOBS website is a separate project of OPM and could go anywhere. My problem is that every agency has HR and has to go through OPM. That is wasteful. Get rid of OPM or centralize all HR departments in it. We use FAA for relocation, Treasury for travel, Interior for WEBTA, so its been done before and seems to work okay. My main beef with OPM is security clearance. I have been with SSA 3 years now. At 1 1/2 years in, I was finally interviewed for my clearance, and at 3 years, none of my references have been contacted. That is a horrible.
Bottom line is the system has to be shaken up.
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Post by marathon on Jun 21, 2019 10:00:28 GMT -5
jagvet, you’re right. I don’t have any problem with outsourcing functions to other agencies just like you describe. I don’t think OPM has had to deal with the functions you describe in years (ever? IDK). And I agree that the security clearance is due is a BIG problem. Not disagreeing at all that changes should be made. I’m more concerned about my benefits administration. I think they do a stellar job in that regard.
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Post by statman on Jun 22, 2019 22:21:40 GMT -5
The old ALJ process was unbiased and fair. It did not discriminate on the basis of age, race, etc and it was objective. No hiring process is perfect, but I would bet almost my bottom dollar thatwhatever the new one is will do worse than the old. It will reward mediocrity and nobody over 55 and certainly over 65 will be hired, no matter how qualified, juts as in the corporate world (excluding there position of pitching coach for the NY Mets).
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Post by statman on Jun 22, 2019 22:22:57 GMT -5
That should read just and "the position" not "there position."
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Post by JudgeKnot on Jun 23, 2019 6:16:56 GMT -5
The old ALJ process was unbiased and fair. It did not discriminate on the basis of age, race, etc and it was objective. No hiring process is perfect, but I would bet almost my bottom dollar thatwhatever the new one is will do worse than the old. It will reward mediocrity and nobody over 55 and certainly over 65 will be hired, no matter how qualified, juts as in the corporate world (excluding there position of pitching coach for the NY Mets). Yours was the first post I read after responding to another thread about ALJs at the DOL. I won't repeat my comment here, but I'll summarize it. The old ALJ process was demonstrably unfair. Some of the resumes that I read don't show the requisite years of experience as a litigator, yet they were hired as SSA ALJs. I've actually defended the old process in the past, but what I read this morning has really jaded my opinion. It would be hard to prove that a score on a written test or an interview were objectively wrong, but I don't think there's any way those people proved that they had the experience to be ALJs. Being a career law clerk isn't the same as actually being in the courtroom and trying a case. |
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