That definitely is a piece of picture. The other side of it, however, is that the Federal government tends to have very specialized employees who are not easily replaceable. You can't just go down to a work center or post an ad on Craigslist and pick up a qualified air traffic controller tomorrow. Look at the thousands of people who are being laid off from NASA right now due to the demise of the space shuttle program. They really don't have comparable jobs anywhere else in the country. Probably not anywhere else in the world, really. Furthermore, the specialized jobs that a lot of the federal workforce does isn't really tied to economic cycles. The CDC is doing CDC stuff regardless of whether we are in a recession or in a boom time.
So the low attrition is a combination of specialization, different funding patterns and a rules structure designed to make sure that people, once trained, stay in those roles and aren't easily tossed out due to political pressure, etc. I think that a lot of federal agencies have taken it too far and that, as you noted, there is an imperative to get incompetent people out of those jobs, especially in vital services (like air traffic control). Fundamentally, however, I don't believe that it is the primary cause behind the statistics cited regarding attrition. Judah On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 1:22 PM, GMoney <gm0n3...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 2:42 PM, Jerry Barnes <critic...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> Death More Common Than Layoff in Fed. Agencies >> >> Excerpt: >> >> Job security is hard to come by for many Americans but not for federal >> employees, USA Today reports. >> >> Rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs, death is the primary >> threat to job security in the federal government, the paper reports. Only >> 27 >> of 35,000 federal attorneys were fired last year. None was laid off. Death >> claimed 33. >> >> The job security rate for all federal workers was 99.43 percent last year, >> and nearly 100 percent for those on the job more than a few years. >> > > Talk to ANY poor soul who has had to manage people in a federal agency...you > won't believe the horror stories. > > It took my friend a little over 2 and a half years to get a woman fired who > simply was not doing her job. He literally had to track her activities for > months at a time, writing down when she came in, left, went to lunch, etc. > etc. He had to present his entire report to a committee that was overhearing > the "trial" he had to request to be scheduled in order to determine if she > would be fired or not. > > My brother manages a major air traffic tower. If he wants to fire someone > for incompetence or any other reason, he has to follow a similar > procedure....months of monitoring and documenting, then presenting this to a > committee for consideration. > > These are air traffic controllers!!!! Even one day of incompetence on the > job is unforgivable. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340693 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
