I'd agree with that. However, the primary reason that people are trumpeting the study that Jerry put out there is that they want to say that the attrition rate is low because of unions and no one can ever get fired. That isn't actually true. If you look at the sectors of the federal workforce that overlap more with the private workforce, like housekeeping, general administration, etc, you'll see that the attrition rate matches up pretty evenly with the private sector.
I strongly agree that there needs to be reforms in how hiring, firing and (most importantly in my opinion) contract sourcing is done in Federal agencies though. Judah On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 1:51 PM, GMoney <gm0n3...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Yes, that is another piece of the picture. > > But is the fear that someone may be fired for political or other bogus > reasons really such a concern that we make firing people for completely > valid reasons...all but impossible? > > I dunno...just seems like the pendulum has swung entirely too far in one > direction. > > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > >> >> 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 >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:340695 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm