Federal Managers Beware – Executive Order Implementation is Not All Good News for You

Last week, the Office of Personnel Management proposed new regulations to implement portions of President Trump’s May 2018 Executive Order on federal employee firing and discipline. Most of the regulations are designed to help agencies discipline or terminate employees for poor performance. For example, federal employees are now given one chance to improve their performance before an agency can propose some sort of personnel action. A year ago, this sounded like the perfect solution to both managers and good performers alike. What could go wrong with a plan to hold Federal employees accountable for performance and conduct? A plan where employees maintain high standards of integrity, conduct, and concern for the public interest? A plan in which the Federal workforce would be used efficiently and effectively?

While the Executive Order was designed to hold poor performers accountable, workers feel deprived of their rights to address and resolve issues. They aren’t aware of the difficulty a manager faced in disciplining or firing a single underperforming employee, or the numerous appeals and years that it took to do so. Unfortunately, this Executive Order has resulted in rank and file workers losing faith and trust in a process they believed in to protect themselves, and have turned to filing unprecedented rates of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and whistleblower reprisal allegations against federal managers.

This Executive Order has also resulted in increased scrutiny on first- and second-line managers, who are being held accountable for underlying misconduct and performance problems of subordinate employees.

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