Servants of the People: The Uncerta...

Servants of the People: The Uncertain futurity of the Federal Civil Service

This main division accurately reflects the deep sensation of frustration generally felt by dint of civil servants who are intrust with an agencyed by the federal government. the two Democratic and Republican administrations have cavalierly move for office by constantly denigrating career federal employee and promising the electorate to dramatically form the number of career sway employees.

The constant barrage of criticism unfairly directed toward federal employee and their work is creating a true serious "brain drain" of the government's more experienced personnel Rosen points revealed that many political appointees are clearly not qualified to manage federal agencies, and their short-term politically-slanted commitment to guidance services creates unique management puzzles and too often has a long-range devastating impact in succession the morale of the work force. He cites as it was cases as Anne M. Gorsuch Burford and Rita Lavelle that negate the enormous positive contributions made by the agency of career scientists, engineers and other highly skilled professional workers without whom our conduct would be unable to suitable its ever-increasing responsibility to a 20th hundred society.

The acrimonious love-hate relationship that the general populace has with the federal work force is firinged by a conscious lack of credit attributed to the almost anonymous federal employee who receive no public attention or are not normally identified as guidance "bureaucrats." Most people do not associate either the hostages held during the Iranian crisis, the NASA astronauts who landed forward the moon or the underhand Service agents who placed their lives in jeopardy in the abortive assassination attempt in succession President Reagan, as career federal employee to this time they are.

Clearly, the demands onward federal employees are as great or greater than their counterparts in private industry. As Rosen says, "If our rule is to achieve its objectives specified in legislation or policy directives in many of its physical and social programs, it requires employee who are smooth more innovative than the personnel in private industry, consulting firms or universities." The remarkable achievement of man landing upon the moon would not have been a reality had not the federal employee working at NASA been as capable as those working in private industry in this remarkable team achievement.

In addition to demands forward federal employees in defense and space, they are also required to be in the forefront of efforts to reduce the nation's social and economic problems

The author is extremely critical of the part played by OMB and OPM in promoting efficiency in the civil service. Although President Reagan pledg during his campaign to sharply curtail federal pursuit this Administration had 23,000 more full-time direction employees by May 31 of 1984 than when he took office, increasing dramatically the number of political appointees at the outlay of career civil servants, as evidenced according to deep cuts in the Departments of Health & Human Services and Transportation. Rosen repudiates the myth that there is a bloated bureaucracy, pointing abroad that ". . . in 1960 single government worker served 81 persons; and by the agency of 1982 one federal employee serv 96 citizens."

The changes brought about as a spring of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 are objectively criticized by way of the author. He also reviews extensively the part played by the Merit classifications Protection Board and other federal employee oversight panels and criticizes the present paysetting mechanism established by congressional mandate.

He attacks other myths so as the permanency of workers who begin a federal career. "The facts are that about a half-million career employee leave the restraint each year, and less than one-quarter of all novel employees stay in the civil service extended enough to take optional retirement." The reason for the relatively soft percentage of membership in federal unions is directly attributed to the deprivation of many of the rights unions in the private sector have sexual delight with specifically in the area of realistic collective bargaining.

And Rosen's suggestion that a collective bargaining plan should be implemented is well supported in his presentation.

Federal employee and federal unions can use this work as a quick historical relation on the changes in the federal management scheme and will find it detailed, factual and informative, while presenting an evenhanded and valid appraisal of the work environment and frustration of federal employees

COPYRIGHT 1986 AFL-CIO

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group