Letter: Bad managing can lead to the civil service losing good people

Regarding "Are you a micromanager?"

I was forced to deal with a retired colonel who was brought in to civil service as a GS-15. He had five Equal Employment Opputunity complaints within his probationary year, yet nothing was done about him. The garrison commander even assigned the EEO officer to this person as a subordinate after the EEO officer had complained to the commander about the individual's behavior and treatment of civilians.

I elected to take a developmental to escape a man who gloried in getting rid of personnel even if a settlement required reassignment of the complainant and cash. He knows nothing about the National Security Personnel System yet was assigned as the pay pool manager. His standards were so ridiculous that my supervisor and I refused to sign them.

As a result of this man's terrible behavior and lack of knowledge about civilian employees, I had to relocate after many years at the location and 15 exceptional performance appraisals. This year's appraisal is seriously jeopardized.

This man and the garrison commander constantly used threats, intimidation and possibly illegal measures to control the workforce. Their reaction to senior professionals was counterproductive and detrimental to the mission and the employees yet nothing was done. Now that he has passed the probationary year, he will have free rein to do whatever he pleases no matter how harmful to personnel or the mission.

Too often micromanagers and lousy managers are aided and abetted by the CPO, EEO and, in the Army,  the good old military boy network. With the increase of military [personnel] moving directly into civil service, something should be done to ensure that individuals such as the ones I have described can be dealt with or civil service will lose many good personnel it cannot afford to lose during this period of transition.

Anonymous

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