Author: David S. Reed

David S. Reed is the public administration expert who writes Dear Bureaucrat, the advice column for people who work in the public sector, published in Federal Times.

Dear Bureaucrat, Do I have to do work I wasn’t hired for?

Dear Bureaucrat,

I am a civilian employee of the Department of the Army, in the electronics shop as an electronic mechanic. When we changed commands, my mission went away. Our command says we no longer work on that equipment. I now essentially have no mission, no job. However my leadership wants to be able to move me around and work in shops that need help. For instance, they would like me to work in a small arms shop for the next year to cover for a mission.

Do I have any rights to refuse them pushing me into work that is not on my position description and not related to what I was hired for? I don’t even care if they decide to get rid of me as long as they have to pay me severance (which I’m eligible for with 16 years service). I also have concerns over the repetitive work in small arms as I am a disabled veteran.

What rights do I have to refuse the work they want to assign me that is completely outside of my position?

Signed,
Unwilling Utility Infielder

Dear Infielder,

I suggest you talk to your union. In federal workplaces, unions represent all workers who are eligible to join, whether or not you are a union member. They might have some inside information on what your command is willing to do. As to what an employee’s rights are, I asked expert federal employment lawyer Elaine L. Fitch from Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch, P.C. She gave the following as education for all of us, not legal advice on a particular matter:
[Read the rest at https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/09/19/dear-bureaucrat-do-i-have-to-do-work-i-wasnt-hired-for/ ]

Dear Bureaucrat, Is a government job worth getting?

Dear Bureaucrat,

Is it worth the hassle to apply for government jobs? I used to think working in government would be a way to do good in the world, have financial security, and get ahead. But the news is full of government doing terrible things, and people quitting so they won’t have to do terrible things, or being reassigned to force them to quit. I see people on social media bragging about how exciting their government jobs are, but nobody I know personally feels that way. Should I even bother trying to get in?

Signed,
Not Winston Smith

Dear Not Winston,

There is an old image of what a government career can be: join an agency whose mission you believe in, get trained and advance within the agency, maybe to a top job, and retire with a pension and pride in a job well done. Even in the heyday of the civil service, most careers fell short of that ideal. But now it is even less realistic.

Most government work is now done by people who [Read the rest in Federal Times: https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/09/05/dear-bureaucrat-is-a-government-job-worth-getting/ ]

Dear Bureaucrat, I want to be a crony!

Dear Bureaucrat,

I’ve worked my way up to being a supervisor, but I still don’t feel like I’m an insider. The top floor isn’t interested in my views on what the agency should do. Also, I’ve lost out on promotions a couple of times recently to people less qualified than me; one didn’t even have any experience in our agency. I know it’s cronyism, and now I’m ready to get off my high horse and join in. How can I become a crony?

Signed,
Boss Tweed

Dear Boss,

First promise that you will only use cronyism for good. Promise? OK then… Read the rest in Federal Times https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/06/27/dear-bureaucrat-i-want-to-be-a-crony/

Dear Bureaucrat, I want my job to give me rules. Am I crazy?

Dear Bureaucrat,

Where I work, there’s no way to look up how anything should be done. When I needed to send a document by overnight delivery, it was a two-hour project to ask around about getting the label, the billing code, where to bring the envelope, etc. When I do my work, I have to copy how each task was done last time, no matter how stupid that was, because there’s no way to know what requirements we really need to meet. Then somebody will decide they want it done differently and I have to redo it, even though there was no way I could know. There are policies and procedures on our intranet, but they are vague, out of date and contradictory, so everybody ignores them. Am I crazy to want a rule book so I’m not always guessing what will go through?

Signed,
Hammurabi

Dear Hammurabi,

The good news is, you are not crazy. We all hate red tape that gets in the way of doing our jobs, but Leisha DeHart-Davis coined the term “green tape” for rules that help us do our work. In one study, DeHart-Davis, Davis, and Mohr surveyed government workers about rules for their jobs. Workers who said their workplaces had more written rules, rather than unwritten rules, were more satisfied that the rules were applied consistently and less likely to say the rules were unnecessary, burdensome and excessively controlling. They also had better job satisfaction. When everybody can read the rules, at least you know what you need to do, and you are less at the mercy of other people’s whims.

The bad news is… Read the rest in Federal Times https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/06/13/dear-bureaucrat-i-want-my-job-to-give-me-rules-am-i-crazy/

Dear Bureaucrat, Should I worry about my annual evaluation?

Dear Bureaucrat,

This is my first full year working at my agency, so it’s the first time I’ll get an annual employee evaluation. Is there anything I should be doing to get ready for the evaluation meeting with my supervisor? My salary doesn’t change based on the evaluation, so should I even care about it?

Signed,
Lake Wobegon Effect

 

Dear Wobegon,

Your annual evaluation matters, even if it does not affect your pay directly. (Pay-for-performance schemes were a fad in the public sector some years ago, but they have mostly died out.) The annual evaluation is the one time your employer has to make an official statement about how well you do your job. When you apply for a promotion or career development opportunity from your current employer, or apply for a job somewhere else, your record of evaluations will be part of your qualifications. If your employer gives bonuses or awards, even if they are not based on your annual evaluation, the awarding official may be reluctant to stick his neck out by making a judgement that is inconsistent with your most recent evaluation. And if you ever get into a dispute where your employer may take action against you… Read the rest in Federal Times: https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/05/30/dear-bureaucrat-should-i-worry-about-my-annual-evaluation/

Dear Bureaucrat, I’m being micromanaged!

Dear Bureaucrat,

My boss insists on checking over any work I do before it goes to anybody outside our division. When he makes changes, they aren’t really improvements. I don’t think he’s trying to claim credit for my work, because he lets me send it under my name after I put in his changes. But I feel belittled, the needless review creates extra work and delay, and people think I’m late doing my part of projects, when the real problem is it’s waiting for my boss to check. How can I get him to be less controlling?

Signed,
Hobbled

Dear Hobbled,

One approach is to discuss your feelings frankly with your boss. Don’t do it! Because your frank feelings are, “Your unwillingness to delegate to me is a personality flaw, or at least a lack of management skill.” That won’t help, and is probably a misdiagnosis.

Professor Carrie Leana researched the factors that predict whether a supervisor requires an employee’s work to get his approval before it goes out, or delegates to the employee. She found that differences among supervisors, in their need for dominance and their opinions about the proper role of supervisors, did not predict how much they delegated. But a supervisor’s perceptions of any particular employee’s capability, responsibility and trustworthiness was a relatively strong predictor of how much he would delegate to that employee. Interestingly, there was no significant relationship between a supervisor’s perceptions of a particular employee and objective measures of the employee’s job performance.

So if you want your boss to delegate more to you, focus on…     Read the rest at Federal Times:  https://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2019/05/16/dear-bureaucrat-im-being-micromanaged-how-can-i-get-my-boss-to-be-less-controlling/

 

Dear Bureaucrat, should I quit my job to launch a startup?

Dear Bureaucrat,

I feel like I’m missing out. People are starting companies and nonprofits, and I’m just holding down a job. If I stick with it, I’ll get promoted eventually, but I’ll still be a cog in a dreary machine. I want to be an entrepreneur and build something I’m proud of, but I’m afraid to give up my steady paycheck. Should I take the leap, quit my job, and work full time on finding a dream to make real? Or should I wait until I develop a can’t-fail idea and then take the plunge?

Signed,
Mark “Hoodie” Z.

Dear Hoodie,

You’ve been influenced by two kinds of romanticized startup stories. The first is total commitment; working sixteen-hour days so you can code all night and pitch all day, living in a group house and subsisting on instant ramen, until you attract venture capital and then make it big. If it doesn’t work out, then you start picking up the pieces of your life. The second story is getting a brilliant idea and developing a business plan that maps step by step how to implement it, so the risk of failure isn’t even part of the story.

Back when Google and Amazon were startups, Professor Saras Sarasvathy researched what successful startup entrepreneurs actually do, and it usually didn’t match those romanticized stories. Sarasvathy found that the entrepreneur usually…Read the rest in Federal Times https://www.federaltimes.com/your-career/the-bureaucrat/2019/05/02/dear-bureaucrat-should-i-quit-my-job-to-launch-a-startup/