The Demotivation

It doesn't take long working for the government to figure out that hard work doesn't pay in the long run.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  No matter how hard your brain tries to deny the evidence, you eventually realize and then accept that hard work means nothing in terms of pay or advancement in the federal service. 

There are people that will deny that this is the case.  These people are truly delusional , the people that somehow believe their service is special, important, or meaningful in some measurable way.  These people can either be managers who erroneously believe their promotions were based on merit, or workers who have fooled themselves into thinking that they provide a unique and special service to the American public.  Something that can't be found for cheaper elsewhere, or perhaps some special property that makes them, and only them, a unique snowflake.  Some are just obvious wastes of space that defy all logic, and justify their existence through some morbid sort of unexplainable magic.  This may seem fantastical to someone who has never worked in the federal service, but it seems downright run of the mill to those unfortunate enough to have worked in a federal setting for extended periods of time.

False promises:  Performance Rewards and Promotions in the federal service.

First, we will tackle the almost laughable concept of "performance awards."  I use quotations here, because when compared to the private sector, "performance awards" in the federal service are meaningless and miniscule. So much so that most people would consider them insulting.

We will also discuss the haphazard world of promotions in the federal service. I say haphazard because to understand the workings of upper level government management, one must delve into the realm of the insane.

To begin to understand these concepts, you first need to understand the basics about the federal pay system.

The General Schedule Pay System

The general schedule pay system is the basic federal pay system that most federal jobs fall under.  This system is divided into grades and steps.  The current GS schedule from the Office of Personnel Management is shown below in Table 1.  A grade is a large span of pay, ranging from GS-1 to GS-15.  The maximum pay in the GS system is currently $157,100 per annum.  Bachelor's level graduates are typically brought in at the GS-5/7 range.  Those with advanced degrees are typically brought in at higher grades (9-11), but it depends heavily on the degree obtained and the type of work being done.  After performing a year of work in one grade, you are eligible to apply for positions in one grade above your current grade in the same line of work.  Typically, promotions up to the 11/12/13 level occur quickly, depending on the full performance level of the position, which defines the top grade obtainable in the position.  For instance, an analyst position will hire at the GS-5/7/9 grade at entry level with a full performance level of 12.  This means that someone hired at GS-5 can work their way up to GS-12 in the same position, without having to compete for the same job up to grade 12. 

OPM Pay Tables:  2015 (link to external website)

For steps, there is a waiting period for different ranges.  Advancement up to step 4 requires a waiting period of one year per step.  From steps 4 to 8, there is a two year waiting period.  For steps 8 to 10, there is a three year waiting period.  Herein lies the main  issue with the GS system: all continuing pay raises at the full performance level are obtained by length of service, no matter what your performance has been, with one rule:  To get a step increase, you must be rated as "fully successful" in your current job description. 

The definition of "fully successful" is different depending on your job classification and agency and means that your supervisor must believe that you are accomplishing your job goals at an acceptable level during your annual performance review.  What this means for most positions, in reality, is that you maintain a body temperature somewhere around 98 degrees and continue breathing.  It has been my experience in the federal service that supervisors do not want to alienate their workers, so that "fully successful" is the absolute minimum that any supervisor will assign each employee.  With unions, destitute morale, and other headaches, it is much easier not to rate even the lowest performers under your purview as less than "fully successful."

"Performance Awards"

As far as bonuses, they vary widely by organization, but in general your annual performance rating in the federal service can be thought of as a grade, just like back in school, from 0-4 in several elements (typically four).  A grade of 4 is outstanding in an element, akin to an "A" back in school.  A grade of 0 is "unsuccessful," or "F."  The elements are averaged together to give your overall rating (or GPA, as it could be thought of).  Bonuses are assigned a dollar value per point.  For instance, if your organization assigns a value of $800 per point, your bonus for a perfect GPA of 4.0 would be $3200.  This is unearned income, so the taxes on it approach 50%, leaving your outstanding performance over an entire year at a whopping $1600.  Hourly, using the OPM guideline of 2087 hours worked per year, your outstanding performance nets you $0.76 per hour in your pocket, or about $61 every two weeks.

Now, let us contrast the benefits of outstanding performance with those of fully successful performance.  Fully successful is defined as an overall rating (GPA) of 2, a solid C effort.  In this case, your annual bonus is only $1600, of which you take home around $800.  Still, this nets you an extra $0.38 cents average per hour, or about $30.66 per two week pay period.  If we take the difference between the outstanding candidates bonus and that of a fully successful candidate, we arrive at a difference of $30.66 per pay period.  To put this into perspective, the current step increase in the GS-13 pay band is $2,998, and at a tax rate of 23% results in an hourly increase of $1.10 and a pay period increase of $88.19.  Therefore, the reward for your outstanding work is less than half of one step.

A fully successful candidate will get the same step increases as an outstanding candidate.  While the outstanding candidate may have better promotion potential than the fully successful candidate, this motivation wears out once the GS-15 level is obtained, and in many cases at the GS-14 or GS-13 level, in organizations in which promotion to higher grade positions is not possible.  Spoiler alert:  this covers most organizations in the federal service.

Promotions in the federal service

Promotions are a tricky thing in the federal service.  The methods for obtaining promotions vary widely between organizations, but the general promotion environment is determined by a capped number of high grades that is defined for each organization.  For example, an organization may be capped at having 10% GS-15s, 15% GS-14s, 30% GS-13s, etc.  These positions are rarely distributed equitably among departments in an organization.  Upper management uses the higher grades as bargaining chips on a regular basis, so don't expect a high grade to stay in your department if someone retires.  It can vaporize in an instant.

To complicate matters, you can only get a high grade position if you have 12 months of service in the same position, one grade lower.  Therefore, a GS-13, even if they consistently perform at a level consistent with most GS-14s or GS-15s, can only apply for GS-14 positions.  GS-12s, similarly, can't apply for GS-14s or GS-15s.  As a particularly horrendous example, in rural communities the federal government expects GS-12s, in some cases, to have supervisory duties.  In cities, supervisory duties are typically GS-14 or GS-15 positions.  If the GS-12, performing the same work, applies for a job in the city, human resources will simply throw out their application because they do not have the prerequisite experience, even though they have performed the same duties.  There is a loophole that lets you state that you have performed high grade work in order to get around this nonsense, but these approaches generally meet with very little success.  

The people that get promotions in the federal government fall into several categories.  First, there are the ladder climbers.  These are the people that will do and say anything to work their way up the ladder.  The fastest ones spend a year (or less) in one job, and then immediately apply for anything at the next higher grade.  Typically, they are not interested at all in the work they will be performing, just in getting that high grade position.  Which means, when they get the job, they are not likely to enjoy what they are doing, and in another year they will apply for another position. 

Second, we move to seniority.  Many promotions in the federal government come down to seniority, meaning that the person with the most years wins.  Regardless of whether or not the person has become nothing but a dried husk of hatred, self-loathing, and solitude, seniority gets them the grade.

Another route to promotion is the leadership academy.  Many agencies have leadership programs to groom people for high grade positions.  In these situations, graduation from a training program practically guarantees an applicant a high grade position, regardless of previous experience.  This results in some truly strange situations in upper management, where the staff is forced to report to individuals that have absolutely no idea what is going on in the agency.  You can tell if your agency has one of these if in every meeting, every manager sounds like a bad carbon copy or broken record.  This is because they all listened to the same online course in their studies, and when a lack of knowledge confronts them, their brains revert to the organizationally-approved leadership handbook that was drilled into their heads.

In other cases, promotions are actually given to the poorest performers or those that have been formally disciplined for abhorrent behavior.  The logic in these cases goes like this:  I have a horrible performer.  I can't unload them on another group, because the other groups know they are awful.  They are poisoning the morale in my group.  What is my option to isolate them?  Promote them.

Of course, in those rare "I discovered a new species" moments, promotions are actually based on merit.  If you find one of these people, I recommend you transfer to work under them immediately.  It can provide at least a shield from the howling madness around you, knowing that you work with someone who defied the norm.

In a nutshell, promotions in the federal government are rarely based on merit.  Of course, no generalization is absolute.  What I mean is the majority of promotions are not based on merit, and rather that they are based on one's ability to "game the system," either through building connections (schmoozing, bullshitting, empire building, etc.), enrolling in a leadership program, or performing so badly that the organization has no choice but to promote you.  While I admire "gaming the system" as much as anyone, allowing it certainly erodes organizational confidence and morale.  Rewarding, and even encouraging behavior that is purely a means to an end, rather than dedicated performance, is at the heart of the federal service's broken promotion system.  And as far as morale in the organization, nothing utterly annihilates morale than a haphazard and unbalanced approach to awarding promotions.

Thought Experiment

Assume you are a worker in an small group of eight workers.  You are all GS-13s.  Thanks to congressional limits on funding and the number of high grades allowed in your organization, there are no opportunities for advancement to a higher grade in the foreseeable future.  Your base pay is the same or higher than two of your co-workers.  However, five of your co-workers get paid MORE than you.  Assume also that you are an outstanding performer.  You work every day as hard as you can to get your work done.  The remaining seven workers around you sit around all day, talk loudly, take long lunches, and get the absolute bare minimum done.  Your boss, seeing that you do work, rewards you with the work that the others cannot get done.  Your boss recognizes you with pieces of paper that do not have monetary or other value, and rates you as outstanding during the annual review.  Not wanting to sow discord in the group, the rest of the employees get fully successful reviews.  How long will you continue to work as hard as you can, without tangible benefits?  How long until you start thinking about leaving your organization?  A month?  A year?

Addicted to Speed

It occurred to me as I was swimming the other day.  I looked over into the lane beside me as someone blew past, clearly putting all they had into the lap they were swimming.  I was swimming along at my leisurely pace, just enjoying the fact that I wasn't at work.  The people around me that day all had their Speedo caps and low-drag suits, more in a fist fight with the water than swimming.  And that's when it hit me:  America is obsessed with speed.

Maybe not so much speed as competition.  In America, everything is taken to extremes.  Whatever you can do, you should do it faster, faster, faster.  You should run faster.  You should chase promotions, even in jobs for which you show no interest.  Get that promotion, it will make your life better.  You should play games only to win.  A whole nation full of people who transfer their own shattered dreams to the next generation,  hoping to transform their pathetic, work-dominated, stressful lives vicariously through their false hopes for their children.

Of course this all plays directly into the hands of the rich and powerful.  They can pit you against each other in a performance battle and shower whoever is willing to sacrifice the greatest portion of their life to their work wins.

"Winner takes all."  We've all heard it.  But is it true?  What do they take?   If you're talking sports, the winners are only getting a shiny medal from some higher authority, whether it be a trophy in little league or a massive salary from a professional sports team.  They're just marionettes dancing for the camera.  Convincing the people watching them that they are so great that you should buy the crap the TV is peddling to you.

It inundates our society.  Those who make more money are automatically assumed to be better people.  A whole television industry devoted to promulgating this lie.  Putting kids who can't spell but can throw a football at the top of a pedestal, making their lives so easy that people completely ignore the intellectual degradation of our society in favor of forcing their kids to play sports they hate with kids they hate more.  Feeding them a false standard that is to its very core meaningless, and then wondering why we have so many mass shootings.

The only thing I learned in graduate school was that foreign students were willing to work night and day for $19k/year, and that I wouldn't even get out of bed for $19k a year.   The only thing that has changed since then is that I will barely get out of bed for $120k per year.  In fact, for so paltry a sum, my employer should be thanking their gods that I bother to come in at all.