By Dr. Harold Pease
Every semester I ask my students how a small business gets rid of an unproductive employee. They usually realize that there is a relationship between productivity and job security. No business intentionally hires someone incompetent. They know that when such happens the response is a quick layoff and presume that the same is so of government jobs as well. It isn’t. The government job is layered to protect incompetency. Getting rid of ineptitude is well nigh impossible.
To begin with, a government supervisor seeking to unload an incompetent employee must provide a written notice at least 30 days in advance of a hearing to determine incompetence or misconduct. The statement of cause required necessitates long term documentation indicating specific dates, places, and actions cited as incompetent or improper, so the employer must begin collecting evidence months before. The incompetent employee remains on the job during this investigative period.
The accused has the right to a hearing and decision by an impartial official, with the burden of proof falling on the agency that wishes to fire the employee. At this hearing he has the right to have an attorney present and witnesses presented in his favor. This too takes time and by now he knows your intent, resulting in a hostile working environment that affects more than just the two of you.
An adverse decision here is appealable to a Systems Protection Board, where again the burden of proof rests on the agency seeking removal. This could take months. It’s probably best not to be in the same room alone together. By now he hates your guts.
This too is appealable to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which again could take months. Meanwhile the incompetent employee has the right to remain on the job and be paid until all appeals are exhausted, thus ending the employer’s nightmare if the appeal ends in his favor. Every appeal, every involved party, and all of the time involved in this process are funded by your tax dollar, and are happening at the expense of productivity.
Very few federal civil servants are ever dismissed from their jobs. Instead the employer simply hires a second person to do the work not done by the first—two people doing the job of one, and paid for by the hardworking taxpayer.
The New American recently reported that “with about 2 million civilian employees, the federal government, excluding the postal service, is the nation’s largest employer.” Everything the government manages, state or federal, is either bankrupt or nearly so. Is it any wonder given the natural inefficiency of government? The answer to this inefficiency is to give the government as little to do as possible.
Government is inefficient by it’s nature. This same government labors to create thousands of new laws to control our behavior each year. We must return to the basics of the Constitution or continue to lose our liberty at the hands of such ineptitude. It is as simple as that. After all, it’s about liberty.